Binding Path Syntax for XML Models

XML models differentiate between attributes and content. XML has no arrays and defines lists as multiple elements with the same name instead. This makes the binding path syntax for XML models more difficult than for JSON or OData models.

For attributes, a special selector using the "@" character exists and "text()" can be used to reference the content text of an element. Lists are referenced by using the path to the multiple element.

<companies>
  <company name="Treefish Inc">
    <info>
       <employees>3</employees>
    </info>
    <contact phone="873">Barbara</contact>
    <contact phone="734">Gerry</contact>
    <contact phone="275">Susan</contact>
  </company>
</companies>

Absolute binding paths within this model:

/company/@name
/company/info/employees

Relative binding paths within the /company context:

@name
info/employees/text()

Relative binding paths within an aggregation binding of /company/contact:

text()
@phone