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Xpath Assistance

Hi,

I have a SOAP response received as below:

<s:Envelope xmlns:s="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
      <s:Body>
            <s:Fault>
                  <faultcode>s:Server</faultcode>
                  <faultstring>Fatura ID sistemde mevcut</faultstring>
                  <detail>
                        <ProcessingFault xmlns="http:/abcde.com/eInvoice/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
                              <Code>3012</Code>
                              <Message>ABCDE</Message>
                        </ProcessingFault>
                  </detail>
            </s:Fault>
      </s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

I want to check the existence of the element Code or Message using string-length and if it is greater than zero. How can I achieve that using the Xpath.

Regards
Pradeep

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Gertone (Geert Bormans)

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Gertone (Geert Bormans)

XPath 1.0 if you can't use a namespace manager
//*[local-name() = 'Code'][normalize-space(.)] | //*[local-name() = 'Message'][normalize-space(.)]

Gertone (Geert Bormans)

Note that a node-set in a boolean expression returns false() when empty,
so in an XSLT you would do
<xsl:if test="//*[local-name() = 'Code'][normalize-space(.)] | //*[local-name() = 'Message'][normalize-space(.)] ">...

Gertone (Geert Bormans)

And XPath1.0 and you would be able to use a namespace manager

//abc:Code[normalize-space(.)] | //abc:Message[normalize-space(.)]

just make sure you bind prefix abc: to this namespace in the namespacemanager "http:/abcde.com/eInvoice/"

Pradeep0308

ASKER

Hi Geert,

I can use Xpath 2.0 If you are suggesting not to use string-length than how should I check the existence of either of these two elements and then do a certain step?

Regards
Pradeep

Gertone (Geert Bormans)

By string casting
//*:Code[string(.)]
or
//*:Code[normalize-space(.)]

both string() and normalize-space() cast the node to string
the [] requires a boolean expression inside
casting a string to a boolean expression returns true() if the string length is > 0

//*:Code[string(.)]
will only return true() if there is a Code element in the envelope that has a stringvalue other than the empty string

Pradeep0308

ASKER

Thanks Geert. Will this return true() or only true?

Gertone (Geert Bormans)

//*:Code[string(.)]
will return the node-set of all the *:Code elements that have non zero content

If you use //*:Code[string(.)] in a test (anywhere Xpath expects a boolean expression, example: inside the test attribute of an if statement in XSLT, inside an if() or inside the predicate [], ...)
then it will return an xs:boolean
true() when the node-set is not empty
false() when the node-set is empty

that is because of the casting rules from node-set to boolean

Pradeep0308

ASKER

ok so what happens if I do CodeTest=//*:Code[string(.)]

Will CodeTest have the value as xs:boolean i.e. true()?

Gertone (Geert Bormans)

no, it will contain the nodeset
but you can force the boolean cast
CodeTest=boolean(//*:Code[string(.)])

be carefull not to cast to boolean prematurely
if you have this
CodeTest=//*:Code[string(.)]
and you remember that Codetest is a nodeset, not a boolean,
it will cast to boolean more efficiently when you use it in a test

Pradeep0308

ASKER

Thanks Geert. Do you provide any freelance consulting on XML and related technologies? Like Xpath and XSLT?

Regards
Pradeep

Gertone (Geert Bormans)

Hi Pradeep,
Yes I do, I am a full time XML/XSLT freelance consultant.
If you want to contact me, you can push the "hire me" button or find my email adress on my profile page