how to ignore namespaces with XPath

Question

My goal is to extract certain nodes from multiple XML files with multiple namespaces using XPath. Everything works fine as long as I know the namespace URIs. The namespace name itself remains constant, but the Schemas (XSD) are sometimes client-generated i.e. unknown to me. Then I am left with basically three choices:

1. Use just one schema for the namespace, hoping nothing goes wrong (can I be sure?).
2. Get the children nodes of the document and look for the first node with a namespace URI, hoping it's there and just use the URI, hoping it's the correct one. This can go wrong for multiple reasons
3. Somehow tell xpath : "look, I don't care about the namespaces, just find ALL nodes with this name, I can even tell you the name of the namespace, just not the URI". And this is the question here...

This is not a reiteration of numerous "my xpath expression doesn't work because I am not aware of namespace awareness" questions as found here or here. I know how to use namespace awareness, just not how to get rid of it.

Nernst

If you don't know the schemas, how do you know what elements you want? – Gunnel

Exact duplicate of How to ignore namespace when parsing XML document with XPath – Ula

thank you for pointing out, Alejandro. The search for "ignore namespace xpath" should have revealed this one, but it didnt – Nernst

@Paul Butcher - i dont know the exact URI of the schemas but the changes betweeen the schemas (rather versions of one schema) luckily dont affect the nodes i'm looking for. – Nernst

@kostja: Don't search with SO search box, it's useless... Try Google next time. In fact, this is encouraged by SO team. – Ula

Google sitesearch actually does a better job at finding useful stuff on SO. I wonder why its not an option per default. Thanks again, Alejandro – Nernst

Answer 1

You can use the local-name() XPath function. Instead of selecting a node like

/path/to/x:somenode

you can select all nodes and filter for the one with the correct local name:

/path/to/*[local-name() = 'somenode']

Devito

You may also use the local-name() to refer to attributes as well, in a namespace-unaware manner, see: https://mcmap.net/q/168188/-xpath-how-to-identify-an-attribute-in-a-predicate-in-a-namespace-unaware-way-duplicate/274677 – Folder

Take a look at this tutorial: codesimplify.com/java/java-xpath-ignore-namespace-example – Jataka

The codesimplify link by @Jataka is dead. Here is the wayback version: web.archive.org/web/20210624020506/http://www.codesimplify.com/… – Scots

Answer 2

You can do the same In XPath2.0 in a less verbose syntax:

/path/to/*:somenode

Fingering

This would not work with elements in the default namespace, though. – Bruise

Answer 3

Or you can use name():

/path/to/*[name() = 'somenode']

Or only search attributes:

//*[@attribute="this one"]

If you open the xml as a powershell object, it ignores the namespaces:

[xml]$xml = get-content file.xml
$xml.path.to.somenode

Haemachrome

Also works with //*[name() = 'somenode'] – Speos

Answer 4

You could use Namespace = false on a XmlTextReader

[TestMethod]
public void MyTestMethod()
{
    string _withXmlns = @"<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8""?>
<ParentTag xmlns=""http://anyNamespace.com"">
<Identification value=""ID123456"" />
</ParentTag>
";

    var xmlReader = new XmlTextReader(new MemoryStream(Encoding.Default.GetBytes(_withXmlns)));

    xmlReader.Namespaces = false;

    var content = XElement.Load(xmlReader);

    XElement elem = content.XPathSelectElement("/Identification");

    elem.Should().NotBeNull();
    elem.Attribute("value").Value.Should().Be("ID123456");
}

with :

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Linq;
using System.Xml.XPath;
using FluentAssertions;
using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;

Gabriello

For selecting a node through XPath, this works; Unfortunately you are not able to save the document due to a 'The 'xmlns' attribute is bound to the reserved namespace error. – Lothar

Answer 5

It is my example in Qt C++. Qt supports XPath 2.0:

    QString planePath = ":/Models/Plane.dae";
    QFile f(planePath);
    if (!f.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly))
    {
        std::cerr << "Failed to load the file: " <<
                     planePath.toStdString() << std::endl;
        return;
    }

    QXmlQuery query;
    query.bindVariable("myFile", &f);
//    query.setQuery("doc($myFile)//*[local-name() = 'p']/text()"); // it works too but it is XPath 1.0
    query.setQuery("doc($myFile)//*:p/text()");

    QString result;
    query.evaluateTo(&result);
    qDebug() << result;
    f.close();

Program output: "1 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 2 1 0 3 3 0 4 2 0 5\n"

Plane.dae

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<COLLADA xmlns="http://www.collada.org/2005/11/COLLADASchema" version="1.4.1" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <asset>
    <contributor>
      <author>Blender User</author>
      <authoring_tool>Blender 2.83.3 commit date:2020-07-22, commit time:06:01, hash:353e5bd7493e</authoring_tool>
    </contributor>
    <created>2020-08-03T14:03:19</created>
    <modified>2020-08-03T14:03:19</modified>
    <unit name="meter" meter="1"/>
    <up_axis>Z_UP</up_axis>
  </asset>
  <library_effects>
    <effect id="PlaneMaterial-effect">
      <profile_COMMON>
        <technique sid="common">
          <lambert>
            <emission>
              <color sid="emission">0 0 0 1</color>
            </emission>
            <diffuse>
              <color sid="diffuse">0.01664001 0.8000001 0.01191879 1</color>
            </diffuse>
            <reflectivity>
              <float sid="specular">0.5</float>
            </reflectivity>
          </lambert>
        </technique>
      </profile_COMMON>
    </effect>
  </library_effects>
  <library_images/>
  <library_materials>
    <material id="PlaneMaterial-material" name="PlaneMaterial">
      <instance_effect url="#PlaneMaterial-effect"/>
    </material>
  </library_materials>
  <library_geometries>
    <geometry id="Plane-mesh" name="Plane">
      <mesh>
        <source id="Plane-mesh-positions">
          <float_array id="Plane-mesh-positions-array" count="12">-1 -1 0 1 -1 0 -1 1 0 1 1 0</float_array>
          <technique_common>
            <accessor source="#Plane-mesh-positions-array" count="4" stride="3">
              <param name="X" type="float"/>
              <param name="Y" type="float"/>
              <param name="Z" type="float"/>
            </accessor>
          </technique_common>
        </source>
        <source id="Plane-mesh-normals">
          <float_array id="Plane-mesh-normals-array" count="3">0 0 1</float_array>
          <technique_common>
            <accessor source="#Plane-mesh-normals-array" count="1" stride="3">
              <param name="X" type="float"/>
              <param name="Y" type="float"/>
              <param name="Z" type="float"/>
            </accessor>
          </technique_common>
        </source>
        <source id="Plane-mesh-map-0">
          <float_array id="Plane-mesh-map-0-array" count="12">1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1</float_array>
          <technique_common>
            <accessor source="#Plane-mesh-map-0-array" count="6" stride="2">
              <param name="S" type="float"/>
              <param name="T" type="float"/>
            </accessor>
          </technique_common>
        </source>
        <vertices id="Plane-mesh-vertices">
          <input semantic="POSITION" source="#Plane-mesh-positions"/>
        </vertices>
        <triangles material="PlaneMaterial-material" count="2">
          <input semantic="VERTEX" source="#Plane-mesh-vertices" offset="0"/>
          <input semantic="NORMAL" source="#Plane-mesh-normals" offset="1"/>
          <input semantic="TEXCOORD" source="#Plane-mesh-map-0" offset="2" set="0"/>
          <p>1 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 2 1 0 3 3 0 4 2 0 5</p>
        </triangles>
      </mesh>
    </geometry>
  </library_geometries>
  <library_visual_scenes>
    <visual_scene id="Scene" name="Scene">
      <node id="Plane" name="Plane" type="NODE">
        <matrix sid="transform">1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1</matrix>
        <instance_geometry url="#Plane-mesh" name="Plane">
          <bind_material>
            <technique_common>
              <instance_material symbol="PlaneMaterial-material" target="#PlaneMaterial-material">
                <bind_vertex_input semantic="UVMap" input_semantic="TEXCOORD" input_set="0"/>
              </instance_material>
            </technique_common>
          </bind_material>
        </instance_geometry>
      </node>
    </visual_scene>
  </library_visual_scenes>
  <scene>
    <instance_visual_scene url="#Scene"/>
  </scene>
</COLLADA>

Rabideau