Copy XPath command improvement

[eeverman]

The Copy XPath command generates technically correct, but generally non-useful XPath syntax. For instance, I'm copying from a namespaced XML document for use in an XSLT doc. Here is an example copied XPath:

Code: Select all

/csw:GetRecordByIdResponse/*[namespace-uri()='http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd' and local-name()='MD_Metadata'][1]/*[namespace-uri()='http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd' and local-name()='distributionInfo'][1]/*[namespace-uri()='http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd' and local-name()='MD_Distribution'][1]/*[namespace-uri()='http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd' and local-name()='transferOptions'][1]/*[namespace-uri()='http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd' and local-name()='MD_DigitalTransferOptions'][1]/*[namespace-uri()='http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd' and local-name()='onLine'][4]/*[namespace-uri()='http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd' and local-name()='CI_OnlineResource'][1]/*[namespace-uri()='http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd' and local-name()='linkage'][1]/*[namespace-uri()='http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd' and local-name()='URL'][1]

Every element gets a namespace, even if the same namespace. Every local name is filtered by 'local-name()='...'. It would be much nicer to get that XPath as:

Code: Select all

/csw:GetRecordByIdResponse/gmd:MD_Metadata[1]/gmd:distributionInfo[1]/

gmd:MD_Distribution[1]/gmd:transferOptions[1]/gmd:MD_DigitalTransferOptions[1]/

gmd:onLine[4]/gmd:CI_OnlineResource[1]/gmd:linkage[1]/gmd:URL[1]

Its reasonable to assume that:
* People already have already created the namespaces they need in the document they are copying to and don't want individual element namespaces added to that document.
* Likely the namespace prefixes they have created match those of the source document
* If the source and destination namespace prefixes do not match, it is much easier to fix them in the 2nd snippet above than to try to deal with the massive 1st snippet.


Really it would be nice to have a submenu with these options:
* Copy XPath using local namespace prefixes (2nd example above)
* Copy XPath ignoring namespaces (nice for some simple XSLT processors)
* Copy XPath using 'local-name()=' only (convenient for ignoring namespace in namespace aware processors)
* Copy full XPath with namespaces (current implementation)

[adrian]

Hello,

Oxygen generates an absolute XPath that works in any context of the document and which you can also execute in the XPath toolbar. This means only the prefix mappings from the root of the document are used in the generated XPath.

The XPath you've mentioned is generated this way and not in the short form that you've described because(I'm guessing) the namespace prefix "gmd" is not declared on the root of the document(which would make it global). It is probably declared locally on one of the elements from your document.
So if you declare the namespace prefix on the root of the XML document(xmlns:gmd="http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd") the XPath will be simplified as in your second example.

If you can't change the file or don't want to move the namespace prefix declaration on the root, you can declare prefix-namespace mappings in Options > Preferences, XML > XSLT-FO-XQuery > XPath. Prefixes added here will be used by Oxygen when using the Copy XPath action.

I'll add a request to our issue tracking tool for the submenu you've mentioned. This will be analyzed and if found appropriate it will be implemented in a future version of Oxygen.

Regards,
Adrian

[eeverman]

Here is another use case for this feature request:

As a user of Oxygen, I need to copy/paste a reference to a particular element in an XML structure so that I can refer to it in a document or in a chat.
For this use, icluding the namespace or its prefix is not desired and is distracting.

For instance, imagine chatting with a coworker:
Them: Which element were you talking about?
Me: This one: [Uses Copy XPath] /somePrefix:WQX/somePrefix:Organization/somePrefix:Activity/somePrefix:Result/somePrefix:BiologicalResultDescription/somePrefix:GroupSummaryWeightMeasure/somePrefix:MeasureValue

Instead, in a conversation like above, an XPath like this is more easily readable.
/WQX/Organization/Activity/Result/BiologicalResultDescription/GroupSummaryWeightMeasure/MeasureValue

Similarly, if I'm writing documentation about how our software maps to values in an XML schema, I don't want all the namespace info in there, it needs to be human readable.

[adrian]

Hello,

Thank you for the feedback. I've added your use case to the feature request.

Regards,
Adrian