Package net.sf.saxon.xpath

This package provides an API for executing XPath expressions directly from a Java application. The API can be used either in a free-standing Java application (that is, where there is no XSLT stylesheet), or it can be used from within Java extension functions called from XPath expressions within a stylesheet.

The API itself is defined by JAXP 1.3, in interfaces such as javax.xml.xpath.XPath. This package is therefore dependent on JAXP 1.3. J2SE 5.0 (also known as JDK 1.5) includes JAXP 1.3 as a standard component, but JDK 1.4 does not. To run the code in this package under JDK 1.4, you therefore need to install JAXP 1.3 separately. You can get this from https://jaxp.dev.java.net/. At the time of writing it is reached via a link labelled "Unbundled EA Build".

This package (net.sf.saxon.xpath) is distributed in a separate JAR file, saxon8-xpath.jar to avoid making the whole of Saxon dependent on JAXP 1.3.

The interfaces provided by Saxon extend the JAXP 1.3 interfaces in various ways. There are three reasons for this:

An alternative XPath interface, which is not dependent on JAXP 1.3, is available in the package net.sf.saxon.sxpath.

Michael H. Kay
Saxonica Limited
9 February 2005

Skip navigation links