QXmlQuery

Synopsis

Functions

Detailed Description

The PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery class performs XQueries on XML data, or on non-XML data modeled to look like XML.

The PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery class compiles and executes queries written in the XQuery language. PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery is typically used to query XML data, but it can also query non-XML data that has been modeled to look like XML.

Using PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery to query XML data, as in the snippet below, is simple because it can use the built-in XML data model as its delegate to the underlying query engine for traversing the data. The built-in data model is specified in XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Data Model.

QXmlQuery query;
query.setQuery("doc('index.html')/html/body/p[1]");

QXmlSerializer serializer(query, myOutputDevice);
query.evaluateTo(&serializer);

The example uses PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery to match the first paragraph of an XML document and then output the result to a device as XML.

Using PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery to query non-XML data requires writing a subclass of PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QAbstractXmlNodeModel to use as a replacement for the built-in XML data model. The custom data model will be able to traverse the non-XML data as required by the PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QAbstractXmlNodeModel interface. An instance of this custom data model then becomes the delegate used by the query engine to traverse the non-XML data. For an example of how to use PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery to query non-XML data, see the documentation for PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QAbstractXmlNodeModel .

Running XQueries

To run a query set up with PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery , call one of the evaluation functions.

Running XPath Expressions

The XPath language is a subset of the XQuery language, so running an XPath expression is the same as running an XQuery query. Pass the XPath expression to PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery using PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery() .

Running XSLT stylesheets

Running an XSLT stylesheet is like running an XQuery , except that when you construct your PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery , you must pass QXmlQuery.XSLT20 to tell PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery to interpret whatever it gets from PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery() as an XSLT stylesheet instead of as an XQuery . You must also set the input document by calling PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setFocus() .

QXmlQuery query(QXmlQuery::XSLT20);
query.setFocus(QUrl("myInput.xml"));
query.setQuery(QUrl("myStylesheet.xsl"));
query.evaluateTo(out);

Note

Currently, PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setFocus() must be called beforePySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery() when using XSLT.

Another way to run an XSLT stylesheet is to use the xmlpatterns command line utility.

xmlpatterns myStylesheet.xsl myInput.xml

Note

For the current release, XSLT support should be considered experimental. See section XSLT conformance for details.

Stylesheet parameters are bound using PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.bindVariable() .

Binding A Query To A Starting Node

When a query is run on XML data, as in the snippet above, the doc() function returns the node in the built-in data model where the query evaluation will begin. But when a query is run on a custom node model containing non-XML data, one of the PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.bindVariable() functions must be called to bind a variable name to a starting node in the custom model. A $variable reference is used in the XQuery text to access the starting node in the custom model. It is not necessary to declare the variable name external in the query. See the example in the documentation for PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QAbstractXmlNodeModel .

Reentrancy and Thread-Safety

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery is reentrant but not thread-safe. It is safe to use the QxmlQuery copy constructor to create a copy of a query and run the same query multiple times. Behind the scenes, PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery will reuse resources such as opened files and compiled queries to the extent possible. But it is not safe to use the same instance of PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery in multiple threads.

Error Handling

Errors can occur during query evaluation. Examples include type errors and file loading errors. When an error occurs:

Resource Management

When a query runs, it parses documents, allocating internal data structures to hold them, and it may load other resources over the network. It reuses these allocated resources when possible, to avoid having to reload and reparse them.

When PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery() is called, the query text is compiled into an internal data structure and optimized. The optimized form can then be reused for multiple evaluations of the query. Since the compile-and-optimize process can be expensive, repeating it for the same query should be avoided by using a separate instance of PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery for each query text.

Once a document has been parsed, its internal representation is maintained in the PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery instance and shared among multiple PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery instances.

An instance of PySide.QtCore.QCoreApplication must exist before PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery can be used.

Event Handling

When PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery accesses resources (e.g., calling fn:doc() to load a file, or accessing a device via a bound variable), the event loop is used, which means events will be processed. To avoid processing events when PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery accesses resources, create your PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery instance in a separate thread.
class PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery
class PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery(queryLanguage[, np=QXmlNamePool()])
class PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery(np)
class PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery(other)
Parameters:

Constructs an invalid, empty query that cannot be used until PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery() is called.

Note

This constructor must not be used if you intend to use this PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery to process XSL-T stylesheets. The other constructor must be used in that case.

Constructs a query that will be used to run Xqueries or XSL-T stylesheets, depending on the value of queryLanguage . It will use np as its name pool.

Note

If your PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery will process XSL-T stylesheets, this constructor must be used. The default constructor can only create instances of PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery for running XQueries.

Note

The XSL-T support in this release is considered experimental. See the XSLT conformance for details.

Constructs a query that will use np as its name pool. The query cannot be evaluated until PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery() has been called.

Constructs a PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery that is a copy of other . The new instance will share resources with the existing query to the extent possible.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.QueryLanguage

Specifies whether you want PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery to interpret the input to PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery() as an XQuery or as an XSLT stylesheet.

Constant Description
QXmlQuery.XQuery10 XQuery 1.0.
QXmlQuery.XSLT20 XSLT 2.0 The selector, the restricted XPath pattern found in W3C XML Schema 1.1 for uniqueness contraints. Apart from restricting the syntax, the type check stage for the expression assumes a sequence of nodes to be the focus. The field, the restricted XPath pattern found in W3C XML Schema 1.1 for uniqueness contraints. Apart from restricting the syntax, the type check stage for the expression assumes a sequence of nodes to be the focus. Signifies XPath 2.0. Has no effect in the public API, it’s used internally. As With XmlSchema11IdentityConstraintSelector and XmlSchema11IdentityConstraintField , the type check stage for the expression assumes a sequence of nodes to be the focus.
PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.bindVariable(name, query)
Parameters:

Binds the result of the query query , to a variable by name name .

Evaluation of query will be commenced when this function is called.

If query is invalid, behavior is undefined. query will be copied.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.bindVariable(name, arg__2)
Parameters:

Binds the variable name to the device so that $``name`` can be used from within the query to refer to the device . The PySide.QtCore.QIODevice device is exposed to the query as a URI of type xs:anyURI , which can be passed to the fn:doc() function to be read. E.g., this function can be used to pass an XML document in memory to fn:doc .

QByteArray myDocument;
QBuffer buffer(&myDocument); // This is a QIODevice.
buffer.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly);
QXmlQuery query;
query.bindVariable("myDocument", &buffer);
query.setQuery("doc($myDocument)");

The caller must ensure that device has been opened with at least QIODevice.ReadOnly prior to this binding. Otherwise, behavior is undefined.

If the query will access an XML document contained in a PySide.QtCore.QString , use a PySide.QtCore.QBuffer as shown in the following snippet. Suppose myQString contains <document>content</document>

QBuffer device;
device.setData(myQString.toUtf8());
device.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly);

QXmlQuery query;
query.setQuery("doc($inputDocument)/query[theDocument]");
query.bindVariable("inputDocument", &device);

name must not be null . name . isNull() must return false. If name has already been bound, its previous binding will be overridden. The URI that name evaluates to is arbitrary and may change.

If the type of the variable binding changes (e.g., if a previous binding by the same name was a PySide.QtCore.QVariant , or if there was no previous binding), PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.isValid() will return false , and recompilation of the query text is required. To recompile the query, call PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery() . For this reason, PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.bindVariable() should be called before PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery() , if possible.

Note

device must not be deleted while this PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery exists.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.bindVariable(name, value)
Parameters:

Binds the variable name to the value so that $``name`` can be used from within the query to refer to the value .

name must not be null . name . isNull() must return false. If name has already been bound by a previous PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.bindVariable() call, its previous binding will be overridden.

If value is null so that value . isNull() returns true, and name already has a binding, the effect is to remove the existing binding for name .

To bind a value of type PySide.QtCore.QString or PySide.QtCore.QUrl , wrap the value in a PySide.QtCore.QVariant such that PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlItem ‘s PySide.QtCore.QVariant constructor is called.

All strings processed by the query must be valid XQuery strings, which means they must contain only XML 1.0 characters. However, this requirement is not checked. If the query processes an invalid string, the behavior is undefined.

See also

QVariant.isValid() How QVariant maps to XQuery’s Data Model QXmlItem.isNull()

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.bindVariable(localName, arg__2)
Parameters:

This is an overloaded function.

If localName is a valid NCName , this function is equivalent to the following snippet.

QXmlNamePool namePool(query.namePool());
query.bindVariable(QXmlName(namePool, localName), device);

A PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlName is constructed from localName , and is passed to the appropriate overload along with device .

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.bindVariable(localName, query)
Parameters:

This is an overloaded function.

Has the same behavior and effects as the function being overloaded, but takes the variable name localName as a PySide.QtCore.QString . query is used as in the overloaded function.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.bindVariable(localName, value)
Parameters:

This is an overloaded function.

This function constructs a PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlName from localName using the query’s namespace . The function then behaves as the overloaded function. It is equivalent to the following snippet.

QXmlNamePool namePool(query.namePool());
query.bindVariable(QXmlName(namePool, localName), value);
PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.evaluateTo(result)
Parameters:resultPySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlResultItems

Starts the evaluation and makes it available in result . If result is null, the behavior is undefined. The evaluation takes place incrementally (lazy evaluation), as the caller uses QXmlResultItems.next() to get the next result.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.evaluateTo(target)
Parameters:targetPySide.QtCore.QIODevice
Return type:PySide.QtCore.bool

Evaluates the query or stylesheet, and writes the output to target .

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlSerializer is used to write the output to target . In a future release, it is expected that this function will be changed to respect serialization options set in the stylesheet.

If an error occurs during the evaluation, error messages are sent to PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.messageHandler() and false is returned.

If target is null , or is not opened in at least QIODevice.WriteOnly mode, the behavior is undefined. PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery does not take ownership of target .

This is an overloaded function.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.evaluateTo(callback)
Parameters:callbackPySide.QtXmlPatterns.QAbstractXmlReceiver
Return type:PySide.QtCore.bool

Evaluates this query and sends the result as a sequence of callbacks to the receiver callback . PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery does not take ownership of callback .

If an error occurs during the evaluation, error messages are sent to PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.messageHandler() and false is returned.

If this query is invalid , false is returned and the behavior is undefined. If callback is null, behavior is undefined.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.initialTemplateName()
Return type:PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlName

Returns the name of the XSL-T stylesheet template that the processor will call first when running an XSL-T stylesheet. This function only applies when using PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery to process XSL-T stylesheets. By default, no initial template is set. In that case, a default constructed PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlName is returned.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.isValid()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.bool

Returns true if this query is valid. Examples of invalid queries are ones that contain syntax errors or that have not had PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery() called for them yet.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.messageHandler()
Return type:PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QAbstractMessageHandler

Returns the message handler that handles compile and runtime messages for this PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery .

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.namePool()
Return type:PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlNamePool

Returns the name pool used by this PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery for constructing names . There is no setter for the name pool, because mixing name pools causes errors due to name confusion.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.networkAccessManager()
Return type:PySide.QtNetwork.QNetworkAccessManager

Returns the network manager, or 0 if it has not been set.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.queryLanguage()
Return type:PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.QueryLanguage

Returns a value indicating what this PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery is being used for. The default is QXmlQuery.XQuery10 , which means the PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery is being used for running XQuery and XPath queries. QXmlQuery.XSLT20 can also be returned, which indicates the PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery is for running XSL-T spreadsheets.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setFocus(item)
Parameters:itemPySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlItem

Sets the focus to item . The focus is the set of items that the context item expression and path expressions navigate from. For example, in the expression p/span , the element that p evaluates to is the focus for the following expression, span .

The focus can be accessed using the context item expression, i.e., dot (”.”).

By default, the focus is not set and is undefined. It will therefore result in a dynamic error, XPDY0002 , if the focus is attempted to be accessed. The focus must be set before the query is set with PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery() .

There is no behavior defined for setting an item which is null.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setFocus(documentURI)
Parameters:documentURIPySide.QtCore.QUrl
Return type:PySide.QtCore.bool

This is an overloaded function.

Sets the focus to be the document located at documentURI and returns true. If documentURI cannot be loaded, false is returned. It is undefined at what time the document may be loaded. When loading the document, the message handler and URI resolver set on this PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery are used.

If documentURI is empty or is not a valid URI, the behavior of this function is undefined.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setFocus(document)
Parameters:documentPySide.QtCore.QIODevice
Return type:PySide.QtCore.bool

Sets the focus to be the document read from the PySide.QtCore.QIODevice and returns true. If document cannot be loaded, false is returned.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery does not take ownership of document . The user guarantees that a document is available from the document device and that the document is not empty. The device must be opened in at least read-only mode. document must stay in scope as long as the current query is active.

This is an overloaded function.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setFocus(focus)
Parameters:focus – unicode
Return type:PySide.QtCore.bool

This function behaves identically to calling the PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setFocus() overload with a PySide.QtCore.QIODevice whose content is focus encoded as UTF-8. That is, focus is treated as if it contained an XML document.

Returns the same result as the overload.

This is an overloaded function.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setInitialTemplateName(name)
Parameters:namePySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlName

Sets the name of the initial template. The initial template is the one the processor calls first, instead of attempting to match a template to the context node (if any). If an initial template is not set, the standard order of template invocation will be used.

This function only applies when using PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery to process XSL-T stylesheets. The name becomes part of the compiled stylesheet. Therefore, this function must be called before calling PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery() .

If the stylesheet has no template named name , the processor will use the standard order of template invocation.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setInitialTemplateName(name)
Parameters:name – unicode

This is an overloaded function.

Sets the name of the initial template to localName , which must be a valid local name . The initial template is the one the processor calls first, instead of attempting to match a template to the context node (if any). If an initial template is not set, the standard order of template invocation will be used.

This function only applies when using PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery to process XSL-T stylesheets. The name becomes part of the compiled stylesheet. Therefore, this function must be called before calling PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery() .

If localName is not a valid local name , the effect is undefined. If the stylesheet has no template named localName , the processor will use the standard order of template invocation.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setMessageHandler(messageHandler)
Parameters:messageHandlerPySide.QtXmlPatterns.QAbstractMessageHandler

Changes the message handler for this PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery to aMessageHandler . The query sends all compile and runtime messages to this message handler. PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery does not take ownership of aMessageHandler .

Normally, the default message handler is sufficient. It writes compile and runtime messages to stderr . The default message handler includes color codes if stderr can render colors.

Note that changing the message handler after the query has been compiled has no effect, i.e. the query uses the same message handler at runtime that it uses at compile time.

When PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery calls QAbstractMessageHandler.message() , the arguments are as follows:

message() argument Semantics
QtMsgType type Only QtWarningMsg and QtFatalMsg are used. The former identifies a compile or runtime warning, while the latter identifies a dynamic or static error.
const PySide.QtCore.QString & description An XHTML document which is the actual message. It is translated into the current language.
const PySide.QtCore.QUrl &identifier Identifies the error with a URI, where the fragment is the error code, and the rest of the URI is the error namespace.
const PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QSourceLocation & sourceLocation Identifies where the error occurred.
PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setNetworkAccessManager(newManager)
Parameters:newManagerPySide.QtNetwork.QNetworkAccessManager

Sets the network manager to newManager . PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery does not take ownership of newManager .

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery(queryURI[, baseURI=QUrl()])
Parameters:

Sets this PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery to the XQuery read from the queryURI . Use PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.isValid() after calling this function. If an error occurred reading queryURI , e.g., the query does not exist, cannot be read, or is invalid, PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.isValid() will return false .

The supported URI schemes are the same as those in the XQuery function fn:doc , except that queryURI can be the object of a variable binding.

baseURI is the Base URI of the static context, as defined in the XQuery language. It is used internally to resolve relative URIs that appear in the query, and for message reporting. If baseURI is empty, queryURI is used. Otherwise, baseURI is used, and it is resolved against the application file path if it is relative.

If queryURI is empty or invalid, or if baseURI is invalid, the behavior of this function is undefined.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery(sourceCode[, documentURI=QUrl()])
Parameters:

This is an overloaded function.

The behavior and requirements of this function are the same as for setQuery( PySide.QtCore.QIODevice *, const PySide.QtCore.QUrl &), after the XQuery has been read from the IO device into a string. Because sourceCode is already a Unicode string, detection of its encoding is unnecessary.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery(sourceCode[, documentURI=QUrl()])
Parameters:

Sets this PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery to an XQuery read from the sourceCode device. The device must have been opened with at least QIODevice.ReadOnly .

documentURI represents the query obtained from the sourceCode device. It is the base URI of the static context, as defined in the XQuery language. It is used internally to resolve relative URIs that appear in the query, and for message reporting. documentURI can be empty. If it is empty, the application file path is used. If it is not empty, it may be either relative or absolute. If it is relative, it is resolved itself against the application file path before it is used. If documentURI is neither a valid URI nor empty, the result is undefined.

If the query contains a static error (e.g. syntax error), an error message is sent to the PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.messageHandler() , and PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.isValid() will return false .

Variables must be bound before PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setQuery() is called.

The encoding of the XQuery in sourceCode is detected internally using the rules for setting and detecting encoding of XQuery files, which are explained in the XQuery language.

If sourceCode is null or not readable, or if documentURI is not a valid URI, behavior is undefined.

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.setUriResolver(resolver)
Parameters:resolverPySide.QtXmlPatterns.QAbstractUriResolver

Sets the URI resolver to resolver . PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery does not take ownership of resolver .

PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QXmlQuery.uriResolver()
Return type:PySide.QtXmlPatterns.QAbstractUriResolver

Returns the query’s URI resolver. If no URI resolver has been set, QtXmlPatterns will use the URIs in queries as they are.

The URI resolver provides a level of abstraction, or polymorphic URIs . A resolver can rewrite logical URIs to physical ones, or it can translate obsolete or invalid URIs to valid ones.

QtXmlPatterns calls the URI resolver for all URIs it encounters, except for namespaces. Specifically, all builtin functions that deal with URIs (fn:doc() , and fn:doc-available() ).

In the case of fn:doc() , the absolute URI is the base URI in the static context (which most likely is the location of the query). Rather than use the URI the user specified, the return value of QAbstractUriResolver.resolve() will be used.

When QtXmlPatterns calls QAbstractUriResolver.resolve() the absolute URI is the URI mandated by the XQuery language, and the relative URI is the URI specified by the user.