Re: [xsl] XPath and noname namespace

["G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 2008-07-14 16:52 +0200, Adam Komisarek wrote:
> I have found workaround but I wonder why it must be done in that way..
> Is it some kind of bug in XPath?

It is not a bug.

> I have simple document:<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg";>
> <a>aadsf</a> </svg>
>
> And now "//a" doesn't find a node.. I must use //*[local-name() =
> 'a'],

No, it isn't a requirement that you do it that way .. and what you 
have is ambiguous.  What you have would also find anchors in the HTML 
namespace if they were also in your document.

In your stylesheet declare the SVG namespace and you can use it in XPath:

      xmlns:s="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg";
      ...
      select="//s:a"

In XSLT 2.0 you can declare xpath-default-namespace= in order to set 
a default in XPath.

The prefix used in the stylesheet has no relation to the prefix used 
in your users' data files ... they just need to be pointing to the 
same namespace URI.

> but funny thing is that //*[name() = 'a'] works as well.. Why is
> that?

That is poor form and should be avoided because it relies on your 
knowledge of the prefixes (or lack thereof) being used by your 
users.  Your users might be using "svg:a" properly and what you have 
wouldn't work for you.

I hope this helps.

. . . . . . . . . Ken

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