APEX_WEB_SERVICE.PARSE_XML

Question

Ok.
I have made a RESTFul web services call to the Google Maps API to calculate the distance between 2 post codes using apex_web_service.make_rest_request and I get the response I am after which is some XML like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DistanceMatrixResponse>
<status>OK</status>
<origin_address>Random Town, Random City, Post Code, UK</origin_address>
<destination_address>Random Town 2, Random County, UK</destination_address>
<row>
  <element>
   <status>OK</status>
   <duration>
    <value>11455</value>
    <text>1 hours 27 mins</text>
   </duration>
   <distance>
    <value>78951</value>
    <text>345 mi</text>
   </distance>
  </element>
</row>
</DistanceMatrixResponse>
I then convert this into a XMLTYPE in the hope that I can use APEX_WEB_SERVICE.PARSE_XML to extract a particular node. This is where I am struggling a bit. Can anyone help me figure out how I would extract the value "345 mi" from the XML using APEX_WEB_SERVICE.PARSE_XML
I have had a look in the documentation but the example provided does not work.
Cheers for any help.
Duncs

Answer 1

That's what I thought and I was playing around with it last night.
I have just tried your suggestion and it still is returning no data. The entire routine is:
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON
DECLARE
   lv_ws_retval           CLOB;
   lv_ws_retval_xmltype   XMLTYPE;
   lv_distance            VARCHAR2 (32000);
BEGIN
   lv_ws_retval           :=
      apex_web_service.make_rest_request
         p_url           => 'http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/xml'
       , p_http_method   => 'GET'
       , p_parm_name     => apex_util.string_to_table ('origins:destinations:sensor:units')
       , p_parm_value    => apex_util.string_to_table ('Vancouver+BC:San+Francisco:false:imperial')
   dbms_output.put_line (lv_ws_retval);
   lv_ws_retval_xmltype   := xmltype (lv_ws_retval);
   lv_distance := apex_web_service.parse_xml (lv_ws_retval_xmltype, '//DistanceMatrixResponse/row/distance/text/text()');
   dbms_output.put_line ('**' || lv_distance || '**');
EXCEPTION
   WHEN OTHERS
   THEN
      dbms_output.put_line (SQLERRM);
END;
If you run this code, you will see that the value of lv_distance is still NULL.
Cheers for any more help you can be.
Regards
Duncs