Using xPath on an HTTP xml body

[Macaurly]

Hi, 

I'm trying to change the xml format of an HTTP request to JSON format using the xpath expression in flow. 

Here is my xml :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/metadata" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml" xml:base="https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename/_api/">
<id>d1fd24b2-eeb1-4820-a545-f071653f467e</id>
<title/>
<updated>2017-12-01T10:40:43Z</updated>
<entry m:etag="&quot;4&quot;">
    <id>cda821b5-e13b-4dff-9c2e-5be55f5fa3d1</id>
    <category term="SP.Data.EmployeesListItem" scheme="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/scheme"/>
    <link rel="edit" href="Web/Lists(guid'5b359dba-549b-4210-8afa-5e4fe2aeb166')/Items(3431)"/>
    <link rel="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/related/LineManager" type="application/atom+xml;type=entry" title="LineManager" href="Web/Lists(guid'5b359dba-549b-4210-8afa-5e4fe2aeb166')/Items(3431)/LineManager">
    <m:inline>
        <entry>
            <id>4f07e464-50cd-4faf-8324-8a4b26878b5a</id>
            <category term="SP.Data.UserInfoItem" scheme="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/scheme"/>
            <title/>
            <updated>2017-12-01T10:40:43Z</updated>
            <author>
                <name/>
            </author>
            <content type="application/xml">
            <m: properties>
                <d:EMail>testemail@test.com</d:EMail>
                <d:Title>ps admin</d:Title>
            </m: properties>
        </content>
    </entry>
</m:inline>
</link>
<title/>
<updated>2017-12-01T10:40:43Z</updated>
<author>
    <name/>
</author>
<content type="application/xml">
<m: properties>
    <d: PSFullName>PS Employee</d: PSFullName>
</m: properties>
</content>
</entry>
</feed>

Here is my expression : 

xpath(xml(body('Invoke_an_HTTP_request')), string('/feed/entry/link[2]/m:inline/entry/content/m: properties/d:EMail'))

I get the follwing error :

InvalidTemplate. Unable to process template language expressions in action 'Set_variable' inputs at line '1' and column '2158': 'The template language function 'xpath' parameters are invalid: the 'xpath' parameter must be a supported, well formed XPath expression. Please see https://aka.ms/logicexpressions#xpath for usage details.'.

The desired result is to retrieve the email address in the <d:Email > tag.

Thanks for any help in advance, 

Macaurly. 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

why aren't you receiving that request in JSON?

gonna play with this a bit.

the main issue with the XPath here is because of the namespaces.  XPath probably doesn't know what m or d are.

to perform query without caring about the namespace, you can use local-name()

try:

xpath(xml(outputs('Compose')), '//*[local-name()="properties"]/*[local-name()="EMail"]/text()')

Compose = XML string

[garrytrinder]

Thanks for the reply John 🙂

Its a bit of a long story really as to why its coming back as XML. We have a list that exceeds the lookup limit in SharePoint Online, but because there is no $select on the SharePoint connector it fails as it tries to return too much data, as a work around we are using the Azure AD HTTP Connector which has no option to pass headers so it comes back as XML, hence why we are here 🙂

I'll try the XPath suggestion you posted, thank you.

[Macaurly]

Thanks John, this solves our problem 🙂

[Anonymous]

hi, 

i have a similar issue here, but i am a bit confused about the wokraround you mentioned. what exactly does compose action have in "Compose = XML String"?

thanks in advance. 

[Anonymous]

write that expression in a Compose action.

Compose is used like a "build string" action here - use the expression editor to enter the formula in a Compose to extract the fields you want through XPath

[rgparisoto]

Very very very helpfull!!!

[rgparisoto]

Guys!

Whats I have to do to get this three items?

Thank you for any help.

Robson.