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RE: Basic question about Namespace handling in XPath 1.0 (not necessarily related to XSLT)

2005-09-28 08:24:22
See the method setNamespaceContext() method on the interface
javax.xml.xpath.XPath.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/ 

-----Original Message-----
From: Prakash [mailto:prakash(_dot_)subramaniam(_at_)oracle(_dot_)com] 
Sent: 28 September 2005 15:12
To: xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
Subject: Re: [xsl] Basic question about Namespace handling in 
XPath 1.0 (not necessarily related to XSLT)

Thanks Geert.

My question is not in relation to XSLT. I was talking about the 
namespace prefix resolution in general for XPath.  For 
example, in Java, 
JAXP 1.3 has some APIs to process XPath given a context ( 
likewise DOM 
Level 3 has some APIs). These APIs are application 
independent. I guess, 
the namespace mappings available in scope to the context node will be 
the deciding factor, right?. Pls, correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks,
Prakash

Geert Josten wrote:

Hi,

The answer should be pretty clear, it all depends on how 
you declare 
the namespaces in your XSL stylesheet... :)

1. If we have a XPath like "//sup:name", how will the 
XPath processor 
know which "sup:name" will have to be returned? (considering that 
there are two sup:name elements that are in two different 
namespaces.


<xsl:value-of select="//sup:name" 
xmlns:sup="http://www.suppliers.com"; 
/> will result in the first one.

<xsl:value-of select="//sup:name" 
xmlns:sup="http://www.anothersuppliers.com"; /> will result in the 
second one.

You will probably choose to assing prefix sup1 to the first 
namespace 
and sup2 to the second. If you want both, you can then 
simply specify 
//sup1:name|//sup2:name (or //*:name in XSLT 2.0 altogether)

2.  Similarly, if we have a XPath such as "//order", which "order" 
will be considered considering that there are two order 
elements both 
in default namespace (first order element is actually in null 
namespace whereas the second one in default namespace 
declared in the 
root element)


Likewise. I expect that //order results in the first when you don't 
specify a default namespace, and in the second if you use 
xmlns="http://www.customers.com";.

It is adviced not to use default namespaces in XSL 
stylesheets, though.

Cheers,
Geert


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