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xml_path

Purpose​

xml_path extracts a Data element from an XML document using XPath. The input token must be an XML document and the XPath must be valid. Note that we use the excellent xml_path library but not all XPath combinations are supported. Check the github page to see if a more complicated XPath is supported.

Usage​

"type": "xml_path",
"config": {
    "path": "<XPath>"
}

Example​

Example Chains​

req_body() -> xml_path(path="//user/email/text()")

This will extract the email text from a user element in the request body XML.

res_body() -> xml_path(path="//product[@id='123']/name/text()")

This will extract the name of a product with ID '123' from the response body XML.

req_body() -> xml_path(path="//items/item[1]/@value") -> constant(new="foo")

This will extract the value attribute from the first item element in the XML and replace it with the text "foo".

Before and After Example​

Configuration​

{
  "type": "xml_path",
  "config": {
    "path": "/feed/entry/epoch/text()"
  }
}

Before (Original XML Values)​

  • Request Body XML (User Data):
<user>
  <email>john.doe@example.com</email>
  <id>123</id>
</user>
  • Response Body XML (Product Catalog):
<catalog>
  <product id="123">
    <name>Laptop Computer</name>
    <price>999.99</price>
  </product>
  <product id="456">
    <name>Mouse</name>
    <price>25.00</price>
  </product>
</catalog>
  • Feed XML (System Data):
<feed version="1.0" hasPendingRequests="false">
  <status>Good</status>
  <errmsg>OK</errmsg>
  <entry type="data">
    <epoch>1642534200468</epoch>
    <hostname>127.0.0.1</hostname>
    <type>normal</type>
    <items>
      <item name="Item1" datapointid="18480" value="19"/>
      <item name="Item2" datapointid="18481" value="706714"/>
      <item name="Item3" datapointid="18482" value="706713"/>
    </items>
  </entry>
</feed>

After (XPath Extracted)​

  • User Email (using //user/email/text()): john.doe@example.com
  • Product Name (using //product[@id='123']/name/text()): Laptop Computer
  • Epoch Timestamp (using /feed/entry/epoch/text()): 1642534200468
  • First Item Value (using //items/item[1]/@value): 19