[erlang-questions] xmerl_xpath difficulties

[David Mitchell]

Thanks again Caoyuan,

OK, I think I've got it - there's a bug in Erlang on Ubuntu 6.06.  No
idea if it's a bug in Erlang itself (i.e. version 5.4.9 vs. 5.5.5), or
a bug in the implementation of Erlang in Ubuntu, but it seems pretty
straightforward.  The Windows version works OK, but the Ubuntu version
doesn't.

Here's 2 sessions: the first on Ubuntu and the 2nd on Windows

davidm@REDACTED:~$ erl
Erlang (BEAM) emulator version 5.4.9 [64-bit] [source] [threads:0]

Eshell V5.4.9  (abort with ^G)
1> {XmlFull,_} = xmerl_scan:string("<text>Hello</text>").
{{xmlElement,text,
             text,
             [],
             {xmlNamespace,[],[]},
             [],
             1,
             [],
             [{xmlText,[{text,1}],1,[],"Hello",text}],
             [],
             "/home/davidm",
             undeclared},
 []}
2> XmlText = xmerl_xpath:string("/text/text()", XmlFull).
[]
3> lists:flatten([element(5,X)|| X <- XmlTexts, element(1,X) == xmlText]).
[]
4>


Now the Windows version:

D:\Program Files\erl5.5.5\bin>erl
Eshell V5.5.5  (abort with ^G)
1> {XmlFull, _} = xmerl_scan:string("<text>Hello</text>").
{{xmlElement,text,
             text,
             [],
             {xmlNamespace,[],[]},
             [],
             1,
             [],
             [{xmlText,[{text,1}],1,[],"Hello",text}],
             [],
             "D:/Program Files/erl5.5.5/bin",
             undeclared},
 []}
2> XmlText = xmerl_xpath:string("/text/text()", XmlFull).
[{xmlText,[{text,1}],1,[],"Hello",text}]
3>


Note the difference in the value of XmlText in both cases - this is a
fairly trivial issue to reproduce, being only 2 lines of code.

I'm still finding my feet in the Erlang world - can someone pls give
me a pointer as to how I should file a bug report on this?  Even if it
doesn't get fixed, I'd like it documented (and searchable) so that the
next person who stumbles on it doesn't get bogged down as I did.

Thanks to everyone for their help tracking this down.

Regards

Dave M.



On 05/08/07, Caoyuan <dcaoyuan@REDACTED> wrote:
> It's a bit strange, it works in my computer. You may try:
> 1> {XmlFull, _} = xmerl_scan:string("<text>Hello</text>").
> {{xmlElement,text,
>              text,
>              [],
>              {xmlNamespace,[],[]},
>              [],
>              1,
>              [],
>              [{xmlText,[{text,1}],1,[],"Hello",text}],
>              [],
>              "/Users/dcaoyuan/polebeans/ewp",
>              undeclared},
>  []}
> 2> XmlTexts = xmerl_xpath:string("/text/text()", XmlFull).
> [{xmlText,[{text,1}],1,[],"Hello",text}]
>
> The xpath query should return a list of result, it maybe [], or more
> than one element, so it's better to do:
>
> 3> lists:flatten([element(5,X) || X <- XmlTexts, element(1, X) == xmlText]).
> "Hello"
>
> If you are in writing a module, by including xmerl.hrl, you can:
> lists:flatten([X#xmlText.value || X <- XmlTexts, is_record(X, xmlText)]).
>
>
> On 8/5/07, David Mitchell <monch1962@REDACTED> wrote:
> > Thanks Caoyuan, but it didn't work for me:
> >
> > davidm@REDACTED:~$ erl
> > Erlang (BEAM) emulator version 5.4.9 [64-bit] [source] [threads:0]
> >
> > Eshell V5.4.9  (abort with ^G)
> > 1> {XmlFull,_} = xmerl_scan:string("<text>Hello</text>").
> > {{xmlElement,text,
> >             text,
> >             [],
> >             {xmlNamespace,[],[]},
> >             [],
> >             1,
> >             [],
> >             [{xmlText,[{text,1}],1,[],"Hello",text}],
> >             [],
> >             "/home/davidm",
> >             undeclared},
> >  []}
> > 2> [XmlText] = xmerl_xpath:string("/text/text()", XmlFull).
> >
> > =ERROR REPORT==== 5-Aug-2007::22:48:45 ===
> > Error in process <0.31.0> with exit value: {{badmatch,[]},[{erl_eval,expr,3}]}
> >
> > ** exited: {{badmatch,[]},[{erl_eval,expr,3}]} **
> > 3>
> >
> > Any thoughts?
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Dave M.
> >
> > On 05/08/07, Caoyuan <dcaoyuan@REDACTED> wrote:
> > > > [XmlText] = xmerl_xpath:string("/text/text()", XmlFull).
> > > [{xmlText,[{text,1}],1,[],"Hello",text}]
> > > > element(5, XmlText).
> > > "Hello"
> > >
> > >
> > > On 8/5/07, David Mitchell <monch1962@REDACTED> wrote:
> > > > Hello group,
> > > >
> > > > I'm having trouble getting my head around xmerl_xpath - I've gone
> > > > through a bunch of Google searches, but can't find the "Simple guide
> > > > to xmerl_xpath" I'm looking for ;->
> > > >
> > > > I've reduced my problem to 3 lines of code:
> > > >
> > > > 15> {XmlFull, _} = xmerl_scan:string("<text>Hello</text>").
> > > > {{xmlElement,text,
> > > >              text,
> > > >              [],
> > > >              {xmlNamespace,[],[]},
> > > >              [],
> > > >              1,
> > > >              [],
> > > >              [{xmlText,[{text,1}],1,[],"Hello",text}],
> > > >              [],
> > > >              "/home/davidm",
> > > >              undeclared},
> > > >  []}
> > > >
> > > > 16> xmerl:export([XmlFull], xmerl_xml).
> > > > ["<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>",[[["<","text",">"],["Hello"],["</","text",">"]]]]
> > > >
> > > > 17> xmerl_xpath:string("//text/*", XmlFull).
> > > > []
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Line 16 seems to confirm that XmlFull contains my XML string.
> > > > However, I'd expect line 17 to give me something like "Hello" or
> > > > ["Hello"], yet it returns an empty list.
> > > >
> > > > Could someone please point out the (no doubt very simple) mistake I've
> > > > made?  Also, if a "Simple guide to xmerl_xpath" exists somewhere,
> > > > could someone please point me towards it?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks in advance
> > > >
> > > > Dave M.
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > erlang-questions mailing list
> > > > erlang-questions@REDACTED
> > > > http://www.erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > - Caoyuan
> > >
> > _______________________________________________
> > erlang-questions mailing list
> > erlang-questions@REDACTED
> > http://www.erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions
> >
>
>
> --
> - Caoyuan
>