selecting specific node with xpath in powershell

Question

I am trying to select a specific node in an xml file for the purposes of comparing it to the same node in another file.

I can navigate through the file using the generic nodes, but I can't figure out how to get an exact Xpath.

Here's the XML:

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <!-- Domain wide values -->
  <PropertyGroup>
    <LoggingLevel>0</LoggingLevel>
    <LongTimeouts>0</LongTimeouts>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <!--AB-->
    <Token Include="{AB_ANALYTICSSERVER}">
      <Value>Test</Value>
    </Token>
    <Token Include="{AB_CERTFINDVALUE}">
      <Value>$(CertName)</Value>
    </Token>
    <Token Include="{AB_SERVICECERTFINDVALUE}">
      <Value>$(CertName)</Value>
    </Token>
    <Token Include="{AB_CONSUMERSGROUP}">
      <Value>DLG-AB-users</Value>
    </Token>
    <!--AB End-->
    <!--Database-->
    <Token Include="{Database_Domain}">
      <Value>$(Domain)</Value>
    </Token>
    <Token Include="{Audit_Domain}">
      <Value>$(Domain)</Value>
    </Token>
    <!--Database End-->
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

But I am clearly missing something in my xpath based queries:

e.g. $xmlNew.SelectNodes("/node()[1]/node()[3]/node()[2]").outerxml

Returns:

<Token Include="{AB_ANALYTICSSERVER}" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003"><Value>Test</Value></Token>

But neither of these return anything:

$xmlNew.SelectNodes("/Project/ItemGroup/Token").outerxml

$xmlnew.selectnodes('//token[contains(@Include,"{AB_ANALYTICSSERVER}")]').OuterXml

Similarly this works:

$xmlNew.SelectNodes("/node()[1]/node()[2]/node()[2]").outerxml

but this doesn't:

$xmlnew.selectnodes('/Project/PropertyGroup/LongTimeouts').outerxml doesnt.

What obvious thing am i missing? :/

Thanks

Looks like you would have to call .addnamespace() stackoverflow.com/questions/54352461/… — js2010
– js2010, Commented Aug 22, 2024 at 13:05

riQQ · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-22 11:59:41Z

2

The problem is that your XPath isn't valid because of the namespace.

You can abuse PowerShell's power however and simply access Token as if it was an object structure.

[xml]$xmlNew= Get-Content "<path-to-xml-file>"
$xmlNew.Project.ItemGroup.Token.outerxml

You can also use Select-Xml cmdlet and specify the namespace explicitly with your XPath as it is shown in this answer.

$ns = @{dns = 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003'}
Select-Xml -Xml $xmlNew -XPath '//dns:Token' -Namespace $ns

edited Aug 22, 2024 at 11:59

riQQ

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answered May 15, 2019 at 14:12

dee-see

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3 Comments

Malcolm Lock Over a year ago

Forgive my ignorance, but i tried to literally follow the example in your link, but couldn't get it to work: $ns =@{dns="schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003"} $tokens = Select-Xml -Xml $xmlnew -XPath '//dns:token' -Namespace $ns $tokens | Foreach {$_.Node.Name}

dee-see Over a year ago

@MalcolmLock Probably a case-sensitivity issue in your XPath, I added a working example in my answer.

Malcolm Lock Over a year ago

Thanks! I'm still having trouble getting selectnodes and selectsinglenode to work with the NS, but i think this gets me what i need.

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