HTTP, XML, and XPath
Learn about HTTP, XML, and XPath with this document. Discover the supported XPath functionality in assembly modules, with examples and a comprehensive table. Enhance your expertise by utilizing the Extension - Server-Side Script module for advanced XPath
Building assemblies in the assembly editor requires some knowledge of HTTP, XML, and XPath.
For an introduction to HTTP, see here.
For an introduction to XML, see here.
For an introduction to XPath, see here.
Supported XPath functionality
Assembly modules that process XML provide dropdowns to select nodes and attributes based on XPaths that are automatically parsed from the module's input data streams:
You can edit these XPaths manually if needed, when the automatically parsed XPaths don't select needed nodes.
The system does not support all XPath functionality within the assembly modules, however. Only a subset of overall XPath functionality is available.
Given this sample XML:
This is the available XPath functionality that can be used within assembly modules:
| myXML/person[1] | Just the first "person" node. | Homer |
|---|---|---|
| myXML/person | All the "person" nodes | Homer, Marge, Montgomery |
| myXML/person[2-3] | "person" nodes 2 to 3 inclusive | Marge, Montgomery |
| myXML/person[2-] | "person" nodes 2 and onwards | Marge, Montgomery |
| myXML/person[-2] | "person" nodes up to and including 2 | Homer, Marge |
| myXML/person[@show] | All "person" nodes that have a "show" attribute | Homer, Marge, Montgomery |
| myXML/person[@show = 'simpsons'] | All "person" nodes that have a "show" attribute which equals "simpsons" (compare is case-sensitive) | Homer, Marge, Montgomery |
| myXML/*/firstname | All "firstname" nodes under any node in "myXML" | Homer, Marge, Montgomery |
| myXML/person[1]/@show | The "show" attribute of the first "person" node | simpsons |
| myXML/person[1]/lastname/text() | The text of the "lastname" node of the first "person" node | Simpson |
| myXML/person/last() | The number of "person" nodes | 3 |