Question

In python, what is the best way to extract the list of items from the following xml?

<iq xmlns="jabber:client" to="__anonymous__admin@localhost/8978528613056092673206" 
 from="conference.localhost" id="disco" type="result">
    <query xmlns="http://jabber.org/protocol/disco#items">
        <item jid="[e-mail]" name="pgatt (1)"/>
        <item jid="[e-mail]" name="pgatt (1)"/>
    </query>
</iq>

I usually use lxml with xpath, but it’s not working in this case. I think my problems are due to namespaces. I’m not set on lxml and am open to using any library.

I would like a solution that is robust enough to fail if the general structure of the xml changes.

Answer 1

I’m not sure about lxml but you can use an expression like //*[local-name()="item"] to pull out the item elements regardless of their namespace.

You might also want to take a look at Amara for XML processing.

>>> import amara.bindery
>>> doc = amara.bindery.parse(
...     '''<iq xmlns="jabber:client" 
...          to="__anonymous__admin@localhost/8978528613056092673206"
...          from="conference.localhost" id="disco" type="result">
...          <query xmlns="http://jabber.org/protocol/disco#items">
...            <item jid="[e-mail]" name="pgatt (1)"/>
...            <item jid="[e-mail]" name="pgatt (1)"/>
...          </query>
...        </iq>''')
>>> for item in doc.iq.query.item:
...   print item.jid, item.name
...
[e-mail] pgatt (1)
[e-mail] pgatt (1)
>>>

Once I discovered Amara, I would never consider processing XML any other way.