Problem extracting SOAP XML payload using pl/sql

Question

Hi,
I was wondering if I could get some help on extracting the address matches that are returned from the Web Service I am consuming. This is the first time I have dealt with XML and web services. I'm using Oracle 10.2.0.1.
The response I’m getting back returns 4 address matches (shown below against n2, n4, n6 and n8) which is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soapenv:Envelope
xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"><soapenv:Header/><soapenv:Body><searchResponse
xmlns="http://ws.aplt.msi.com"><searchReturn>&lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot;
encoding=&quot;UTF-8&quot; standalone=&quot;yes&quot;?&gt;
&lt;GetAddressSearchResponse
xmlns=&quot;http://aplt.nzpost.co.nz/schemas/search&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns1:ResponseHeader
xmlns:ns1=&quot;http://aplt.nzpost.co.nz/schemas/common&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns1:Errors/&gt;
&lt;/ns1:ResponseHeader&gt;
&lt;SearchResults SearchType=&quot;StreetAddress&quot;&gt;
&lt;ResultRecord Type=&quot;URBAN&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns2:AddressDetails
xmlns:ns2=&quot;urn:nzpost:schemas:xAL:3.0&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns2:Locality&gt;
&lt;ns2:Name&gt;LOWER HUTT&lt;/ns2:Name&gt;
&lt;ns2:DependentLocality&gt;
&lt;ns2:Name&gt;WAINUIOMATA&lt;/ns2:Name&gt;
&lt;/ns2:DependentLocality&gt;
&lt;/ns2:Locality&gt;
&lt;ns2:Thoroughfare&gt;
&lt;ns2:Name&gt;MAIN ROAD&lt;/ns2:Name&gt;
&lt;ns2:Number&gt;
&lt;ns2:Number Type=&quot;number&quot;&gt;111&lt;/ns2:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns2:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns2:Thoroughfare&gt;
&lt;ns2:Postal&gt;
&lt;ns2:PostalCode&gt;
&lt;ns2:Number&gt;
&lt;ns2:Number&gt;5014&lt;/ns2:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns2:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns2:PostalCode&gt;
&lt;/ns2:Postal&gt;
&lt;/ns2:AddressDetails&gt;
&lt;DPID&gt;494852&lt;/DPID&gt;
&lt;Geospatial&gt;
&lt;ns3:Point
xmlns:ns3=&quot;http://aplt.nzpost.co.nz/schemas/common&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns3:Coordinate&gt;174.953883,-41.271187&lt;/ns3:Coordinate&gt;
&lt;/ns3:Point&gt;
&lt;/Geospatial&gt;
&lt;/ResultRecord&gt;
&lt;ResultRecord Type=&quot;URBAN&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns4:AddressDetails
xmlns:ns4=&quot;urn:nzpost:schemas:xAL:3.0&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns4:Locality&gt;
&lt;ns4:Name&gt;UPPER HUTT&lt;/ns4:Name&gt;
&lt;/ns4:Locality&gt;
&lt;ns4:Thoroughfare&gt;
&lt;ns4:Name&gt;MAIN STREET&lt;/ns4:Name&gt;
&lt;ns4:Number&gt;
&lt;ns4:Number
Type=&quot;number&quot;&gt;111&lt;/ns4:Number&gt;
&lt;ns4:Number
Type=&quot;alpha&quot;&gt;A&lt;/ns4:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns4:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns4:Thoroughfare&gt;
&lt;ns4:Postal&gt;
&lt;ns4:PostalCode&gt;
&lt;ns4:Number&gt;
&lt;ns4:Number&gt;5018&lt;/ns4:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns4:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns4:PostalCode&gt;
&lt;/ns4:Postal&gt;
&lt;/ns4:AddressDetails&gt;
&lt;DPID&gt;2697192&lt;/DPID&gt;
&lt;Geospatial&gt;
&lt;ns5:Point
xmlns:ns5=&quot;http://aplt.nzpost.co.nz/schemas/common&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns5:Coordinate&gt;175.070066,-41.124317&lt;/ns5:Coordinate&gt;
&lt;/ns5:Point&gt;
&lt;/Geospatial&gt;
&lt;/ResultRecord&gt;
&lt;ResultRecord Type=&quot;URBAN&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns6:AddressDetails
xmlns:ns6=&quot;urn:nzpost:schemas:xAL:3.0&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns6:Locality&gt;
&lt;ns6:Name&gt;WELLINGTON&lt;/ns6:Name&gt;
&lt;ns6:DependentLocality&gt;
&lt;ns6:Name&gt;TAWA&lt;/ns6:Name&gt;
&lt;/ns6:DependentLocality&gt;
&lt;/ns6:Locality&gt;
&lt;ns6:Thoroughfare&gt;
&lt;ns6:Name&gt;MAIN ROAD&lt;/ns6:Name&gt;
&lt;ns6:Number&gt;
&lt;ns6:Number Type=&quot;number&quot;&gt;111&lt;/ns6:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns6:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns6:Thoroughfare&gt;
&lt;ns6:Postal&gt;
&lt;ns6:PostalCode&gt;
&lt;ns6:Number&gt;
&lt;ns6:Number&gt;5028&lt;/ns6:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns6:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns6:PostalCode&gt;
&lt;/ns6:Postal&gt;
&lt;/ns6:AddressDetails&gt;
&lt;DPID&gt;1066466&lt;/DPID&gt;
&lt;Geospatial&gt;
&lt;ns7:Point
xmlns:ns7=&quot;http://aplt.nzpost.co.nz/schemas/common&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns7:Coordinate&gt;174.824326,-41.174181&lt;/ns7:Coordinate&gt;
&lt;/ns7:Point&gt;
&lt;/Geospatial&gt;
&lt;/ResultRecord&gt;
&lt;ResultRecord Type=&quot;URBAN&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns8:AddressDetails
xmlns:ns8=&quot;urn:nzpost:schemas:xAL:3.0&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns8:Locality&gt;
&lt;ns8:Name&gt;WELLINGTON&lt;/ns8:Name&gt;
&lt;ns8:DependentLocality&gt;
&lt;ns8:Name&gt;KARORI&lt;/ns8:Name&gt;
&lt;/ns8:DependentLocality&gt;
&lt;/ns8:Locality&gt;
&lt;ns8:Thoroughfare&gt;
&lt;ns8:Name&gt;MAKARA ROAD&lt;/ns8:Name&gt;
&lt;ns8:Number&gt;
&lt;ns8:Number Type=&quot;number&quot;&gt;111&lt;/ns8:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns8:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns8:Thoroughfare&gt;
&lt;ns8:Postal&gt;
&lt;ns8:PostalCode&gt;
&lt;ns8:Number&gt;
&lt;ns8:Number&gt;6012&lt;/ns8:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns8:Number&gt;
&lt;/ns8:PostalCode&gt;
&lt;/ns8:Postal&gt;
&lt;/ns8:AddressDetails&gt;
&lt;Geospatial&gt;
&lt;ns9:Point
xmlns:ns9=&quot;http://aplt.nzpost.co.nz/schemas/common&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns9:Coordinate&gt;174.717753 , -41.284415&lt;/ns9:Coordinate&gt;
&lt;/ns9:Point&gt;
&lt;/Geospatial&gt;
&lt;/ResultRecord&gt;
&lt;/SearchResults&gt;
&lt;/GetAddressSearchResponse&gt;
</searchReturn></searchResponse></soapenv:
Body></soapenv:Envelope>
My cursor that gets any errors returned appears ok. This is:
CURSOR c_xml_err(i_xml IN XMLType, i_xmlns IN VARCHAR2) IS
SELECT extract(value(xmlseq), '/Errors' , i_xmlns) vi_errors
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/Warnings' , i_xmlns) vi_warnings
FROM TABLE(xmlSequence(extract(i_xml, '/GetAddressSearchResponse/ns1:ResponseHeader' , i_xmlns))) xmlseq;
i_xml that is passed in is an XMLType converted from a CLOB which is the response from the web service:
v_xml_response := XMLType(i_response);
i_response is the SOAP package above with the following done on it:
-- Strip the unnecessary SOAP XML envelope from the response
v_xml_resp := XMLType.createXml(o_response);
i_response := v_xml_resp.extract('/soap:Envelope/soap:Body/child::node()'
,'xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"').getClobVal();
i_response is defined with a type of CLOB.
i_xmlns that is passed in is: 'xmlns:ns1="' || i_xml_namespace || '"' where i_xml_namespace is: http://aplt.nzpost.co.nz/schemas/search
My cursor that tries to get the address details returned is:
CURSOR c_xml(i_xml IN XMLType, i_xmlns IN VARCHAR2) IS
SELECT extract(value(xmlseq), '/ResultRecord/AddressDetails/Postal.PostBox.Number/text()' , i_xmlns).getNumberVal() box#
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/ResultRecord/AddressDetails/Thoroughfare.Number/text()' , i_xmlns).getStringVal() street_number
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/ResultRecord/AddressDetails/Thoroughfare.Name/text()' , i_xmlns).getStringVal() street_name
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/ResultRecord/AddressDetails/Locality.DependentLocality.Name/text()' , i_xmlns).getStringVal() suburb
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/ResultRecord/AddressDetails/Locality.Name/text()' , i_xmlns).getStringVal() town_city
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/ResultRecord/AddressDetails/Postal.PostalCode.Number/text()' , i_xmlns).getStringVal() post_code
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/ResultRecord/AddressDetails/Postal.PostOffice.Name/text()' , i_xmlns).getStringVal() box_lobby_name
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/ResultRecord/AddressDetails/Postal.PostRoute.Name/text()' , i_xmlns).getStringVal() rd_number
FROM TABLE(xmlSequence(extract(i_xml, '/GetAddressSearchResponse/SearchResults' , i_xmlns))) xmlseq;
This is not correct because it doesn’t select anything. The i_xml parameter passed in is the same as above however the i_xmlns parameter that is passed into this cursor is different. It’s currently passed in as:
'xmlns:ns2="urn:nzpost:schemas:xAL:3.0"'
Which matches what is returned in the soap message (first the first address match returned):
&lt;ResultRecord Type=&quot;URBAN&quot;&gt;
&lt;ns2:AddressDetails
xmlns:ns2=&quot;urn:nzpost:schemas:xAL:3.0&quot;&gt;
I'm calling this cursor in loop as follows:
for r_cu in c_xml(v_xml_response, v_xml_namespace)
loop
dbms_output.put_line('***** test12 - ws_avs_clients - IN LOOP - delete/insert nzp23_address');
Nothing gets returned.
Firstly, I’m not sure how to cater for n2, n3, n4, n5, etc which are the namespaces returned and incremented for each address match.
I’m also wondering if my cursor should be changed to something like:
CURSOR c_xml(i_xml IN XMLType, i_xmlns IN VARCHAR2) IS
SELECT extract(value(xmlseq), '/Postal.PostBox.Number/text()' , i_xmlns).getNumberVal() box#
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/Thoroughfare.Number/text()' , i_xmlns).getStringVal() street_number
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/Thoroughfare.Name/text()' , i_xmlns).getStringVal() street_name
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/Locality.DependentLocality.Name/text()' , i_xmlns).getStringVal() suburb
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/Locality.Name/text()' , i_xmlns).getStringVal() town_city
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/Postal.PostalCode.Number/text()' , i_xmlns).getStringVal() post_code
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/Postal.PostOffice.Name/text()' , i_xmlns).getStringVal() box_lobby_name
,extract(value(xmlseq), '/Postal.PostRoute.Name/text()' , i_xmlns).getStringVal() rd_number
FROM TABLE(xmlSequence(extract(i_xml, '/GetAddressSearchResponse/SearchResults/ResultRecord/ns2:AddressDetails' , i_xmlns))) xmlseq;
However I couldn’t have the ns2: before “AddressDetails” because this gets incremented. I don’t think I can also have the i_xmlns namespace parameter passed in as 'xmlns:ns2="urn:nzpost:schemas:xAL:3.0"'
because the ns2 gets incremented for each address.
I'm looking for any examples of pl/sql code that extracts the addresses from the SOAP message returned like I’m trying to do?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Brad

Answer 1

You can find some examples in both the {forum:id=34} and {forum:id=75} forums. Just search on soap:Envelope or soap:Body and you should get some hits back.
Since you are using 10.2, you will want to use XMLTable instead of TABLE(xmlSequence(extract as XMLTable is the direction Oracle is going. As for ns2:, ns4: it doesn't matter what namespace prefix you use in your XPath statement as long as all the prefixes resolve to the same namespace.
Here is a starter piece of code that puts all that together for you.
SELECT town_city, peeking
  FROM XMLTABLE(XMLNamespaces(default 'http://aplt.nzpost.co.nz/schemas/search',
                              'urn:nzpost:schemas:xAL:3.0' as "adns"),
                '/GetAddressSearchResponse/SearchResults/ResultRecord/adns:AddressDetails'
                PASSING XMLTYPE('<GetAddressSearchResponse xmlns="http://aplt.nzpost.co.nz/schemas/search">
   <SearchResults SearchType="StreetAddress">
      <ResultRecord Type="URBAN">
         <ns2:AddressDetails xmlns:ns2="urn:nzpost:schemas:xAL:3.0">
            <ns2:Locality>
               <ns2:Name>LOWER HUTT</ns2:Name>
            </ns2:Locality>
         </ns2:AddressDetails>
          </ResultRecord>
          <ResultRecord Type="URBAN">
               <ns4:AddressDetails xmlns:ns4="urn:nzpost:schemas:xAL:3.0">
                    <ns4:Locality>
                         <ns4:Name>UPPER HUTT</ns4:Name>
                    </ns4:Locality>
               </ns4:AddressDetails>
          </ResultRecord>
     </SearchResults>
</GetAddressSearchResponse>')
                -- The above XMLType would be your variable instead of what is hard-coded
                COLUMNS
                town_city   VARCHAR2(30)  PATH '/adns:AddressDetails/adns:Locality/adns:Name',
                peeking     XMLTYPE       PATH '.');  -- This var is just to show you what each iteration is working with.You can also assign a namespace prefix to one of the default namespaces if your XPath goes across multiple "default" namespaces.
SELECT town_city, peeking
  FROM XMLTABLE(XMLNamespaces('http://aplt.nzpost.co.nz/schemas/search' as "def",  -- made up this prefix
                              'urn:nzpost:schemas:xAL:3.0' as "adns"),
                '/def:GetAddressSearchResponse/def:SearchResults/def:ResultRecord/adns:AddressDetails'
                PASSING XMLTYPE('<GetAddressSearchResponse xmlns="http://aplt.nzpost.co.nz/schemas/search">
   <SearchResults SearchType="StreetAddress">
      <ResultRecord Type="URBAN">
         <ns2:AddressDetails xmlns:ns2="urn:nzpost:schemas:xAL:3.0">
            <ns2:Locality>
               <ns2:Name>LOWER HUTT</ns2:Name>
            </ns2:Locality>
         </ns2:AddressDetails>
          </ResultRecord>
          <ResultRecord Type="URBAN">
               <ns4:AddressDetails xmlns:ns4="urn:nzpost:schemas:xAL:3.0">
                    <ns4:Locality>
                         <ns4:Name>UPPER HUTT</ns4:Name>
                    </ns4:Locality>
               </ns4:AddressDetails>
          </ResultRecord>
     </SearchResults>
</GetAddressSearchResponse>')
                -- The above XMLType would be your variable instead of what is hard-coded
                COLUMNS
                town_city   VARCHAR2(30)  PATH '/adns:AddressDetails/adns:Locality/adns:Name',
                peeking     XMLTYPE       PATH '.');  -- This var is just to show you what each iteration is working with.Hope that helps as a starter to working on your problem.
If you follow the FAQ link in the above right, you will see how to use the { code } tag (without spaces) to wrap the examples and retain formatting as shown above.