Axes and Node Tests

The axis of a location step indicates where to look for the objects to select. By specifying the relationship to the current object, the axis defines the direction of the search through the object hierarchy of the content store. For example, the ancestor axis specifies that the search is to be conducted in the hierarchy above the current object.

If you do not specify an axis in a location step, the child axis is implied. For example, the following search path is abbreviated:

/content/package/folder

The unabbreviated syntax is:

/child::content/child::package/child::folder

A node test identifies a set of objects in an axis. The node test filters the objects, based on their class.

For example, in the location step child::folder, child is the axis and folder is the node test that filters out all objects but those of class folder.

You can use the asterisk (*) as a wildcard character in a node test to match all objects in the set. For example, the following search path selects all objects that are children of the package object GO Sales and Retailers:

//package[@name='GO Sales and Retailers']/*