How to get Child elements in Karate framework - karate

Question

I need to extract child elements from response of one api and then pass it dynamically to next api request.
Suppose i have the below xml:
* def foo =
"""
<records>
<record index="1">a</record>
<record index="2">b</record>
<record index="3" foo="bar">c</record>
</records>
"""
I want to extract only this:
<record index="1">a</record>
<record index="2">b</record>
<record index="3" foo="bar">c</record>
I tried below options, but none of then worked:
* def chk = foo//records/*
* def chk = foo//records/child::*
* def chk = foo//records/descendant::*
* print chk
After printing, I get the below, please suggest if i'm missing anything or any other way to do it.Thank you!
13:51:07.046 INFO - [print] {
"records": {
"record": [
{
"_": "a",
"#": {
"index": "1"
}
},
{
"_": "b",
"#": {
"index": "2"
}
},
{
"_": "c",
"#": {
"foo": "bar",
"index": "3"
}
}
]
}
}

Answer 1

EDIT: looks like a simple string replace would do the trick if all you need to do is take a set of elements and stuff them into another XML template:
(I'm leaving the original longer answer at the end of this answer for reference)
* def foo =
"""
<records>
<record index="1">a</record>
<record index="2">b</record>
<record index="3" foo="bar">c</record>
</records>
"""
* replace foo.<records> = ''
* replace foo.</records> = ''
# you can do def bar = read('template.txt') in your case
* text bar =
"""
<after new="namespace">
##foo##
</after>
"""
* replace bar.##foo## = foo
* xml bar = bar
* match bar ==
"""
<after new="namespace">
<record index="1">a</record>
<record index="2">b</record>
<record index="3" foo="bar">c</record>
</after>
"""
Yes, Karate does not support an XML node-list natively, typically you don't need it. And XML has this peculiarity where you always need a "parent" or "wrapping" element.
As you see above, you do have all the information needed. I'm still not clear what kind of XML you need to pass to the next API - but whatever the case, there is a way in Karate. Here are 2 options. First, iterating over the data and manually emitting XML:
* def foo =
"""
<records>
<record index="1">a</record>
<record index="2">b</record>
<record index="3" foo="bar">c</record>
</records>
"""
* json records = foo.records.record
* def temp = <bar></bar>
* def fun =
"""
function(r, i){
karate.set('temp', '/bar/record[' + (i+1) + ']', r._);
karate.set('temp', '/bar/record[' + (i+1) + ']/#index', r['#'].index);
}
"""
* eval karate.forEach(records, fun)
* match temp ==
"""
<bar>
<record index="1">a</record>
<record index="2">b</record>
<record index="3">c</record>
</bar>
"""
Note that karate.forEach is available only in the upcoming 0.8.0 but you can try 0.8.0.RC3
Here's another interesting option, if all you need to do is change the XML parent, a string replace will do the trick:
* replace foo.<records> = '<bar>'
* replace foo.</records> = '</bar>'
* xml bar = foo
* match bar ==
"""
<bar>
<record index="1">a</record>
<record index="2">b</record>
<record index="3" foo="bar">c</record>
</bar>
"""