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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<document>
<properties>
<title>
JXPath User's Guide
</title>
<author email="dmitri@apache.org">
Dmitri Plotnikov
</author>
</properties>
<body>
<section name="What's JXPath">
<p>
JXPath provides APIs for the traversal of graphs of JavaBeans,
DOM and other types of objects using the XPath syntax.
</p>
<p>
If you are not familiar with the XPath syntax, start with
<a href="http://www.w3schools.com/xpath">XPath Tutorial by W3Schools</a>.
<br/>
Also see
<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath">XML Path Language (XPath) Version 1.0</a> -
that's the official standard.
</p>
<p>
XPath is the official expression language of XSLT. In XSLT you
mostly use XPath to access various elements of XML documents.
You can do that with JXPath as well. In addition, you can read
and write properties of JavaBeans, get and set elements of
arrays, collections, maps, transparent containers, various
context objects in Servlets etc. In other words, JXPath applies
the concepts of XPath to alternate object models.
</p>
<p>
You can also have JXPath create new objects if needed.
</p>
<p>
The central class in the JXPath architecture is
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/JXPathContext.html"><code>JXPathContext</code></a>.
Most of the APIs discussed in this document have to do with the
JXPathContext class.
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#Object Graph Traversal">Object Graph Traversal</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#JavaBean Property Access">JavaBean Property Access</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Lenient Mode">Lenient Mode</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Nested Bean Property Access">Nested Bean Property Access</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Collection Subscripts">Collection Subscripts</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Retrieving Multiple Results">Retrieving Multiple Results</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Map Element Access">Map Element Access</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#DOM/JDOM Document Access">DOM/JDOM Document Access</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Containers">Containers</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Functions id() and key()">Functions id() and key()</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#XPath Axes And Object Graphs">XPath Axes And Object Graphs</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#Parent/child Relationship">Parent/child Relationship</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Document Order">Document Order</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Attributes">Attributes</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#Exceptions During XPath Evaluation">Exceptions During XPath Evaluation</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Modifying Object Graphs">Modifying Object Graphs</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#Setting Properties">Setting Properties</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Creating Objects">Creating Objects</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#Variables">Variables</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#Custom Variable Pools">Custom Variable Pools</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#Servlet Contexts">Servlet Contexts</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#JSP Page Context">JSP Page Context</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Servlet Request Context">Servlet Request Context</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#HttpSession Context">HttpSession Context</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#ServletContext Context">ServletContext Context</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#Pointers">Pointers</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Relative Contexts">Relative Contexts</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Extension Functions">Extension Functions</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#Standard Extension Functions">Standard Extension Functions</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Custom Extension Functions">Custom Extension Functions</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Expression Context">Expression Context</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Collections as Arguments">Collections as Arguments</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#Type Conversions">Type Conversions</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Internationalization">Internationalization</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Nested Contexts">Nested Contexts</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Compiled Expressions">Compiled Expressions</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Customizing JXPath">Customizing JXPath</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#Custom JXPathBeanInfo">Custom JXPathBeanInfo</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Custom DynamicPropertyHandler">Custom DynamicPropertyHandler</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Custom Pointers and Iterators">Custom Pointers and Iterators</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#Alternative JXPath Implementation">Alternative JXPath Implementation</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#Miscellaneous">Miscellaneous</a>
</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section name="Object Graph Traversal">
<p>
JXPath uses JavaBeans introspection to enumerate and access
JavaBeans properties.
</p>
<p>
The interpretation of the XPath syntax in the context of Java
object graphs is quite intuitive: the <code>"child"</code>
axis of XPath is mapped to JavaBean properties.
</p>
<subsection name="JavaBean Property Access">
<p>
JXPath can be used to access properties of a JavaBean.
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
public class Employee {
public String getFirstName(){
...
}
}
Employee emp = new Employee();
...
JXPathContext context = JXPathContext.newContext(emp);
String fName = (String)context.getValue("firstName");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
In this example, we are using JXPath to access a property
of the <code>emp</code> bean. In this simple case the
invocation of JXPath is equivalent to invocation of
<code>getFirstName()</code> on the bean.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Lenient Mode">
<p>
The <code>context.getValue(xpath)</code> method throws
an exception if the supplied xpath does not map to an
existing property. This constraint can be relaxed by
calling <code>context.setLenient(true)</code>. In the
lenient mode the method merely returns null if the path
maps to nothing.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Nested Bean Property Access">
<p>
JXPath can traverse object graphs:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
public class Employee {
public Address getHomeAddress(){
...
}
}
public class Address {
public String getStreetNumber(){
...
}
}
Employee emp = new Employee();
...
JXPathContext context = JXPathContext.newContext(emp);
String sNumber = (String)context.getValue("homeAddress/streetNumber");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
In this case XPath is used to access a property of a nested
bean.
</p>
<p>
A property identified by the XPath does not have to be a
"leaf" property. For instance, we can extract the whole
Address object in above example:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
Address addr = (Address)context.getValue("homeAddress");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
</subsection>
<subsection name="Collection Subscripts">
<p>
JXPath can extract elements from arrays and collections.
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
public class Integers {
public int[] getNumbers(){
...
}
}
Integers ints = new Integers();
...
JXPathContext context = JXPathContext.newContext(ints);
Integer thirdInt = (Integer)context.getValue("numbers[3]");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
A collection can be an arbitrary array or an instance of
java.util.Collection. JXPath also supports indexed properties
according to the JavaBeans specification.
</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> in XPath the first element of a collection has
index 1, not 0.
<br/>
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Retrieving Multiple Results">
<p>
JXPath can retrieve multiple objects from a graph. Note
that the method called in this case is not <code>getValue</code>,
but <code>iterate</code>.
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
public class Author {
public Book[] getBooks(){
...
}
}
Author auth = new Author();
...
JXPathContext context = JXPathContext.newContext(auth);
Iterator threeBooks = context.iterate("books[position() &lt; 4]");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
This returns a list of at most three books from the array
of all books written by the author.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Map Element Access">
<p>
JXPath supports maps. To get a value use its key.
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
public class Employee {
private Map addressMap = new HashMap();
{
addressMap.put("home", new Address(...));
addressMap.put("office", new Address(...));
}
public Map getAddresses(){
return addressMap;
}
...
}
Employee emp = new Employee();
JXPathContext context = JXPathContext.newContext(emp);
String homeZipCode =
(String)context.getValue("addresses/home/zipCode");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
Often you will need to use the alternative syntax for
accessing Map elements:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
String homeZipCode = (String)context.
getValue("addresses[@name='home']/zipCode");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
Unlike a child name in XPath, the value of the "name"
attribute does
<em>
not
</em>
have to be a properly formed identifier. Also,
in this case the key can be an expression, e.g. a variable.
</p>
<p>
The attribute "name" can be used not only with Maps, but
with JavaBeans as well. The value of this attribute
represents the name of a property.
</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> At this point JXPath only supports Maps that use
strings for keys.
</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> JXPath supports the extended notion of Map: any
object with dynamic properties can be handled by JXPath
provided that its class is registered with the
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/JXPathIntrospector.html"><code>JXPathIntrospector</code></a>.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="DOM/JDOM Document Access">
<p>
JXPath supports access to DOM and JDOM Nodes. The DOM/JDOM node can be
the context node of JXPathContext or it can be a value of a
property, element of a collection, variable value etc.
Let's say we have a path <code>"$foo/bar/baz"</code>.
It will work if, for instance, the value of the variable
"foo" is a JavaBean, whose property "bar" contains a DOM/JDOM
Node, which has a child element named "baz".
</p>
<p>
The intepretation of XPath over DOM/JDOM structures is
implemented in accordance with the XPath specification.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Containers">
<p>
A
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/Container.html">Container</a>
is an object implementing an indirection mechanism
transparent to JXPath.
</p>
<p>
For example, if property <code>"foo"</code> of the
context node has a Container as its value, the XPath "foo"
will produce the contents of that Container, not the
container itself.
</p>
<p>
An example of a useful container is
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/XMLDocumentContainer.html">XMLDocumentContainer</a>.
When you create an XMLDocumentContainer, you give it a
pointer to an XML file (a <code>URL</code> or a
<code>javax.xml.transform.Source</code>. It will read
and parse the XML file only when it is accessed. You can
create XMLDocumentContainers for various XML documents that
may or may not be accessed by XPaths. If they are, they
will be automatically read, parsed and traversed. If they
are not- they won't be read at all.
</p>
<p>
Let's say we have the the following XML file, which is
stored as a Java resource.
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
&lt;?xml version="1.0" ?&gt;
&lt;vendor&gt;
&lt;location id="store101"&gt;
&lt;address&gt;
&lt;street&gt;Orchard Road&lt;/street&gt;
&lt;/address&gt;
&lt;/location&gt;
&lt;location id="store102"&gt;
&lt;address&gt;
&lt;street&gt;Tangerine Drive&lt;/street&gt;
&lt;/address&gt;
&lt;/location&gt;
&lt;/vendor&gt;
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
Here's the code that makes use of XMLDocumentContainer.
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
class Company {
private Container locations = null;
public Container getLocations(){
if (locations == null){
URL url = getClass().getResource("Vendor.xml");
locations = new XMLDocumentContainer(url);
}
return locations;
}
}
...
context = JXPathContext.newContext(new Company());
...
String street = (String)context.getValue(
"locations/vendor/location[@id = 'store102']//street");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
Like was described before, this code will implicitly open
and parse the XML file and find a value in it according to
the XPath.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Functions id() and key()">
<p>
Functions <code>id()</code> and <code>key()</code> can be
used with JXPath, however most of the time it requires custom
coding.
</p>
<p>
The only situation where no custom coding is needed is when
you want to use the <code>id()</code> function and you have
a DOM Node as the context node of the JXPathContext. In
this case, JXPath will use the standard behavior of DOM.
</p>
<p>
In order to evaluate the <code>id()</code> function, JXPath
calls a delegate object that should be implemented and installed
on the JXPathContext. The object should implement the
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/IdentityManager.html">IdentityManager</a>
interface.
</p>
<p>
Similarly, the <code>key()</code> function relies on a custom
implementation of the
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/KeyManager.html">KeyManager</a>
interface.
</p>
</subsection>
<p><b>Note:</b> JXPath does not support DOM attributes for non-DOM
objects. Even though XPaths like
<code>"para[@type='warning']"</code> are legitimate, they
will always produce empty results. The only attributes
supported for JavaBeans are <code>"name"</code> and
<code>"xml:lang"</code>.
</p>
</section>
<section name="XPath Axes And Object Graphs">
<p>
The interpretation of XPath over XML models like DOM and JDOM is governed by
the XPath standard. There is no official standard for the interpretation
of XPaths on other types of models: beans, maps etc.
This part describes how JXPath performs such interpretation.
</p>
<subsection name="Parent/child Relationship">
<p>
In DOM/JDOM the definition of a node's parent is clear: a Node always
points to its parent. XML is a strict tree, so there always exactly
one parent for every node except the root.
</p>
<p>
With other models the situation is more complex. The model can no
longer be described as a tree. In many cases it is a complicated
graph with many paths to the same node and even referential cycles
where node A is node B's child, but also node B is node A's child.
Even if the graph is a strict tree, a node of that tree may not have
a pointer to its parent.
</p>
<p>
Because of all these issues, JXPath abandons the static notion
of a parent/child relationship in favor of a dynamic one.
When an XPath is evaluated, the engine performs a series of searches
and computations in so called <i>evaluation contexts</i>. For example,
when the <code>"/foo/bar"</code> path is evaluated, JXPath first looks
for a node named "foo" in the root evaluation context.
If such a node is found, the interpreter forms a new context
for the discovered node and searches for a node named "bar" in
that context.
</p>
<p>
This chain of contexts is used in JXPath to define the parent-child
relationship. Parent is the base node of the previous evaluation
context in the chain. A more appropriate name for the "parent::" axis
would then be "step back".
</p>
<p>
Consider this example. The evaluated path is
<code>"foo//bar/../baz"</code>. In the process of evaluating of this
path, the engine will walk the graph forming chains of context like
<code>"/foo/a/b/c/bar"</code>. Once a node with the name "bar" is found,
the engine will "step back": in our case it will go back to the
<code>"/foo/a/b/c"</code> context and then look for the node with
the name "baz" in that context.
</p>
<p>
<b>Exercise:</b> think about how the path
<code>"//foo[../@name='bar']"</code> would be interpreted.
</p>
<p>
<b>Solution:</b>
<ol>
<li>
Descend from the root of the graph looking for a node
with the name "foo".
</li>
<li>
Let's say the engine has found such a node in the context of
a node called "biz". The "biz" node is the dynamic parent
of the node "foo".
</li>
<li>
Form a new context for the "foo" node.
</li>
<li>
To evaluate the predicate <code>"../@name='bar'"</code>, step back
to the previous context, which is the context of
the node "biz" to see if it has an attribute called "name". If so,
compare the value of that attribute to "bar". If it is equal,
include the current "foo" node in the result set.
</li>
</ol>
</p>
<p>
The dynamic interpretation of the parent/child relationship affects
most axes including "parent::", "ancestor::",
"preceding::", "following::" etc.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Document Order">
<p>
The XPath standard defines the term "document order" as the order
in which pieces of XML follow each other in the textual representation.
This definition is not applicable directly to non-XML models.
</p>
<p>
Results of many types of xpaths depend on the document order, so
we cannot leave it as "unpredictable" or "undefined" for such nodes
as JavaBeans or Maps. In order to have a predictable order,
JXPath sorts properties of beans and keys of maps alphabetically.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Attributes">
<p>
For JavaBeans and Maps the "attribute::" axis is interpreted
the same as the "child::" axis.
</p>
<p>
The only two distinctions are the "xml:lang" and "name".
</p>
<p>
Attribute <code><b>xml:lang</b></code> refers to the name of the locale
associated with the node. In XML the <code>xml:lang</code> attribute
can be specifed for an element explicitly. In non-XML models,
the locale is associated with the whole JXPathContext. Unless
explicitly set it is the application's default locale.
</p>
<p>
The <code><b>name</b></code> attribute is primarily used when
working with Maps. Often elements of a Map can be retrieved
using the "child::" axis. For example, if "foo" in <code>"foo/bar"</code>
refers to a Map then the path extracts from the map the value for the key
"bar". The syntax of XPath requires that a child name be a properly
formed identifier. Now, what if the key we are looking for is "?%$",
which is not an identifier. In this case we can use the "name"
attribute like this: <code>"foo[@name='?%$']"</code>. This path
is not interpreted as "find a 'foo' that has the name '?%$'". It is
interpreted as "find a 'foo' and get the value for the key '?%$'"
from it. This interpretation is used for maps and beans only.
In the case of XML, "name" is treated like any other attribute.
</p>
</subsection>
</section>
<section name="Exceptions During XPath Evaluation">
<p>
Exceptions thrown by accessor methods are treated differently depending
on the evaluated xpath and the particular method used to do the
evaluation.
</p>
<p>
The basic idea is that if JXPath is <i>looking</i> for something by
iterating over all properties of a bean and during that iteration
an accessor method for one of these properties throws an exception,
JXPath ignores the exception and moves on to the next property.
This could happen if the method is <code>iterate()</code> or
if the path contains search axes like "descendant::", "ancestor::" etc.
</p>
<p>
In all other cases, an exception thrown by an accessor method is
wrapped into a JXPathException and re-thrown.
</p>
</section>
<section name="Modifying Object Graphs">
<p>
JXPath can also be used to modify parts of object graphs:
property values, values for keys in Maps. It can in some cases
create intermediate nodes in object graphs.
</p>
<subsection name="Setting Properties">
<p>
JXPath can be used to modify property values.
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
public class Employee {
public Address getAddress() {
...
}
public void setAddress(Address address) {
...
}
}
Employee emp = new Employee();
Address addr = new Address();
...
JXPathContext context = JXPathContext.newContext(emp);
context.setValue("address", addr);
context.setValue("address/zipCode", "90190");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
</subsection>
<subsection name="Creating Objects">
<p>
JXPath can be used to create new objects. First, create a
subclass of
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/AbstractFactory.html"><code>AbstractFactory</code></a>
and install it on the JXPathContext. Then call
<code>jxPathContext.createPath(xpath)</code>.
JXPathContext will invoke your AbstractFactory when it
discovers that an intermediate node of the path is <b>null</b>.
It will not override existing nodes.
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
public class AddressFactory extends AbstractFactory {
public boolean createObject(JXPathContext context, Pointer pointer,
Object parent, String name, int index){
if ((parent instanceof Employee) &amp;&amp; name.equals("address"){
((Employee)parent).setAddress(new Address());
return true;
}
return false;
}
}
JXPathContext context = JXPathContext.newContext(emp);
context.setFactory(new AddressFactory());
context.createPath("address");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
You can also combine creating a path with setting the value
of the leaf: the <code>createPathAndSetValue(path, value)</code>
method is used for that.
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
context.createPathAndSetValue("address/zipCode", "90190");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
Note that it only makes sense to the automatic creation of
nodes with very simple paths. In fact, JXPath will not
attempt to create intermediate nodes for paths that don't
follow these rules:
<ul>
<li>
The only axis used is "child::", e.g.
<code>"foo/bar/baz"</code>
</li>
<li>
The only two types of predicates used are
context-independent indexing and the
<code>"[@name = <i>expr</i>]"</code>
construct, e.g. <code>"map[@name='key1'][4/2]"</code>.
</li>
<li>
If a variable is used, it is the root of the path,
e.g. <code>"$object/child"</code>.
</li>
</ul>
</p>
</subsection>
</section>
<section name="Variables">
<p>
JXPath supports the notion of variables. The XPath syntax for
accessing variables is <i>"$varName"</i>.
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
public class Author {
public Book[] getBooks(){
...
}
}
Author auth = new Author();
...
JXPathContext context = JXPathContext.newContext(auth);
context.getVariables().declareVariable("index", new Integer(2));
Book secondBook = (Book)context.getValue("books[$index]");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
You can also set variables using JXPath:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
context.setValue("$index", new Integer(3));
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p><b>Note:</b> generally speaking, you can only <i>change</i> the
value of an existing variable this way, you cannot <i>define</i>
a new variable. If you do want to define a new variable
dynamically, implement a <code>defineVariable()</code>
method on your custom AbstractFactory and call
<code>createPathAndSetValue()</code> rather than
<code>setValue()</code>. The restrictions described in the
"Creating Objects" section still apply.
</p>
<p>
When a variable contains a JavaBean or a collection, you can
traverse the bean or collection as well:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
...
context.getVariables().declareVariable("book", myBook);
String title = (String)context.getValue("$book/title);
Book array[] = new Book[]{...};
context.getVariables().declareVariable("books", array);
String title = (String)context.getValue("$books[2]/title);
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p/>
<subsection name="Custom Variable Pools">
<p>
By default, JXPathContext creates a HashMap of variables.
However, you can substitute a custom implementation of the
Variables interface to make JXPath work with an alternative
source of variables. For example, you can define
implementations of Variables that cover a servlet context,
HTTP request or any similar structure.
</p>
<p>
See the
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/servlet/package-summary.html">org.apache.commons.jxpath.servlet</a>
package for an example of just that.
</p>
</subsection>
</section>
<section name="Servlet Contexts">
<p>
The <code>org.apache.commons.jxpath.servlet</code> package
contains classes that make it easy to use XPath to access
values in various sevlet contexts: "page" (for JSPs),
"request", "session" and "application".
</p>
<p>
See static methods of the class
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/servlet/JXPathServletContexts.html"><code>JXPathServletContexts</code></a>.
They allocate various servlet-related JXPathContexts.
</p>
<subsection name="JSP Page Context">
<p>
The JXPathContext returned by
<code>getPageContext(PageContext pageContext)</code>
provides access to all scopes via the
<code>PageContext.findAttribute()</code> method. Thus,
an expression like <code>"foo"</code> will first look
for the attribute named <code>"foo"</code> in the
<code>"page"</code> context, then the <code>"request"</code>
context, then the <code>"session"</code> one and
finally in the <code>"application"</code> context.
</p>
<p>
If you need to limit the attibute lookup to just one scope,
you can use the pre-definded variables <code>"page"</code>,
<code>"request"</code>, <code>"session"</code> and
<code>"application"</code>. For example, the
expression <code>"$session/foo"</code> extracts the
value of the <i>session</i> attribute named <code>"foo"</code>.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Servlet Request Context">
<p>
The
<code>getRequestContext(ServletRequest request, ServletContext servletContext)</code>
method will give you a context that checks the request
scope first, then (if there is a session) the session
context, then the application context.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="HttpSession Context">
<p>
The
<code>getSessionContext(HttpSession session, ServletContext servletContext)</code>
method will give you a context that checks the session
context, then the application context.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="ServletContext Context">
<p>
Finally,
<code>getApplicationContext(ServletContext servletContext)</code>
method will give you a context that checks the application
context.
</p>
</subsection>
<p>
All these methods cache the JXPathContexts they create within
the corresponding scopes. Subsequent calls use the
JXPathContexts created earlier.
</p>
</section>
<section name="Pointers">
<p>
JXPath supports so called Pointers. A Pointer is an object that
represents a location of a node in an object graph. For
example, you can call
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
Pointer ptr = context.getPointer("employees[$i]/addresses[$j]")
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
Let's say the value of the variable i is 1 and j = 3. If we
call <code>ptr.asPath()</code>, it returns an XPath that
describes this concrete location:
<code>"/employees[1]/addresses[3]"</code>.
</p>
<p>
If you have an XPath that finds many nodes in the graph, you
can get JXPath to produce a collection of pointers for all of
those found locations:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
List homeAddresses = context.getPointer("//employee/address[@name='home']");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
Each Pointer in the list will map to a home address object in
the graph.
</p>
<p>
It is a good idea to use pointers whenever you need to access
the same node of a graph repeatedly.
</p>
<p>
Also, when an XPath is repeatedly evaluated in different
contexts (for example, with different variable values) and you
need to preseve results of those evaluations. A Pointer, as
well as the XPath produced by <code>pointer.asPath()</code>
is context-independent, it won't change if involved variables
or expressions change.
</p>
<p>
JXPath is optimized to interpret XPaths produced by Pointers
much faster than many other types of XPaths.
</p>
</section>
<section name="Relative Contexts">
<p>
If you need to evaluate multiple paths relative to a certain node
in the object graph, you might want to create a relative JXPathContext.
</p>
<p>
First obtain the pointer for the location that is supposed to define
the relative context. Then obtain the relative context by calling
<code>context.getRelativeContext(pointer)</code>.
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
JXPathContext context = JXPathContext.newContext(bean);
Pointer addressPtr = context.getPointer("/employees[1]/addresses[2]");
JXPathContext relativeContext =
context.getRelativeContext(addressPtr);
// Evaluate relative path
String zipCode = (String)relativeContext.getValue("zipCode");
// Evaluate absolute path
String name = (String)relativeContext.getValue("/employees[1]/name");
// Use the parent axis to locate the employee for the current address
Double salary = (Double)relativeContext.getValue("../salary");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
</section>
<section name="Extension Functions">
<p>
JXPath supports standard XPath functions right out of the box.
It also supports "standard" extension functions, which are
basically a bridge to Java as well as entirely custom extension
functions.
</p>
<subsection name="Standard Extension Functions">
<p>
Using the standard extension functions, you can call
methods on objects, static methods on classes and create
objects using any constructors. All class names should be
fully qualified.
</p>
<p>
Here's how you can create new objects:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
Book book = (Book)context.
getValue("com.myco.books.Book.new('John Updike')");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
Here's how you can call static methods:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
Book book = (Book)context.
getValue("com.myco.books.Book.getBestBook('John Updike')");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
Here's how you can call regular methods:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
String firstName = (String)context.
getValue("getAuthorsFirstName($book)");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
As you can see, the target of the method is specified as
the first parameter of the function.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Custom Extension Functions">
<p>
Collections of custom extension functions can be
implemented as
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/Functions.html"><code>Functions</code></a>
objects or as Java classes, whose methods become extenstion
functions.
</p>
<p>
Let's say the following class implements various formatting
operations:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
public class Formats {
public static String date(Date d, String pattern){
return new SimpleDateFormat(pattern).format(d);
}
...
}
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
We can register this class with a JXPathContext:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
context.setFunctions(new ClassFunctions(Formats.class, "format"));
...
context.getVariables().declareVariable("today", new Date());
String today =
(String)context.getValue("format:date($today, 'MM/dd/yyyy')");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
You can also register whole packages of Java classes using
PackageFunctions.
</p>
<p>
Also, see
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/FunctionLibrary.html"><code>FunctionLibrary</code></a>,
which is a class that allows you to register multiple sets
of extension functions with the same JXPathContext.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Expression Context">
<p>
A custom function can get access to the context in which it
is being evaluated. ClassFunctions and PackageFunctions
have special support for methods and constructors that have
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/ExpressionContext.html"><code>ExpressionContext</code></a>
as the first argument. When such extension function is
invoked, it is given an object that implements the
ExpressionContext interface. The function can then gain
access to the "current" object in the currently evaluated
context.
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
public class MyExtenstionFunctions {
public static boolean isDate(ExpressionContext context){
Pointer pointer = context.getContextNodePointer();
if (pointer == null){
return false;
}
return pointer.getValue() instanceof Date;
}
...
}
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
You can then register this extension function using
ClassFunctions and call it like this:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
"//.[myext:isDate()]"
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
This expression will find all nodes of the graph that are
dates.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Collections as Arguments">
There are two ways a collection can be passed to an extension function:
as a <a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/NodeSet.html"><code>NodeSet</code></a>
or as a Collection proper. If the argument type is declared
as NodeSet, JXPath will pass a NodeSet object, otherwise it will take values
out of the node set and pass those to the function as a regular collection.
Note that a collection is always passed to an extension function by value -
it cannot be modified.
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
public class MyExtenstionFunctions {
...
public static boolean contains(NodeSet nodeSet, Object value){
Iterator iter = nodeSet.getPointers().iterator();
while (iter.hasNext()) {
Pointer item = (Pointer)iter.next();
if (item.getValue().equals(value)){
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
// Alternative implementation
public static boolean contains(List list, Object value){
Iterator iter = list.iterator();
while (iter.hasNext()) {
Object item = iter.next();
if (item.getValue().equals(value)){
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
}
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
You can call this function to find all people who have a
certain phone number:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
"/addressBook/contact[myext:contains(phoneNumbers, '555-5555']"
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
</subsection>
</section>
<section name="Type Conversions">
<p>
JXPath automatically performs the following type convertions:
</p>
<table>
<tr>
<th>
From type
</th>
<th>
To type
</th>
<th>
Operation
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>null</i>
</td>
<td><i>primitive</i>
</td>
<td>
false, zero
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>any</i>
</td>
<td>
String
</td>
<td>
Calls toString()
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Boolean
</td>
<td><i>any</i> Number
</td>
<td>
True = 1, false = 0
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>any</i> Number
</td>
<td><i>any other</i> Number
</td>
<td>
Truncates if needed
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
String
</td>
<td><i>any primitive type</i>
</td>
<td>
Parses the string
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>array of length 1</i>
</td>
<td><i>any</i>
</td>
<td>
Takes the single element of the array
<br/>
and (recursively) converts it to the needed
type
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>collection of size 1</i>
</td>
<td><i>any</i>
</td>
<td>
Takes the single element of the array
<br/>
and (recursively) converts it to the needed
type
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>array</i>
</td>
<td><i>array</i>
</td>
<td>
Creates a new array of the same size and converts every
element
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>array</i>
</td>
<td><i>Collection</i>
</td>
<td>
Creates a collection and adds to it all elements of the
array. Note that it will only know how to create the
collection if the type is a concrete class, List or Set
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>Collection</i>
</td>
<td><i>array</i>
</td>
<td>
Creates a new array the same size as the collection,
converts and copies every element of the collection
into the array.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>Collection</i>
</td>
<td><i>Collection</i>
</td>
<td>
Creates a collection and copies the source collection
into the new collection. Note that it will only know
how to create the collection if the type is a concrete
class, List or Set
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
ExpressionContext
</td>
<td>
Collection, List, Vector, Set
</td>
<td>
Creates a collection of type ArrayList,
<br/>
ArrayList, Vector, HashSet respectively and
<br/>
populates it with all current context node
pointers
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
ExpressionContext
</td>
<td><i>any</i>
</td>
<td>
Obtains value of the current context node pointer
<br/>
and (recursively) converts it to the needed
type
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</section>
<section name="Internationalization">
<p>
For DOM Documents JXPathContext supports internationalization
XPath-style. A locale can be declared on an XML Element like
this:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
&lt;book xml:lang="fr"&gt;Les Miserables&lt;/book&gt;
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
You can then use the <code>lang</code> function in XPath
to find nodes for a specific language:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
"//book[lang('fr')]
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
The <code>"lang"</code> boolean function is supported for
non-DOM objects as well. It tests the Locale set on the
JXPathContext (or the default locale). See
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/JXPathContext.html#setLocale">JXPathContext.setLocale()</a>.
</p>
<p>
You can also utilize the <code>xml:lang</code> attribute,
whose value is the name of the locale, whether in a DOM
document or outside.
</p>
</section>
<section name="Nested Contexts">
<p>
If you need to use the same set of variables while interpreting
XPaths with different beans, it makes sense to put the
variables in a separate context and specify that context as a
parent context every time you allocate a new JXPathContext for
a JavaBean. This way you don't need to waste time fully
configuring every context.
</p>
<p>
The same logic applies to shared extension functions, abstract
factories and locale.
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
JXPathContext sharedContext = JXPathContext.newContext(null);
sharedContext.getVariables().declareVariable("title", "Java");
sharedContext.setFunctions(new MyExtensionFunctions());
sharedContext.setLocale(Locale.CANADA);
sharedContext.setFactory(new MyFactory());
...
JXPathContext context = JXPathContext.newContext(sharedContext, auth);
Iterator javaBooks =
context.iterate("books[preprocessTitle(title) = $title]");
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
</section>
<section name="Compiled Expressions">
<p>
When JXPath is asked to evaluate an expression for the first
time, it compiles it and caches its compiled representation.
This mechanism reduces the overhead caused by compilation. In
some cases though, JXPath's own caching may not be sufficient-
JXPath caches have limited size and they are cleared once in a
while.
</p>
<p>
Here's how you can precompile an XPath expression:
</p>
<!--============================ + SOURCE + ============================-->
<source>
<b/>
CompiledExpression expr = context.compile(xpath);
...
Object value = expr.getValue(context);
</source>
<!--============================ - SOURCE - ============================-->
<p>
The following requirements can be addressed with compiled
expressions:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
There is a relatively small number of XPaths your
application works with, and it needs to evaluate those
XPaths multiple times.
</li>
<li>
Some XPaths need to be precompiled at initialization time
</li>
<li>
The syntax of some XPaths needs to be checked before they
are used for the first time
</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section name="Customizing JXPath">
<p>
JXPath can be customized on several levels.
</p>
<ul>
<li>
You can provide custom JXPathBeanInfo objects to customize
lists of properties of JavaBeans available to JXPath.
</li>
<li>
You can easily add support for object types similar to Map.
All you need to do is implement the DynamicPropertyHandler
interface and register the implementation with
JXPathIntrospector.
</li>
<li>
You can add support for types of object models JXPath does
not support out of the box. An example of such model would
be an alternative implementation of XML parse tree (e.g.
JDOM etc). You will need to implement one or two APIs to
allow JXPath to traverse properties of these custom
objects.
</li>
<li>
The most dramatic customization of JXPath can be done at
the level of JXPathContextFactory- you can transparently
provide an alternative implementation of all top level
APIs.
</li>
</ul>
<subsection name="Custom JXPathBeanInfo">
<p>
JXPath uses JavaBeans introspection to discover properties
of JavaBeans. You can provide alternative property lists by
supplying custom JXPathBeanInfo classes (see
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/JXPathBeanInfo.html"><code>JXPathBeanInfo</code></a>).
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Custom DynamicPropertyHandler">
<p>
JXPath uses various implementations of the
DynamicPropertyHandler interface to access properties of
objects similar to Map.
</p>
<p>
The <code>org.apache.commons.jxpath.servlet</code>
package has several examples of custom
DynamicPropertyHandlers.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Custom Pointers and Iterators">
<p>
Architecturally, multiple model support is made possible by
the notions of a
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/ri/model/NodePointer.html">NodePointer</a>
and
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/ri/model/NodeIterator.html">NodeIterator</a>,
which are simple abstract classes that are extended in
different ways to traverse graphs of objects of different
kinds. The NodePointer/NodeIterator APIs are designed with
models like JavaBeans in mind. They directly support
indexed collections. As a result, XPaths like
<code>"foo[10]"</code> can be executed as
<code>"getFoo(9)"</code> or <code>"getFoo()[9]"</code>,
or <code>"getFoo().get(9)"</code>, depending on the
type of collection. This flexibility is disguised well
enough by the APIs of the abstract classes, so we can still
have a natural implementation of traversal of object
models, such as DOM, that do not have the same notion of
collection.
</p>
<p>
To add support for a new object model, build custom
implementations of NodePointer and NodeIterator as well as
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/ri/model/NodePointerFactory.html">NodePointerFactory</a>.
Then register the new factory with
<a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/jxpath/ri/JXPathContextReferenceImpl.html">JXPathContextReferenceImpl</a>.
</p>
<p>
See existing NodePointerFactories for examples of how
that's done:
<ul>
<li>
BeanPointerFactory works with JavaBeans
</li>
<li>
DynamicPointerFactory works with Dynamic beans like
Map, HttpRequest and such
</li>
<li>
ContainerPointerFactory works with Container
objects like XMLDocumentContainer
</li>
<li>
DOMPointerFactory works with DOM Nodes
</li>
</ul>
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Alternative JXPath Implementation">
<p>
JXPathContext allows alternative implementations. This is
why instead of allocating JXPathContext directly, you
should call a static <code>newContext</code> method.
This method will utilize the JXPathContextFactory API to
locate a suitable implementation of JXPath. JXPath comes
bundled with a default implementation called Reference
Implementation.
</p>
</subsection>
</section>
</body>
</document>