Navigate to Timestamp node using Xpath

Question

I have this security envelope. How do I navigate to the Timestamp node inside Secuirty something like this /Envelope/Header/Security/TimeStamp

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:wsa="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing" xmlns:wsse="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd" xmlns:wsu="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd">
<soap:Header>
<wsse:Security soap:mustUnderstand="1"><wsu:Timestamp wsu:Id="Timestamp-dd0398f4-0844-4de9-997e-1fcbd7febd54"><wsu:Created>2013-06-21T04:25:00Z</wsu:Created>
 <wsu:Expires>2013-06-21T04:30:00Z</wsu:Expires></wsu:Timestamp><wsse:BinarySecurityToken ValueType="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-x509-token-profile-1.0#X509v3"

Thank you

Im not very much sure but I think you need to resolve the namespaces for which the prefix are used `soap` , `wsse` and `wsu` , after that try something like this `\soap:Envelope\soap:Header\wsse:Security\wsu:Timestamp` — Sridhar, Jun 21 '13 at 05:07
@Sridhar: This answers my question but let me extend the question. Can I delete the timestamp node from security element in a soap request. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17223156/remove-timestamp-element-from-security — user575219, Jun 21 '13 at 14:00

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 21 '13 at 08:20

Your XML includes namespaces, which you either

Have to register and use all namespaces (rather similar like Sridhar proposed but for the wrong slashes)
```
/soap:Envelope/soap:Header/wsse:Security/wsu:Timestamp
```
Registering the namespaces heavily differs from programming language to programming language and XPath processor used, so you will have to look that up in the appropriate documentation.
Or ignore namespaces, which is easy starting from XPath 2.0 by using the "wildcard namespace"
```
/*:Envelope/*:Header/*:Security/*:Timestamp
```
For XPath 1.0, you cannot do this, you will have to select all elements and check for their name:
```
/*[local-name() = "Envelope"]/*[local-name() = "Header"]/*[local-name() = "Security"]/*[local-name() = "Timestamp"]
```
Generally, ignoring namespaces should be regarded bad practise, and especially in XPath 1.0 leads to horrible to read and probably slower queries.

This answers my question but let me extend the question. Can I delete the timestamp node from security element in a soap request.http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17223156/remove-timestamp-element-from-security — user575219, Jun 21 '13 at 14:00

Navigate to Timestamp node using Xpath

1 Answers1