xPathreader

Reads xPath documents and outputs specified tags.

Installation:

You can install xpathreader from pip directly using pip3 install xpathreader

Alternatively:

1. Cloning this repository:

• git clone https://github.com/regmibijay/xpathreader

2. Building a pip wheel:

• cd xpathreader
• python3 setup.py bdist_wheel

3. Installing PIP Wheel:

• pip3 install dist/xpathreader-x.x-pyx-xxxx-xxx.whl #replace x's with respective version name

Usage:

1. Command line:

$ python3 xpathreader.py -i filename1.xml filename2.xml filename3.xml -f .//tag1/tag2 .//tag6/tag7 -e utf-8

Syntax explaination:

• -i specfies input file path, multiple file paths are supported and seperated by space.
• -f specifies tags to find, multiple tags are supported and seperated by space.
• -o specifies output mode, currently list or string mode are supported.
  • -o s or -o string for string mode
  • -o l or -o list for list mode (default)
• -especifies the file encoding. Input in lower case.

2. Importing from PIP Package:

import xpathreader
out = xpathreader.read(filePath,findTag,outputMode,encoding) #outputMode = "list" or "string"

3. Search Syntax:

• Syntax as specified in pythons ElementTree[https://docs.python.org/2/library/xml.etree.elementtree.html#supported-xpath-syntax]

tag

Selects all child elements with the given tag. For example, spam selects all child elements named spam, and spam/egg selects all grandchildren named egg in all children named spam.

*

Selects all child elements. For example, */egg selects all grandchildren named egg.

.

Selects the current node. This is mostly useful at the beginning of the path, to indicate that it’s a relative path.

//

Selects all subelements, on all levels beneath the current element. For example, .//egg selects all egg elements in the entire tree.

..

Selects the parent element.

[@attrib]

Selects all elements that have the given attribute.

[@attrib='value']

Selects all elements for which the given attribute has the given value. The value cannot contain quotes.

[tag]

Selects all elements that have a child named tag. Only immediate children are supported.

[tag='text']

Selects all elements that have a child named tag whose complete text content, including descendants, equals the given text.

[position]

Selects all elements that are located at the given position. The position can be either an integer (1 is the first position), the expression last() (for the last position), or a position relative to the last position (e.g. last()-1).