XML Structured Index with multiple namespaces

Question

Hi,
I'm having some trouble creating an xmlindex with structured component on a clob xmltype column without registered schema, whose data uses multiple namespaces.
The code I'm using atm:
CREATE TABLE "DECLARATIONS"
    "ID" NUMBER(19,0),
    "XML" "SYS"."XMLTYPE"
CREATE INDEX decl_header_ix ON "DECLARATIONS"(xml) INDEXTYPE IS XDB.XMLINDEX
  PARAMETERS ('PATHS (INCLUDE (/emcs:emcsDeclaration/emcs:header//*)
                      NAMESPACE MAPPING (xmlns:emcs="http://www.myurl.eu/myapp/schema/emcs/nl"))');
INSERT INTO "DECLARATIONS" VALUES (1,'
<?xml version = ''1.0'' encoding = ''UTF-8'' standalone = ''yes''?>
<emcs:emcsDeclaration xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.myurl.eu/myapp/schema/emcs/nl emcs_domain.xsd"
xmlns:common="http://www.myurl.eu/myapp/schema/common"
xmlns:emcs="http://www.myurl.eu/myapp/schema/emcs/nl"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
   <emcs:header>
      <common:identifier>70</common:identifier>
      <common:declarationSequenceNumber>54566</common:declarationSequenceNumber>
      <common:dateCreated>2010-10-21-01:00</common:dateCreated>
      <common:status>01 Draft e-AAD in preparation</common:status>
   </emcs:header>
</emcs:emcsDeclaration>');A this moment it's not desirable for us to register the schemas used in oracle. According to the documentation I should be able to add a structured component to the index as follows:
BEGIN
      DBMS_XMLINDEX.registerParameter('MY_XSI_GROUP_PARAMETER'
              , 'ADD_GROUP GROUP MY_XSI_GROUP
               XMLTABLE decl_header
               XMLNAMESPACES (''http://www.myurl.eu/myapp/schema/emcs/nl'' AS emcs,
                       ''http://www.myurl.eu/myapp/schema/common'' AS common),
                    COLUMNS
              status VARCHAR2(30)  PATH ''/emcs:emcsDeclaration/emcs:header/common:status/text()''
   END;
ALTER INDEX DECL_HEADER_IX PARAMETERS('PARAM MY_XSI_GROUP_PARAMETER');However this results in an ORA-00904: invalid identifier. After some experimenting it seems that oracle tries to parse the namespace URLs as identifiers (even tho http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14072_01/appdev.112/e10492/xdb_indexing.htm#BCGJAAGH & http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14072_01/appdev.112/e10492/xdb_xquery.htm#BABJCHCC specify the former), so I swapped them around:
BEGIN
      DBMS_XMLINDEX.dropParameter('MY_XSI_GROUP_PARAMETER');
      DBMS_XMLINDEX.registerParameter('MY_XSI_GROUP_PARAMETER'
          , 'ADD_GROUP GROUP MY_XSI_GROUP
          XMLTABLE decl_header
          XMLNAMESPACES (emcs ''http://www.myurl.eu/myapp/schema/emcs/nl'',
          common ''http://www.myurl.eu/myapp/schema/common''),
          COLUMNS
          status varchar2(30)  PATH ''/emcs:emcsDeclaration/emcs:header/common:status/text()''
   END;
ALTER INDEX DECL_HEADER_IX PARAMETERS('PARAM MY_XSI_GROUP_PARAMETER');Oracle seems to get a bit further with this, resulting in a ORA-19102: XQuery string literal expected. Here I pretty much hit a dead end. Removing the xmlnamespaces declaration altogether leads to a ORA-31013: Invalid XPATH expression. Going through the examples on http://www.liberidu.com/blog/?p=1805 works fine, but as soon as I try to add namespaces to it they stop working as well.
So my question is: how do I get xmlnamespaces (with non-default namespaces) to work in a structured xmlindex component?

Answer 1

If you want, I can help you tomorrow. Call me at my nieuwegein office or mail me at marco[dot]gralike[at]amis[dot]nl
I have some time tomorrow, so I can help you with this. My next presentation for UKOUG will be on XML indexes strategies anyway...
In the meantime and/or also have a look at:
XML Howto's (http://www.liberidu.com/blog/?page_id=441) specifically:
XML Indexing
* Unstructured XMLIndex (part 1) – The Concepts (http://www.liberidu.com/blog/?p=228)
* Unstructured XMLIndex (Part 2) – XMLIndex Path Subsetting (http://www.liberidu.com/blog/?p=242)
* Unstructured XMLIndex (Part 3) – XMLIndex Syntax Dissected (http://www.liberidu.com/blog/?p=259)
* Unstructured XMLIndex Performance and Fuzzy XPath Searches (http://www.liberidu.com/blog/?p=310)
* Structured XMLIndex (Part 1) – Rules of Numb (http://www.liberidu.com/blog/?p=1791)
* Structured XMLIndex (Part 2) – Howto build a structured XMLIndex (http://www.liberidu.com/blog/?p=1798)
* Structured XMLIndex (Part 3) – Building Multiple XMLIndex Structures (http://www.liberidu.com/blog/?p=1805)
The posts were based on Index for XML with Repeated Elements maybe that is a bit better to read than on my notepad on the internet (aka blog)
Edited by: Marco Gralike on Oct 28, 2010 7:51 PM