Getting first occurrence of XML elements

Question

Hi All,
My XML tag looks like this:
<xref rid="id001" ref-type="Test">
<xref rid="id002" ref-type="Test">
<xref rid="id003" ref-type="Test">
<xref rid="id004" ref-type="Test">
Code:
var root = app.activeDocument.xmlElements[0];
var xrefRid = root.evaluateXPathExpression('//xref[@rid]');
var xrefType = root.evaluateXPathExpression('//xref[@ref-type]');
for(i=0; i<xrefRid.length; i++)
    var refTypeValue =xrefRid[j].xmlAttributes.itemByName("ref-type").value;
    var ridValue =xrefType[j].xmlAttributes.itemByName("rid").value;
     if(refTypeValue == "Test")
          alert(ridValue);
In my document multiple number of same "rid" is there, but I want the first occurence of the xref tag.
For example, if <xref rid="id001" ref-type="Test"> will occur on different pages in a book, but i need the first occurence of the elements.
Hope someone can help me...
Vandy

Answer 1

If your structure is built in the same way as above, this XPath works fine:
var _root = app.activeDocument.xmlElements.firstItem();
var _firstXrefID001andID002 = _root.evaluateXPathExpression("//p[position()=1]/xref[@rid='id001']|//p[position()=2]/xre f[@rid='id002']");
app.select(_firstXrefID001andID002);
If other positions of <p> are possible, e.g.
<DOCUMENT>
      <CN>1</CN>
      <CT>Title</CT>
      <p1>Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p1>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id001" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id001" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id001" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id002" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id002" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id002" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id001" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id001" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id001" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id001" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id002" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id002" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id002" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id002" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
      <p>Sample Text Sample Text <xref rid="id002" ref-type="Test"/> Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text</p>
</DOCUMENT>
You can try these XPathsExpressions and take the first element of resulting Arrays:
var _root = app.activeDocument.xmlElements.firstItem();
var _firstXrefID001 = _root.evaluateXPathExpression("//p/xref[@rid='id001']");
app.select(_firstXrefID001[0]);
var _firstXrefID002 = _root.evaluateXPathExpression("//p/xref[@rid='id002']");
app.select(_firstXrefID002[0]);
Roland