XPath expression generation
Before you start
Install and enable the XPathView + XSLT plugin on the Settings | Plugins page, tab Marketplace, as described in Installing plugins from JetBrains Marketplace.
This action computes a unique XPath expression that matches the currently selected node in the document. The action is available from the main menu () 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.
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"]/elseFor 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]