Overview

Use an XML to process XML data, and convert it into specific data objects that can be used by PhixFlow for processing. The XML Node extracts one or more records from the provided XML document using the XPath specified.

Properties Tab

Basic Settings

Field	Description	Example Value
Name	Name given to the XML Node. This will be displayed on the actionflow canvas.	MyXMLReader
Input Expression	The input expression provides the source of the XML data to be operated upon. Typically, this will be a simple expression pointing at an incoming attribute, such as, the body from a HTTP Node.	// Consists of the pipe name and the name of a mapped attribute `in.body`
XPath	The XPath expression is evaluated against the XML document provided by the Input Expression and returns a list of XML elements. It determines which elements are extracted from the XML. Note that the XPath determines the number of elements that are processed, which directly correlates to the number of records returned by the XML Node. For example, if the path returns the route element of the XML Document only one record will be returned. Whereas a path that returns children nodes will return one record for each child element.	// XML XPath /root/main/title

XPath Syntax

Expression	Description
`$`	symbol refers to the root element.
`@`	symbol refers to the current element.
`.`	is the dot-child operator, which is used to denote a child element of the current element.
`[ ]`	is used to select a child element of the current element (by name or index number).
`*`	a wildcard, returning all elements regardless of their name.
^	symbol is used to traverse up 1 element in the hierarchy from child to parent.

A worked example is provided at the end of this page.

Output Attributes

Contains a list of attributes returned by the node. In this node XML is converted into data objects that can be used by PhixFlow, this information is accessed using the syntax _result.AttributeName in an output attribute. To add an output attribute click the button and complete the appropriate details. For example:

Worked Example

<root xmlns:h="http://example.com/schema"> 
	<main page="PF Main Page"> 
		<h:title name="PF Title">PF Title Text">
			<h:datarow> 
				<h:data h:initials="AA">Alistair Andrews<data>
				<h:data h:initials="BB">Bert Brown</data> 
			</h:datarow> 
		</h:title> 
	</main> 
</root>

/root/main/title This path expression will bring back all elements matching the XPath expression including the parent/grandparents and all child elements/sub elements.

The following examples show how to reference the returned x paths html/xml data structure in attribute expressions:-

Xpath element attributes: in.name -> returns 'PF Title'
Xpath parent attributes: in.^.page -> returns 'PF Main Page'
Xpath child attributes: listToString(in.datarow.data.initials) -> returns 'AA,BB'
Xpath child attribute text values: listToString(in.datarow.data.value) -> returns 'Alistair Andrews,Bert Brown'

Note the use of

^ to traverse to the immediate parent element.
to traverse to the immediate child element within:
- XPath uses /
- Attribute expressions use the dot notation .
the listToString function to handle multiple matching child elements/attributes.

Namespaces

XML documents containing namespaces are supported.

Within path expressions they are referred to using semicolons.
- /root/main/h:title
Within attribute expressions a $ is used instead of the normal : namespace notation
- Xpath element attibutes: in.h$name -> returns 'PF Title''
- Xpath child attributes: listToString(in.h$datarow.h$data.h$initials) -> returns 'AA,BB'
- Xpath child attribute text values: listToString(in.h$datarow.h$data.value) -> returns 'Alistair Andrews,Bert Brown'

The namespace prefix used here 'h' must be configured in the XML Namespace.

Learn More

For links to all pages in this topic, see Understanding Actionflows.