tei2024-XSLT-workshop

code repository to support the TEI 2024 workshop, “Navigating and Processing Data from the TEI with XSLT”

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What is XPath

XPath is a syntax used in XSLT, XQuery, and other X-technologies to navigate through XML documents and generate “returns.” For example, it can be used to extract subtrees, manipulate data, or count elements.

Node Types

• Document node (addressed with / to read the document)
• Root node (TEI)
• Element nodes (opener, closer, persName)
• Attribute nodes (@ref, @type)
• Text nodes (text())

XPath Navigation

• A localization step consists of an axis specification, the node test, and possibly a predicate: //rs[@type='person']

XPath navigation

• Navigate child:: and descendant:: axes
• Try the preceding and preceding-sibling axes. (There are “following” equivalents to both of these.)
• Apply predicates as boolean filters, using [. . .]
• Look at XPath functions:
  • normalize-space()
  • count()
  • distinct-values()
  • Different styles of writing these expressions: nesting (XPath 2) vs. simple-map: ! and arrow operator: => (XPath 3)
    • //*/normalize-space() (XPath 2) vs. //* ! normalize-space() (XPath 3) mean the same thing.
    • text() node vs. //string() and a “deep” discussion of what normalize-space()
    • Basic math and arithmetic operations

Workshop XPath expressions

• What XPath would find the paragraphs in the file?
• What XPath would find only the paragraphs inside the body?
• What XPath identifies only the <persName> element inside the <closer>?
• What XPath would find the name of the sender?

For letters with names encoded

• What XPath will find all the person names encoded in the letter?
• How many of these are there?
• What XPath will find the values of the @ref attribute in the <persName> elements?
• Which function will find the distinct attribute values?

For letters with parts of speech encoded (The following questions only apply to the es_P54000-TEIP5.xml document):

Write XPath expressions to isolate different parts of speech, working carefully with predicate expressions.

• What XPath will find all the nouns (pos=’N’)?
• How many of these are there?
• What XPath will find all the nouns which are directly preceded by a determiner (pos=’D’)?

Links

• XPath Cheatsheet
• XPath and XQuery Functions and Operators 3.1
• Wikipedia article “XPath”