[CS5.5:JS] - evaluateXPathExpression not working - Reg.

Question

Dear All,
I'm working in the below code, but It will return "zero" only.
//================== Code====================//
var mydoc = app.activeDocument;
var rootElement = mydoc.xmlElements.item(0);
var linkElementList = rootElement.evaluateXPathExpression("//chapter/sections/section");
$.writeln(linkElementList.length);
//==================== End : Code====================//
I'm collection all "section" nodes, but it throws "zero" [undefind]...
Does anyone know the proper syntax to use with this?, Please kindly help and advance thanks...
Thanks & Regards
T.R.Harihara SudhaN

Answer 1

All your examples except the first one work for me, you just have to know that it's arrays that you are dealing with when you check the results from your evaluateXPathExpression calls.
A single slash character "/" should be the root node of the document. But I guess it's almost as a meta level, superior to the "document"-reference set to the variable docElement, in your example. Meaning that "/document" will work, but not "/endnote". I'm not 100% sure, but the "/" might never be able to find anything else but the element that evaluateXPathExpression is "run from".
var endnotes = docElement.evaluateXPathExpression("/endnote");
$.writeln(endnotes); // returns nothing (since there are no endnote root elements).
// Returns three "endnote" XMLElements from any level under docElement
var endnotes1 = docElement.evaluateXPathExpression("//endnote");
$.writeln(endnotes1); // Three elements
$.writeln(endnotes1.length);
// Returns three "endnote" XMLElements from the level directly  under docElement
var endnotes2 = docElement.evaluateXPathExpression("endnote");
$.writeln(endnotes2);
$.writeln(endnotes2.length);
$.writeln(endnotes2[0].markupTag.name); // Writes out the name of the first element returned
//The last example returned an array with length = 1, and checking its name returned "document":
self[0].markupTag.name
Result: document
Message was edited by: Andreas Jansson. Changes in the text about the slash character. It does not go to the top of the whole XML document in InDesign, it just acts as a container of docElement (in the example) and nothing else. In the example it happens to be the same as the document root.