7.4

About PlanetPress Design XPath
In supporting XML programming functionality, PlanetPress Design data selection makes use of a proprietary version of XPath.
The proprietary version of XPath is derived from the W3C standard XPath. In the context of PlanetPress Design, XPath selects
data from the XML file that is associated with a PlanetPress Design document and is used in the data emulation.
In XPath, there are various types of nodes: element, attribute, text, namespace, processing-instruction, comment, and doc-
ument (root) nodes. XML documents are treated as trees of nodes. The root of the tree is called the document node (or root
node).
The characteristics of PlanetPress Talk XPath are:
l Uses a 1-based system. This means XPath accesses the first element in the XML structure using the predicate [1]. W3C
XPath also uses base 1.
l Returns a single value only. Each time PlanetPress Talk XPath encounters an element that is not indexed in the XML
structure, an index of [1] is returned instead, thus returning the value of the first element.
l Returns the content of the specified tag—meaning the W3C XPath command /text() is inherent in PlanetPress Design
XPath.
l Does not read values or attributes of the top level node if the Second Element emulation option is enabled in the Data
Selector dialog box.
PlanetPress Design XPath uses the following subset of W3C XPath:
Syntax Description
/agency/crew Navigates the data file content in a standard way
/agency/crew[1]
PlanetPress Design XPath supports simple indexing embedded in square brackets.
Result
Selects the first crew element that is the child of the agency element.
* Matches any element node
/name() Obtains the name of the element’s tag
@ Obtains an attribute
Any remaining XPath expressions and syntax used by W3C XPath are not implemented by PlanetPress Talk XPath.
PDFData Selections
PDF data selections are used when your sample data file uses the PDF Emulation.
The following options appear in a the Data section of any data selection object's properties when using this emulation:
l Left:Enter the position (in inches)of the left boundary of your data selection.
l Top:Enter the position (in inches)of the upper boundary of your data selection.
l Right:Enter the position (in inches)of the right boundary of your data selection.
l Bottom:Enter the position (in inches)of the lower boundary of your data selection.
l Use Data Selector:Click to display the Data Selector to choose which area to use instead of entering the coordinates
manually.
Using the Sample Data Pane to create a data selection
You can create a PDF data selection by opening the Sample Data pane, selecting the data you wish to use with drag and drop,
then drag the selection on the page. The text contents of the selection appears on the page.
Edit Text-Based Data Selection Size
To edit the size of a data selection using the mouse:
PlanetPress Design Objects
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