Test::XML::XPath(3pm)

✨ Test::XML::XPath ✨

ok so bestie, welcome to Test::XML::XPath 💖 this is the Perl module for making assertions about your XML using XPath, and honestly? it's giving main character energy. (also it's Test::XML::XPath(3pm) if you're keeping track of the manual name, which, slay.)

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🌸 NAME 🌸

Test::XML::XPath — Test XPath assertions ✨

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

ok so here's the whole vibe, no cap:

use Test::XML::XPath tests => 3;
like_xpath( '<foo />', '/foo' );   # PASS
like_xpath( '<foo />', '/bar' );   # FAIL
unlike_xpath( '<foo />', '/bar' ); # PASS

is_xpath( '<foo>bar</foo>', '/foo', 'bar' ); # PASS
is_xpath( '<foo>bar</foo>', '/bar', 'foo' ); # FAIL

# More interesting examples of xpath assertions.
my $xml = '<foo attrib="1"><bish><bosh args="42">pub</bosh></bish></foo>';

# Do testing for attributes.
like_xpath( $xml, '/foo[@attrib="1"]' ); # PASS
# Find an element anywhere in the document.
like_xpath( $xml, '//bosh' ); # PASS
# Both.
like_xpath( $xml, '//bosh[@args="42"]' ); # PASS

look at those PASSes. we love to see it 🫶

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

This module lets you assert statements about your XML in the form of XPath statements. Like, you can say that a piece of XML <em>must</em> contain certain tags, with so-and-so attributes, etc. 💅

It will try to use any installed XPath module that it knows about. Currently, this means XML::LibXML and XML::XPath, in that order. (so it checks LibXML first, then falls back to XPath — the order matters bestie, don't forget it 🔥)

NB: Normally in XPath processing, the statement occurs from a context node. In the case of like_xpath(), the context node will always be the root node. In practice, this means that these two statements are identical:

# Absolute path.
like_xpath( '<foo/>', '/foo' );
# Path relative to root.
like_xpath( '<foo/>', 'foo' );

It's probably best to use absolute paths everywhere in order to keep things simple. (ngl that's just good advice 💜)

NB: Beware of specifying attributes. Because they use an @-sign, perl will complain about trying to interpolate arrays if you don't escape them or use single quotes. 😭 the @ is <em>literally</em> perl's array sigil, she's doing too much.

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💖 FUNCTIONS 💖

💅 like_xpath ( XML, XPATH [, NAME ] )

Assert that XML (a string containing XML) matches the statement XPATH. NAME is the name of the test.

Returns true or false depending upon test success. 🍓

💅 unlike_xpath ( XML, XPATH [, NAME ] )

This is the reverse of like_xpath(). The test will only pass if XPATH does not generate any matches in XML.

Returns true or false depending upon test success. 🙈

💅 is_xpath ( XML, XPATH, EXPECTED [, NAME ] )

Evaluates XPATH against XML, and pass the test if the is EXPECTED. Uses findvalue() internally.

Returns true or false depending upon test success. ⭐

💅 set_xpath_processor ( CLASS )

Set the class name of the XPath processor used. It is up to you to ensure that this class is loaded. 👑

In all cases, XML must be well formed, or the test will fail. 💀 no well-formed XML, no passing test, that's the rule fr fr.

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Test::XML.
• XML::XPath, which is the basis for this module.
• If you are not conversant with XPath, there are many tutorials available on the web. Google will point you at them. The first one that I saw was: <http://www.zvon.org/xxl/XPathTutorial/>, which appears to offer interactive XPath as well as the tutorials. 🧚

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Dominic Mitchell <cpan2 (at) semantico.com> 💌

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🌸 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 🌸

Copyright 2002 by semantico

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

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and that's the whole page bestie, iykyk 🎀 this was perl v5.34.0, dated 2022-06-18, and it's the Test::XML::XPath(3pm) manual — go forth and assert some XPath, you absolute icon 🦋💖✨