XML XPATH Query sibling value with multiple sibling attributes

Question

Given the following XML, I am wanting to build an XPath query to get me the text of the Body node which contains the HTML

<documents>
 <document>
  <items>
   <item name='Form'>
    Procedure
   </item>
   <item name='Body'>
    <![CDATA[<p>arbitrary html</p>]]>
   </item>
  </items>
 </document>
 <document>
  <items>
   <item name='Form'>
    Process
   </item>
   <item name='Body'>
    Some arbitrary value
   </item>
  </items>
 </document>
</documents>

I am able to get close, I am just missing something. (this may not the best way to get there, but its the only way I have been able to get close)

//document/items/item[@name='Form'][text()='Procedure']/../item[@name='Body']

Results in the CDATA wrapped content, I am lost as to how select the inner text.

//document/items/item[@name='Form'][text()='Procedure']/../item[@name='Body']/text()

Is yielding an empty string

More background, I have a XSL and using a value-of query to try and inject the results from the query into my page. It appears that there is a bigger issue here than simply my query and the structure of my XML. If I modify the XML and only have the single node I am looking for and do a query for //item[@name='Body']/text() its still an empty string — RyanHirsch
– RyanHirsch, Commented Jun 5, 2012 at 16:19
using disable-output-escaping enables this to work on IE, but not in Firefox, any idea on how this can work in Firefox as well as IE? — RyanHirsch
– RyanHirsch, Commented Jun 5, 2012 at 16:29

Siva Charan · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-05 17:07:28Z

1

Use this XPATH to get your expected results:-

//document[items/item[@name='Form']/text()='Procedure']/items/item[@name='Body']/text()

Result:

<p>arbitrary html</p>

UPDATED:

I got the actual issue on your XML.

The value of form node contains spaces, which is causing issue.

To solve this issue, use this new XPATH with normalize-space()

//document[normalize-space(items/item[@name='Form']/text())='Procedure']/items/item[@name='Body']/text()

Result:

<p>arbitrary html</p>

edited Jun 5, 2012 at 17:07

answered Jun 5, 2012 at 16:42

Siva Charan

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1 Comment

RyanHirsch Over a year ago

Well I like this query more, I am still getting an empty string when I do the /text().

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