Powershell XML parse not working on subnodes

Question

I am tring to parse the following file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> 
<printDrivers>
    <printDriver id="XE8550">
    <inf>x28550p.inf</inf>
    <driverPath>\drivers\XEROX\8550\8550_Driver</driverPath>
    <printerPaths>
            <printerPath>\\print-man\man-25</printerPath>
        </printerPaths>
    </printDriver>
    <printDriver id="HP4050TN">
        <inf>hpbf002i.inf</inf>
        <driverPath>\drivers\HP\LaserJet\LaserJet_4050_PCL6</driverPath>
        <printerPaths>
            <printerPath>\\print-man\man-8</printerPath>
            <printerPath>\\print-man\man-14</printerPath>
        </printerPaths>
    </printDriver>
  </printDrivers>

with the following powershell script:

$nodelist = $xd.selectnodes("/printDrivers/printDriver") # XPath is case sensitive
foreach ($printerDriverNode in $nodelist) {
    $XMLid = $printerDriverNode.getAttribute("id")
    $XMLinf = $printerDriverNode.selectSingleNode("inf").get_innerXml()
    $XMLdriverPath = $printerDriverNode.selectSingleNode("driverPath").get_innerXml()
    $printerPathNodeList = $printerDriverNode.selectNodes("printerPaths/printerPath")
        foreach ($printerPathNode in $printerPathNodeList) {
            $XMLprinterPath = $printerPathNode.selectSingleNode("printerPath").get_innerXml()
        }
}

It all works fine, except for the "nested" node. When I run the script it only gets the first . i.e. it won't get \print-man\man-14, only \print-man\man-8.

How can I get it to bring back all of the nodes?

Thanks,

Ben

Answer 1

That's expected, you're assigning the same variable ($XMLprinterPath) multiple times, so the second value overrides the first. Did you meant to use that as an array or list?

Answer 2

 foreach ($printerPathNode in $printerPathNodeList) {
        $XMLprinterPath = $printerPathNode.selectSingleNode("printerPath").get_innerXml()
 }

You're already iterating over the printerPaths/printerPath nodes here - no need to do another .selectsinglenode on that <printerPath> node - just read the .InnerXml or .InnerText from that $printerPathNode - that should give you the values you're looking for

Answer 3

You already have the node, so just use it :)

$nodelist = $xd.selectnodes("/printDrivers/printDriver") # XPath is case sensitive
foreach ($printerDriverNode in $nodelist) {
    $printerPathNodeList = $printerDriverNode.selectNodes("printerPaths/printerPath")
        foreach ($printerPathNode in $printerPathNodeList) {
            write-host $printerPathNode.get_innerXml()
        }
}

Note, that it is possible to access xml like objects.

$xd.printDrivers.printdriver | % { $_.id; $_.printerPaths.printerPath }

Answer 4

If you have PowerShell V2.0 available, you can use Select-Xml which generates objects for you on-the-fly:

Select-Xml -Path "test.xml" -Xpath "/printDrivers/printDriver" | ForEach-Object {
    $id = $_.Node.id
    $inf = $_.Node.inf
    $driverPath = $_.Node.driverPath

    $_.Node | Select-Xml -Xpath "printerPaths/printerPath" | ForEach-Object {
        $printerPath = $_.Node.InnerText
    }
}

Answer 5

I am guessing you are trying to flatten the XML into objects

$r = $xml.printDrivers.printDriver | %{
        New-Object PSObject -Property @{
            id           = $_.id
            inf          = $_.inf
            driverPath   = $_.driverPath
            printerPaths = @(&{$_.printerPaths | % {$_.printerPath} })
        }
    }

$r[1].printerPaths