Applying XPath to an XML with or without namespace

[Pascal Maugeri]

Hi

I would like to have some clarifications on how to apply XPath query on a
XML document depending if it comes with or without a namespace definition.

When I run the following code executing the XPath query /a/b on a document
with no namespace:

        String doc = "<a><b/></a>";
        String query = "/a/b";
        XmlObject xml = XmlObject.Factory.parse(doc);
        XmlCursor cursor = xml.newCursor();
        cursor.push();
        cursor.selectPath(query);

it gives me the correct result (<c/>).

But if if the document comes with a namespace, for instance:

<a xmlns="mynamespace">
     <b/>
</a>

the same code does not give me any result.

After investigating I found that a working code could be:

        String doc = "<a xmlns="mynamespace"><b/></a>";
        String query = "declare namespace xs='mynamespace';/xs:a/xs:b";
        XmlObject xml = XmlObject.Factory.parse(doc);
        XmlCursor cursor = xml.newCursor();
        cursor.push();
        cursor.selectPath(query);

Is there a better way to do this without having to set the prefix "xs:" in
the Xpath query for each level ? I would like to find a generic way to
handle XML documents with or without namespace.

Regards,
Pascal