Confusion over etree.ElementTree.Element.getiterator

[Ben Sizer]

It seems that getiterator isn't returning the tags I ask for.
.... print el
[much output snipped]
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a at d871e8>
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a at d87288>
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}script at d87300>
0

I would have expected at least 2 script tags to be found, considering
iterating over the whole lot found at least 2 at the end there.

What am I doing wrong?
2.6.4 (r264:75708, Oct 26 2009, 08:23:19) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)]


I will upgrade to 2.6.5 ASAP, but I don't see anything in the
changelog that implies a bug that has been fixed here.

 

[Ben Sizer]

...        print el
[much output snipped]
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a at d871e8>
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a at d87288>
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}script at d87300>
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}script at d87378>

Hmm, I think I've worked it out. Apparently the XML namespace forms
part of the tag name in this case. Is that what is intended? I didn't
see any examples of this in the docs.

 

[Stefan Behnel]

Ben Sizer, 04.07.2010 00:32:

for el in root.getiterator():

... print el
[much output snipped]
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a at d871e8>
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a at d87288>
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}script at d87300>
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}script at d87378>

Hmm, I think I've worked it out. Apparently the XML namespace forms
part of the tag name in this case. Is that what is intended?
Sure.


I didn't see any examples of this in the docs.

Admittedly, it's three clicks away from the library docs on docs.python.org.

http://effbot.org/zone/element.htm#xml-namespaces

Stefan

 

[Ben Sizer]

BenSizer, 04.07.2010 00:32:

for el in root.getiterator():
...        print el
[much output snipped]
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a at d871e8>
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a at d87288>
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}script at d87300>
<Element {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}script at d87378>

Hmm, I think I've worked it out. Apparently the XML namespace forms
part of the tag name in this case. Is that what is intended?
Sure.

I didn't see any examples of this in the docs.

Admittedly, it's three clicks away from the library docs on docs.python.org.

http://effbot.org/zone/element.htm#xml-namespaces

Hopefully someone will see fit to roll this important documentation
into docs.python.org before the next release... oops, too late.

It's one of those things that's easy to fix when you know what the
problem is. Unfortunately it makes the examples a bit awkward. The
example on http://docs.python.org/library/xml.etree.elementtree.html
opens up an xhtml file and reads a "p" tag within a "body" tag, but
the xhtml specification (http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#strict) states
that 'The root element of the document must contain an xmlns
declaration for the XHTML namespace'. Therefore I don't see how the
example Python code given could work on a proper xhtml file, given
that there should always be a namespace in effect but the code doesn't
allow for it.

That's my excuse anyway!

 

[Terry Reedy]

Hopefully someone will see fit to roll this important documentation
into docs.python.org before the next release... oops, too late.

Not too late for next release. Open a doc issue with as specific a
suggestion as possible.

 

[Aahz]

Not too late for next release. Open a doc issue with as specific a
suggestion as possible.

Actually, it's not too late for this release, either (or at least it
used not to be): the docs on the website can be updated even if the
downloadable package itself can't be.