How to ignore namespace when selecting XML nodes with XPath

Question

I have to parse an XML document that looks like this:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> 
 <m:OASISReport xmlns:m="http://oasissta.caiso.com/mrtu-oasis/xsd/OASISReport.xsd" 
                xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
                xsi:schemaLocation="http://oasissta.caiso.com/mrtu-oasis/xsd/OASISReport.xsd http://oasissta.caiso.com/mrtu-oasis/xsd/OASISReport.xsd">
  <m:MessagePayload>
   <m:RTO>
    <m:name>CAISO</m:name> 
    <m:REPORT_ITEM>
     <m:REPORT_HEADER>
      <m:SYSTEM>OASIS</m:SYSTEM> 
      <m:TZ>PPT</m:TZ> 
      <m:REPORT>AS_RESULTS</m:REPORT> 
      <m:MKT_TYPE>HASP</m:MKT_TYPE> 
      <m:UOM>MW</m:UOM> 
      <m:INTERVAL>ENDING</m:INTERVAL> 
      <m:SEC_PER_INTERVAL>3600</m:SEC_PER_INTERVAL> 
     </m:REPORT_HEADER>
     <m:REPORT_DATA>
      <m:DATA_ITEM>NS_PROC_MW</m:DATA_ITEM> 
      <m:RESOURCE_NAME>AS_SP26_EXP</m:RESOURCE_NAME> 
      <m:OPR_DATE>2010-11-17</m:OPR_DATE> 
      <m:INTERVAL_NUM>1</m:INTERVAL_NUM> 
      <m:VALUE>0</m:VALUE> 
     </m:REPORT_DATA>

The problem is that the namespace "http://oasissta.caiso.com/mrtu-oasis/xsd/OASISReport.xsd" can sometimes be different. I want to ignore it completely and just get my data from tag MessagePayload downstream.

The code I am using so far is:

String[] namespaces = new String[1];
  String[] namespaceAliases = new String[1];

  namespaceAliases[0] = "ns0";
  namespaces[0] = "http://oasissta.caiso.com/mrtu-oasis/xsd/OASISReport.xsd";

  File inputFile = new File(inputFileName);

  Map namespaceURIs = new HashMap();

  // This query will return all of the ASR records.
  String xPathExpression = "/ns0:OASISReport
                             /ns0:MessagePayload
                              /ns0:RTO
                               /ns0:REPORT_ITEM
                                /ns0:REPORT_DATA";
  xPathExpression += "|/ns0:OASISReport
                        /ns0:MessagePayload
                         /ns0:RTO
                          /ns0:REPORT_ITEM
                           /ns0:REPORT_HEADER";

  // Load up the raw XML file. The parameters ignore whitespace and other
  // nonsense,
  // reduces DOM tree size.
  SAXReader reader = new SAXReader();
  reader.setStripWhitespaceText(true);
  reader.setMergeAdjacentText(true);
  Document inputDocument = reader.read(inputFile);

  // Relate the aliases with the namespaces
  if (namespaceAliases != null && namespaces != null)
  {
   for (int i = 0; i < namespaceAliases.length; i++)
   {
    namespaceURIs.put(namespaceAliases[i], namespaces[i]);
   }
  }

  // Cache the expression using the supplied namespaces.
  XPath xPath = DocumentHelper.createXPath(xPathExpression);
  xPath.setNamespaceURIs(namespaceURIs);

  List asResultsNodes = xPath.selectNodes(inputDocument.getRootElement());

It works fine if the namespace never changes but that is obviously not the case. What do I need to do to make it ignore the namespace? Or if I know the set of all possible namespace values, how can I pass them all to the XPath instance?

@user452103: XPath is XML Names complain, so it will never ignore namespace. You can use expression that selects nodes regarding namespace. If namespace URI is changing so often, then is the wrong URI. Namespace URI suppose to indicate that element belong to specific XML vocabulary. — user357812
@Alejandro: thanks for the formatting, it does look better now. What expression can I use to select nodes regardless of namespace? — lukegf
Good question, +1. See my answer for a single XPath 1.0 expression that selects exactly the wanted nodes. :) — Dimitre Novatchev

Dimitre Novatchev Dimitre Novatchev · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-09T20:30:18

Use:

/*/*/*/*/*
        [local-name()='REPORT_DATA' 
       or 
         local-name()='REPORT_HEADER'
        ]

Anyone care for more complete syntax?

String xPathExpression = "/*[local-name()='OASISReport]
                          /*[local-name()='MessagePayload]
                          /*[local-name()='RTO]
                          /*[local-name()='REPORT_ITEM]
                          /*[local-name()='REPORT_DATA"];

Btw, if the XPath also requires the element index position:

String xPathExpression = "/*[local-name()='OASISReport][1]

How to ignore namespace when selecting XML nodes with XPath

2 Answers