Problem querying Excel XML Sheet file (namespace)

Question

Hi,
I have an Excel (2003) file saved as XML Spreadsheet that I would like to be able to query in the database (10gR2) using extract/extractvalue. Somehow the namespace definition of this file is preventing me from reading the values from the file. The extract/extractvalue function returns empty (NULL) values. Can somebody help me with an example how to query individual nodes from this file?
Here is the query/XML:
WITH x AS
     (SELECT HTTPURITYPE ('http://www.dataliberation.nl/newnxl/docs/F2083/xmltestsheet.xml').getxml () xmldoc
      FROM   dual)
select  extract(xmldoc,'/Workbook/DocumentProperties','xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"') doc_properties
,       extractValue(xmldoc, '/Workbook/DocumentProperties/Author')      author
from   xThanx in advance,
Christian

Answer 1

here the readable XML:
SELECT XMLTYPE
<Workbook xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet"
xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
xmlns:x="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel"
xmlns:ss="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet"
xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<DocumentProperties xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office">
  <Author>Christian Rokitta</Author>
  <LastAuthor>Christian Rokitta</LastAuthor>
  <Created>2009-07-10T14:05:54Z</Created>
  <Company>Scamander Solutions</Company>
  <Version>11.9999</Version>
</DocumentProperties>
<ExcelWorkbook xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel">
  <WindowHeight>12525</WindowHeight>
  <WindowWidth>19995</WindowWidth>
  <WindowTopX>480</WindowTopX>
  <WindowTopY>120</WindowTopY>
  <ProtectStructure>False</ProtectStructure>
  <ProtectWindows>False</ProtectWindows>
</ExcelWorkbook>
<Styles>
  <Style ss:ID="Default" ss:Name="Normal">
   <Alignment ss:Vertical="Bottom"/>
   <Borders/>
   <Font/>
   <Interior/>
   <NumberFormat/>
   <Protection/>
  </Style>
</Styles>
<Worksheet ss:Name="Sheet1">
  <Table ss:ExpandedColumnCount="2" ss:ExpandedRowCount="2" x:FullColumns="1"
   x:FullRows="1">
   <Row>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">a1</Data></Cell>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">b1</Data></Cell>
   </Row>
   <Row>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">a2</Data></Cell>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">b2</Data></Cell>
   </Row>
  </Table>
  <WorksheetOptions xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel">
   <Selected/>
   <ProtectObjects>False</ProtectObjects>
   <ProtectScenarios>False</ProtectScenarios>
  </WorksheetOptions>
</Worksheet>
<Worksheet ss:Name="Sheet2">
  <WorksheetOptions xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel">
   <ProtectObjects>False</ProtectObjects>
   <ProtectScenarios>False</ProtectScenarios>
  </WorksheetOptions>
</Worksheet>
<Worksheet ss:Name="Sheet3">
  <WorksheetOptions xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel">
   <ProtectObjects>False</ProtectObjects>
   <ProtectScenarios>False</ProtectScenarios>
  </WorksheetOptions>
</Worksheet>
</Workbook>
FROM   dual