Using PowerShell, how do I add multiple namespaces (one of which is the default namespace)?

Question

I have an XML document that contains two namespaces (the 'default' namespace and xlink):

xmlns="http://embassy/schemas/dudezilla/"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"

How do I specify "both" namespaces in my PowerShell code? PowerShell seems to want a prefix for the default namespace. How do I do this?

Right now I have the following code (not sure what to include for the default namespace):

    [System.Xml.XmlNamespaceManager] $nsmgr = $xml.NameTable;
    $nsmgr.AddNamespace('?','http://embassy/schemas/dudezilla/');
    [System.Xml.XmlNamespaceManager] $nsmgr = $xml.NameTable;
    $nsmgr.AddNamespace('xlink','http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink');

    [System.Xml.XmlNodeList] $nodelist;
    [System.Xml.XmlElement] $root = $xml.DocumentElement;
    $nodelist = $root.SelectNodes("//image/@xlink:href", $nsmgr);

    Foreach ($xmlnode in $nodelist)
    {
        $xmlnode.Value;
    }

Thanks!

score 20 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 25 '18 at 08:45

20

PowerShell v2 makes this simpler:

$ns = @{
         dns="http://embassy/schemas/dudezilla/"
         xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
       }

$xml | Select-Xml '//dns:image/@xlink:href' -Namespace $ns

If you want to do it the other way try:

$nsmgr = New-Object System.Xml.XmlNamespaceManager $xml.NameTable
$nsmgr.AddNamespace('dns','http://embassy/schemas/dudezilla/')
$nsmgr.AddNamespace('xlink','http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink')

$root = $xml.DocumentElement
$nodelist = $root.SelectNodes("//dns:image/@xlink:href", $nsmgr)

foreach ($xmlnode in $nodelist)
{
    $xmlnode.Value
}

edited Jul 25 '18 at 08:45

Tomalak

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answered Mar 11 '11 at 23:02

Keith Hill

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In the first example above, I added the following to the last line get the value: `| foreach-object { $_.node.InnerXML }` – PeterX Sep 25 '15 at 06:09
Can anybody explain why `$xml.NameTable` works even though there's no `NameTable` member on a `[System.Xml.XmlDocument]` object in PowerShell? – NReilingh Mar 04 '19 at 15:41
It helps for Powershell Error message "Select-Xml : Namespace Manager or XsltContext needed. This query has a prefix, variable, or user-defined function." with command `Select-Xml -Xpath '//test'` – Ivan Chau Oct 20 '21 at 08:52

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 11 '11 at 20:44

Figured it out. Had to use $null for the prefix of the default namespace ($null is equivalent to String.Empty in C#).

Working code:

    [System.Xml.XmlNamespaceManager] $nsmgr = $xml.NameTable;
    $nsmgr.AddNamespace($null,'http://embassy/schemas/dudezilla/');
    $nsmgr.AddNamespace('xlink','http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink');

    [System.Xml.XmlNodeList] $nodelist;
    [System.Xml.XmlElement] $root = $xml.DocumentElement;
    $nodelist = $root.SelectNodes("//image/@xlink:href", $nsmgr);

    Foreach ($xmlnode in $nodelist)
    {
        $xmlnode.Value;
    }

Using PowerShell, how do I add multiple namespaces (one of which is the default namespace)?

2 Answers2

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