Overview

Use an 

 action 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.

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. In PhixFlow version 11.1 onwards, this field is mandatory.	// 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

   

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 Attribute Expression syntax in an output attribute. To add an output attribute click the 

 button and complete the appropriate details. For example:

Namespaces

XML documents containing namespaces are supported.

The Namespace grid contains a list of expected namespaces defined in an XML response.

Add a Namespace

To add a namespace to the list, click 

 Create New. PhixFlow opens a new XML Namespace property pane.

Remove Namespace

To remove a namespace, use the 

 Delete in the toolbar.

Example

See Worked Example below.

Advanced

Field	Description
Prioritise Throughput Over Ordering

Worked Example

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

XPath

/root/main/title 

A record is created for each element returned by the path. Therefore we do not recommend returning the root as this only returns a single record.

Results

The following examples show how to reference the returned xpaths xml data structure in an Output Attribute:

• Xpath value: _result → returns the elements from the path. 

• Xpath element attributes: _result.name → returns 'PF Title'

• Xpath parent attributes: _result.^.page -> returns 'PF Main Page'

• Xpath child attributes: listToString(_result.datarow.data.initials) → returns 'AA,BB'

• Xpath child attribute text values: listToString(_result.datarow.data) → returns 'Alistair Andrews,Bert Brown'

Note the use of

• ^ to traverse to the immediate parent element.

• . to traverse to the immediate child element.

• the listToString function is used to handle multiple matching child values.

 

Namespace 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>

Within the XPath expression they are referred to using semicolons 

• /root/main/h:title

A record is created for each element returned by the path. Therefore we do not recommend returning the root as this only returns a single record.

Within Attribute Expressions a $ is used instead of the normal : namespace notation

• Xpath element attibutes: _result.h$name → returns 'PF Title'

• Xpath child attributes: listToString(_result.h$datarow.h$data.h$initials) → returns 'AA,BB'

• Xpath child attribute text values: listToString(_result.h$datarow.h$data.value) -> returns 'Alistair Andrews,Bert Brown'

 

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