org.xml.sax.SAXParseException while parsing XMl using XPATH

Question

I am trying to get values from an XML using XPATH. I received the following exception:

    [Fatal Error] books.xml:4:16: The prefix "abc" for element "abc:priority" is not bound.
Exception in thread "main" org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; systemId: file:///D:/XSL%20TEST%20APP%20BACK%20UP/XMLTestApp/books.xml; lineNumber: 4; columnNumber: 16; The prefix "abc" for element "abc:priority" is not bound.
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.DOMParser.parse(Unknown Source)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.DocumentBuilderImpl.parse(Unknown Source)
    at javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder.parse(Unknown Source)
    at xpath.XPathExample.main(XPathExample.java:18)

I am getting this error because my XML is a little bit of different from normal one (please see below):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<inventory>
    <Sample>
    <abc:priority>1</abc:priority>  
    <abc:value>2</abc:value>        
    </Sample>
</inventory>

Here is my code (Java) to get values from the above XML:

import java.io.IOException;
    import org.w3c.dom.*;
    import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
    import javax.xml.parsers.*;
    import javax.xml.xpath.*;

    public class XPathExample {

      public static void main(String[] args) 
       throws ParserConfigurationException, SAXException, 
              IOException, XPathExpressionException {

        DocumentBuilderFactory domFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
        domFactory.setNamespaceAware(true); // never forget this!
        DocumentBuilder builder = domFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
        Document doc = builder.parse("books.xml");

        XPathFactory factory = XPathFactory.newInstance();
        XPath xpath = factory.newXPath();
        XPathExpression expr 
         = xpath.compile("//Sample/*/text()");////book/Sample[author='Neal Stephenson']/title/text()

        Object result = expr.evaluate(doc, XPathConstants.NODESET);
        NodeList nodes = (NodeList) result;
        for (int i = 0; i < nodes.getLength(); i++) {
            System.out.println(nodes.item(i).getNodeValue()); 
        }

      }

    }

If I remove the semicolon, I never get this error.

Is it possible to get content from an XML like mentioned above using XPATH?

Daniel Haley · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-22 05:22:31Z

2

"Is it possible to get content from an XML like mentioned above using Xpath ?" - I don't think so. This XML isn't well-formed.

From the spec (http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/#ns-qualnames):

The Prefix provides the namespace prefix part of the qualified name, and MUST be associated with a namespace URI reference in a namespace declaration. [Definition: The LocalPart provides the local part of the qualified name.]

In order to do anything with it, I think you'll have to add a namespace declaration.

Example

<inventory xmlns:abc="x">
    <Sample>
        <abc:priority>1</abc:priority>  
        <abc:value>2</abc:value>        
    </Sample>
</inventory>

answered Mar 22, 2013 at 5:22

Daniel Haley

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8 Comments

John Christy Over a year ago

Am getting values by the mentioned method using //Sample/*/text(). But I didn't get anything //Sample/abc:priority/text() please advice.

Daniel Haley Over a year ago

@JohnChristy - It's because the prefix abc isn't bound. If //Sample/*/text() is working, you can try using *[local-name()='priority'] instead of * only.

John Christy Over a year ago

Am getting null value while using *[local-name()='priority']. actually i want to read a webservice it will look like as follows

John Christy Over a year ago

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <abc:Event abc1:type="abc:Event" xmlns:abc="schema.abc.com/abc" xmlns:abc1="w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <abc:eventID>65c81c27-c79e-ce-9e4b-1d6c36f2f30c</abc:eventID> <abc:sequenceNumber>1</abc:sequenceNumber> <abc:userId>sample</abc:userId> <abc:externalApplicationId>SampleApp</abc:externalApplicationId> <abc:subscriptionId>1e318cb7-84f2-40c6 </abc:subscriptionId> <abc:channelId>714353f-4313-4f5f-aa61-b912c7</abc:channelId> <abc:eventData abc1:type="abc:NewSubscriptionEvent" /> </abc:Event> Sorry for the late reply.

John Christy Over a year ago

Can i get the user id using Xpath? If so please advice. Thnks

|

forty-two · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-22 14:21:59Z

1

Try without this line:

    domFactory.setNamespaceAware(true); // never forget this!

Although it normally is a bad idea to run without namespace awareness, in this specific case it makes sense, since the input file is the way it is.

answered Mar 22, 2013 at 14:21

forty-two

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