XPath expression generation
This functionality relies on the XPathView + XSLT plugin, which is bundled and enabled in IntelliJ IDEA by default. If the relevant features are not available, make sure that you did not disable the plugin.
note
The XPathView + XSLT plugin is available by default only in IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate. For IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition, you need to install the XPathView + XSLT plugin as described in Install plugins.
Press CtrlAlt0S to open settings and then select Plugins.
Open the Installed tab, find the XPathView + XSLT plugin, and select the checkbox next to the plugin name.
This action computes a unique XPath expression that matches the currently selected node in the document. The action is available from the main menu (View | Unique Path) and the editor context menu (Show Unique XPath). The action is only enabled when the caret is placed on an element that a useful expression can be generated for.
tip
The generated expression in the popup can be selected and copied into the clipboard for further use.
If a simple XPath expression like /root/something/else
doesn't produce a unique result, the action has two strategies to make it unique:
If the non-unique node is an element, the action looks for attributes with the name
id
,name
, and attributes that are of ID type, as defined by the document's DTD or XML Schema. For example:/root/something[@id="foo"]/else
For nodes other than elements (comments, processing instructions), or if the above rule doesn't produce a unique result, the index of the node inside its parent is appended. For example:
/root/something/else[2]
Thanks for your feedback!