XPath & Java

Question

Aim
Make search in XML file with XPath expression, which sets in Web form.
Return search results to user browser.
I understand the task, but the method evaluate from XPath interface
it's signature
xPath.evaluate(xPathExpression,
docWrite,
XPathConstants.STRING);
It's third parameter, which define, what to receive, may be one of
XPathConstants.BOOLEAN
XPathConstants.NODE
XPathConstants.NODESET
XPathConstants.NUMBER
XPathConstants.STRING
and when we use overloaded version of the 3d parameter, this is analogous to XPathConstants.STRING.
I need that user receive XML answer, and XPathConstants.STRING returns results without XML tags. How I may make it?
And if the user will search attribute value, then return it as string( no xml).

Answer 1

If you want the xml tags, you need to use NodeSet, ant then use an empty transformer to convert it to a string. This is tricky however, because a NodeSet isn't necessarily a well formed document, so you may have to add root element to the node set.