XML Path Syntax

This video tutorial demonstrates, how you may use XPath in vREST:

XPath is used to locate the data in XML object. XPath is currently used in the following two functionalities of vREST:

1. Variable Extractor tab
   In variable extractor tab of a test case, you need to specify the x-path in "JSON Path / XML PATH / Utility Method" column.
2. XML Body Assertions
   In Assertions tab, you need to specify  XPath for XML Body assertions in "Property" column.

Below are some examples of most common scenarios for XML path expressions.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<catalog>
   <book id="book1">
      <author>Author Name 1</author>
      <title>Book Title 1</title>
      <genre>Book Genre</genre>
      <price>50</price>
      <publish_date>2010-11-01</publish_date>
      <description>Book Description...</description>
   </book>
   <book id="book2">
      <author>Author Name 2</author>
      <title>Book Title 2</title>
      <genre>Book Genre</genre>
      <price>15</price>
      <publish_date>2010-12-13</publish_date>
      <description>Book Description ...</description>
   </book>
</catalog>

1. Accessing Node Attribute (Id of first book)
   1. XPath Expression: /catalog/book[1]/@id
   2. Value: book1
2. Accessing Node Text Content (Author of first book)
   1. XPath Expression: /catalog/book[1]/author/text()
   2. Value: Author Name 1

Now, if you are having XML namespaces defined in the XML file as below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<sample>
  <hello:table xmlns:table="http://example.com/hello">
    <tr>
      <td>Hello world!!!!</td>
    </tr>
  </hello:table>
</sample>

In the above XML, to access the td element, you may provide the below XPath expressions:

1. /sample/*[local-name()='table' and namespace-uri()='http://example.com/hello']/tr/td/text()
2. /sample/*[local-name()='table']/tr/td/text()