AW: XPath question

Hi John,

> In the first code example, the Signature is in the default namespace of
> &dsig;.  However, the XPath expression has the dsig prefix
> declared, and the
> match to the Signature is done using dsig:Signature.  Thus, matching
> elements in the default namespace can be done by setting up a prefix with
> the same URI as the default namespace.

What is your source for that information? I think the paragraph I have
cited in my first message, reads quite clear, that the default namespace
is not used in XPath:

  "...except that the default namespace declared with xmlns is not used:
   if the QName does not have a prefix, then the namespace URI is null
   (this is the same way attribute names are expanded). "

I have posted my concerns also in the developer newsgroup of the Apache
Xalan project. The response I got from Joseph Kesselman, one of the
developers, is:

  "XPath does not use the default namespace declaration. If you don't
specify
  a prefix, the name is assumed to be in _no_ namespace (the original
  default, not the changed default). If you want to access a namespaced
node,
  you must use an explicit prefix which maps to that namespace.

  See the XPath spec, section 2.3 (Node Tests), third paragraph or
  thereabouts."

Maybe we should ask the editors of XPath of the intended meaning of the
sentence above.

Regards, Gregor
---------------------------------------------------------------
Gregor Karlinger
mailto://gregor.karlinger@iaik.at
http://www.iaik.at
Phone +43 316 873 5541
Institute for Applied Information Processing and Communications
Austria
---------------------------------------------------------------

Received on Friday, 8 September 2000 02:08:24 UTC