How do you declare a namespace for proper XPath use within EvaluateXPath

[#1]

I have made some progress understanding and using EvaluateXPath.

I've been able, for example, to generate a flow file with the content

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><bookstore>  <book>    <title lang="en">Harry Potter</title>    <author>J K. Rowling</author>    <year>2005</year>    <price>29.99</price>  </book></bookstore>

and match this using the following (notice //year as the XPath)

However if I have a namespace in the XML

, then I have a problem (notice //ns8:textNOTAM as the XPath)

[#2]

Oh No!! It looks like there has been an issue outstanding for over 2 years...

Is there no way for me to use EvaluateXPath on XML that contains namespaces?

https://community.hortonworks.com/questions/45869/nifi-xml-namespace.html

https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NIFI-1023

[#3]

Omg.. that worked!!

The XPath I had to use (within the EvaluateXPath processor configuration) was as follows:

//*[local-name()='textNOTAM']

This is stuff that should live in a NIFI user manual someplace.

[#4]

Since I've gotten past this, but i'd like others to understand it as well, i've dug a tiny bit more to understand this "local-name" magic.

Several links of interest

https://examples.javacodegeeks.com/core-java/xml/xpath/xpath-local-name-example/

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/XPath/Functions/local-name

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E35413_01/doc.722/e35419/dev_xpath_functions.htm#autoId6

http://www.codesimplify.com/java/java-xpath-ignore-namespace-example/

Enjoy

[#5]

Also an interesting stackoverflow link

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6390339/how-to-query-xml-using-namespaces-in-java-with-xpath

it seems that maybe there is a workaround that i can use with evaluatexpath it might look something like the following

/*[local-name()='workbook']/*[local-name()='sheets']/*[local-name()='sheet'][1]

[#6]

I've found several interesting stack overflow articles.. including the following:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3931817/xpath-expression-from-xml-with-namespace-prefix

I should be able to match the book in the following with a simple //bk:book

<bk:bookstore xmlns:bk="urn:xmlns:25hoursaday-com:bookstore">
 <bk:book> 
    <bk:title>Lord of the Rings</bk:title> 
    <bk:author>J.R.R. Tolkien</bk:author>
    <inv:inventory status="in-stock" isbn="0345340426" 
        xmlns:inv="urn:xmlns:25hoursaday-com:inventory-tracking" />
 </bk:book> 
</bk:bookstore>

Somehow NIFI needs to let me register the namespace.

I've also tried out online xpath formatters, and they have allowed me to simply add the namespace to the xpath as follows

https://www.freeformatter.com/xpath-tester.html#ad-output

matches //bk:book

[#7 · Accepted solution]

Instead of using local-name, you can also do this:

//*:textNOTAM

This has a wildcard for the namespace prefix, and the element name in the place where you would expect it.

This tends to be more readable for longer XPaths like

/*:feed/*:entry/*:title

[#8]

Thanks @Nico Verwer. I'll give that a shot, and will be sure to accept your response as an answer, once I verify.

[#9]

---

@nverwer wrote:

Instead of using local-name, you can also do this:

//*:textNOTAM

This has a wildcard for the namespace prefix, and the element name in the place where you would expect it.

This tends to be more readable for longer XPaths like

//*:feed//*:entry//*:title

---

This info was hard to find. @nverwer thanks. Saved my day!