Detect Attribute (detectAttribute)

<detectAttribute> Element

The detectAttribute rule is used to find attributes that are specified in xml files.

Table 1. <detectAttribute> Element Attributes
Attribute Name Type Required Description
tags String No

The element name on which the attribute is specified. If providing multiple, use a comma separated list. If not specified, will match any element that meets the other criteria for the rule.
attributeName String/Regex Yes

The attribute name.
attributeValue String/Regex No

The value of the attribute.
namespace Regex No

Only flag results if the URI of the namespace the element belongs to matches this pattern. If the pattern is "*", flag elements in any namespace, including elements with no namespace specified. Defaults to "*". This is for the elements specified by tags attribute.
attributeNamespace Regex No

Only flag results if the URI of the namespace the attribute belongs to matches this pattern. If the pattern is "*", flag attributes in any namespace, including attributes with no namespace specified. Defaults to "*". This is for the attribute specified by attributeName.
documentNamespace Regex No

Only flag results if the document namespace for the file matches this namespace pattern. Results will not be flagged in any file that does not have a document namespace specified. If both documentNamespace and validateDocumentNamespace are specified, documentNamespace is used.
validateDocumentNamespace Regex No

Flag results if the document namespace for the file does not match this namespace pattern, and in any file that does not have a document namespace specified. Use this attribute to flag XML files that don't conform to a specific document namespace. If both documentNamespace and validateDocumentNamespace are specified, documentNamespace is used.
xmlFileType Enumeration No

Type of XML file. The supported values are:

  • all - This option will flag all types of XML files.
  • spring - This option will only flag Spring bean XML files.
flagIfAttributeMissing Boolean No

If set to true, flag elements matching tags only if they do not have an attribute matching attributeName. Defaults to false.
flagOnce Boolean No

Indicates whether to flag once per archive. Defaults to false.
flagOncePerFile Boolean No

Indicates whether to flag once per file. Defaults to false.
hideResult Boolean No

Indicates whether results flagged by this rule should be hidden in the report. This attribute only hides results when used with rules under the <and> or <or> tags. Defaults to false.

Child Elements (One or more)

<xmlFile> Element - required, can be multiple

Table 2. <xmlFile> Element Attributes
Attribute Name Type Required Description
pattern Regex Yes

File name with or without path.

For example, to detect a localTransaction attribute on a boundary element with a value of ActivitySession in a META-INF/ibm-ejb-jar-ext.xml, specify:


<detectAttribute tags="localTransaction" attributeName="boundary" attributeValue="ActivitySession">
    <xmlFile pattern="META-INF/ibm-ejb-jar-ext.xml"/>
</detectAttribute>