This topic applies only to the IBM Business Process Manager Advanced configuration.

XPath overview

The XML Path Language (XPath) is used to uniquely identify or address parts of an XML document. An XPath expression can be used to search through an XML document and extract information from its nodes, which are any part of the document, such as an element or attribute. XPath can be used alone or with XSLT.

XPath is well-suited for simple data-driven expressions. The following examples show situations where you might use an XPath expression:
  • In mediation flows, the message logger's root property takes an XPath expression that specifies which part of the message is available to the mediation primitive for processing.
  • In mediation flows, you can use XPath to identify one or more fields in a message and use these fields to filter or select by specifying a value.
  • In BPEL processes, you can use XPath to reference parts of a BPEL variable as from-statement or as to-statement in an assign activity.
  • In BPEL processes, you can use XPath to specify conditions, such as exit conditions and loop conditions.

You can use the XPath Expression Builder to visually build your XPath expression. The XPath Expression Builder provides a navigation tree of the message from which you can select parts for your XPath expression.

If you are in a field that accepts an XPath expression, you can press Ctrl+Space to get content assist. Content assist provides you with available XPath functions and operators for your expression. For more information about using XPath 1.0, see the following resources:
Parent topic: Creating XPath expressions