XMLLint – How to Use XMLLint for XML Attributes

xmlxmllint

I'm in the process of retreiving some data from a xml file, it is actually a SSIS package file (dtsx). I've read about using xmllint, however I'm having a hard time retrieving what I want. I'd like to ask some helps from folks here. This is what my xml looks like:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<DTS:Executable xmlns:DTS="www.microsoft.com/SqlServer/Dts"
  DTS:refId="Package"
  DTS:CreationDate="7/22/2019 4:18:27 PM"
  DTS:CreationName="Microsoft.Package"
  DTS:CreatorComputerName="ADMIN-8DF005D47"
  DTS:CreatorName="ADMIN-8DF005D47\Administrator"
  DTS:DTSID="{8CCA1D42-642A-4932-AAEC-E02175A4B2DB}"
  DTS:ExecutableType="Microsoft.Package"
  DTS:LastModifiedProductVersion="15.0.2000.68"
  DTS:LocaleID="1033"
  DTS:ObjectName="HardestNestedWorkflow2"
  DTS:PackageType="5"
  DTS:VersionBuild="12"
  DTS:VersionGUID="{FDD9B190-1A03-4A19-8794-FA86F4F46A93}">
  <DTS:Property
    DTS:Name="PackageFormatVersion">8</DTS:Property>
  <DTS:ConnectionManagers>
    <DTS:ConnectionManager
      DTS:refId="Package.ConnectionManagers[ADMIN-8DF005D47.AdventureWorks]"
      DTS:CreationName="OLEDB"
      DTS:DTSID="{A32A68DF-3D53-4057-AF80-1B8D524F82BC}"
      DTS:ObjectName="ADMIN-8DF005D47.AdventureWorks">
      <DTS:ObjectData>
        <DTS:ConnectionManager
          DTS:ConnectionString="Data Source=ADMIN-8DF005D47;Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks;Provider=SQLNCLI11;Integrated Security=SSPI;Application Name=SSIS-HardestNestedWorkflow2-{A32A68DF-3D53-4057-AF80-1B8D524F82BC}ADMIN-8DF005D47.AdventureWorks;Auto Translate=False;" />
      </DTS:ObjectData>

    <!--snipped-->

    </DTS:ConnectionManager>
  </DTS:ConnectionManagers>
</DTS:Executable>

I'm looking to get the value "8" out of this line

<DTS:Property
    DTS:Name="PackageFormatVersion">8</DTS:Property>

so, what I did was to issue a command

xmllint --xpath "//*[local-name()='Executable']/*[local-ame()='Property']/text()" HardestNestedWorkflow2_latest.xml

.. and it was good, I was able to extract the value "8"

Now, I wanted to extract the value 

Data Source=ADMIN-8DF005D47;Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks;Provider=SQLNCLI11;Integrated Security=SSPI;Application Name=SSIS-HardestNestedWorkflow2-{A32A68DF-3D53-4057-AF80-1B8D524F82BC}ADMIN-8DF005D47.AdventureWorks;Auto Translate=False;

I issued this statement

xmllint --xpath "//*[local-name()='Executable']/*[local-name()='ConnectionManagers']/*[local-name()='ConnectionManager']/*[local-name()='ObjectData']/*[local-name()='ConnectionManager']" HardestNestedWorkflow2_latest.xml

and it returned this 

<DTS:ConnectionManager DTS:ConnectionString="Data Source=ADMIN-8DF005D47;Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks;Provider=SQLNCLI11;Integrated Security=SSPI;Application Name=SSIS-HardestNestedWorkflow2-{A32A68DF-3D53-4057-AF80-1B8D524F82BC}ADMIN-8DF005D47.AdventureWorks;Auto Translate=False;"/>

how can I omit the tags DTS:ConnectionManager DTS:ConnectionString? I'm sorry I'm not much knowledgeable on using xmllint.

Thanks in Advance

Best Answer

You have found the element, but you need the value of an attribute @DTS:ConnnectionString rather than the value of the element itself. Without namespaces you would pick this out with a suffix of @ConnectionString, but since you have namespaces here, xmllint requires you to match in the same way you've matched all your element names, @*[local-name()='ConnectionString']. Furthermore, in order to strip the attribute name from the front of the result you need to postprocess it all with string(). Ugly.

xmllint --xpath "string(//*[local-name()='Executable']/*[local-name()='ConnectionManagers']/*[local-name()='ConnectionManager']/*[local-name()='ObjectData']/*[local-name()='ConnectionManager']/@*[local-name()='ConnectionString'])" file.xml

Output

 Data Source=ADMIN-8DF005D47;Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks;Provider=SQLNCLI11;Integrated Security=SSPI;Application Name=SSIS-HardestNestedWorkflow2-{A32A68DF-3D53-4057-AF80-1B8D524F82BC}ADMIN-8DF005D47.AdventureWorks;Auto Translate=False;

Personally I prefer xmlstarlet for these kind of operations as it understands namespaces more cleanly, but ultimately it's best to use the tool that's most convenient.

xmlstarlet sel xmlns:DTS="www.microsoft.com/SqlServer/Dts" -t -v '/DTS:Executable/DTS:Property' -n file.xml
8

xmlstarlet sel xmlns:DTS="www.microsoft.com/SqlServer/Dts" -t -v '/DTS:Executable//DTS:ConnectionManager/@DTS:ConnectionString' -n file.xml
Data Source=ADMIN-8DF005D47;Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks;Provider=SQLNCLI11;Integrated Security=SSPI;Application Name=SSIS-HardestNestedWorkflow2-{A32A68DF-3D53-4057-AF80-1B8D524F82BC}ADMIN-8DF005D47.AdventureWorks;Auto Translate=False;
Related Question