How to use Xpath on mule.payload which contains string arrray - mule

Question

I have mule payload which contains 3 different soap request message.
How can I read the value of one of the xml tag/node present in 2nd soap request using MEL ?
e.g. message payload is as follows
[
<soap:Envelope>
<book>
<name>ABC</name>
<author>ABCD</author>
</book>
<book>
<name>WXY</name>
<author>WXYZ</author>
</book>
<soap:Envelope> ,
<soap:Envelope>
<fruit>
<name>Apple</name>
<color>Red</author>
</fruit>
<fruit>
<name>Orange</name>
<color>Orange</author>
</fruit>
<soap:Envelope> ,
<soap:Envelope>
<soap:Envelope>
]
I want to read the value of "name of all fruits" using xpath and MEL.

Answer 1

If the payload is an array of String containing each element the XML, you can do this:
#[xpath('xpath expression', payload[1])]

Answer 2

perhaps a copy and paste error in your example however
<color>Orange</author>
wont ever work
However assuming you mean the xml is something like:
<soap:Envelope>
<fruit>
<name>Apple</name>
<color>Red</color>
</fruit>
<fruit>
<name>Orange</name>
<color>Orange</color>
</fruit>
</soap:Envelope>
then you can use Mvel [xpath://fruit[1]/name/text()] to get indivdual xpath items
or [xpath://fruit/name/text()] to get all
A good site to test xpath queries are:
http://chris.photobooks.com/xml/default.htm