How to select CDATA text in functions for XML parser rules?

Question

Hello,

Does anybody know how selecting CDATA section text in the starts-with() function works when writing XPath-based parser rules?

I've been trying to test this using the following XML and I'm having no luck:

XML code snippet showing a test group with key-value pairs, where the key contains CDATA section text.

I tried writing a parser rule that selects <value> elements if the <key> element starts with the letter 'a'. I wrote the following XPath query as a test:

//group[starts-with(key,'a')]/value

This should work - in fact, every other XPath processor I've tried here returns the correct nodeset. For example, here's XPath Visualizer:

XPath Visualizer Tool interface displaying the XPath expression and the selected node result for the test XML.

But when used in an XML parser rule, the query returns absolutely nothing.

Here's the parser rule:

Trados Studio Edit Rule dialog box with XPath expression input field and CDATA Section structure info.

Here's the result - there are no segments:

Trados Studio Preview window showing no segments generated from the XML parser rule.

I've also tried selecting the text node on <key> elements instead:

//group[starts-with(key/text(),'a')]/value

//group[key[starts-with(text(),'a')]]/value

Neither of these work either.

Is this a limitation of the starts-with() function in Studio? Or does anybody know how Studio expects these types of nodes to be selected? I'm running out of ideas here!

Thanks very much.

Generated Image Alt-Text
[edited by: Trados AI at 4:13 AM (GMT 0) on 5 Mar 2024]

Daniel Hug · Accepted Answer

Hi David Smallwood 
 I know it's not ideal, but could you add an attribute to the elements you want to translate in pre-processing, then parse for that attribute in Studio and finally remove the attribute in post-processing... 
 Daniel

Paul · Answer

David Smallwood 
 It's embedded content so you need to use the embedded content processor. This article will explain: 
 https://multifarious.filkin.com/2014/06/01/custom-xml/

Paul · Answer

David Smallwood 
 By bad for not reading your post completely. Sorry. 
 I can verify your find and I think it should work as I think starts-with is an xpath 1.0 feature (I believe fn: was introduced in xpath 2.0 and this is not supported). I eacalated to the filetype manager for more information. 
 In the meantime do you have to use this method for finding hat you need or can you apply something else? I don't know how much of an example to illustrate starts-with you used compared to the real life requirement. For xample this works: 
 //group[contains(key,'a')]/value 
 Perhaps the real data could work in some way like this?

Paul · Answer

David Smallwood 
 I haven't heard from the filetype manager yet but the support team tested the file with the Beta version of SR2 due for release fairly soon. It works in there... so the fastest fix for sure will be in that.

Trados Studio > 6. Regex and XPath

How to select CDATA text in functions for XML parser rules?

Top Replies