[Xmlunit-general] XPath and Namespaces in 1.1 beta

[David C. <dc...@st...>]

There has to be a simplier way to get the namespaces to work.    My own 
custom modfications uses the apache XPathAPI interface, that resolves 
space for you.

The JAXP 1.3 NamespaceContext is almost a kludge.  While I know it 
allows for parser independant implementations, it also requires you to 
know the namespaces ahead of time.   I figure XMLUnit should at least if 
you specify that you want to use namespaces, that it automatically pulls 
from the DOM the namespaces that have been defined and the prefixes 
defined in the XML document.   As it is now, unless I'm missing 
something, the XMLAssert static functions still aren't namespace aware, 
because they directly instantiate the newXpathEngine() method, which 
doesn't set a NamespaceContext when it is created.

Also, there should be a way for the engine to be established once, and 
reused, instead of being created each time.  A few of these enhancements 
would go a long way to help improve useability of the framework.

Dave