python alexa result parsing with lxml.etree

Question

I am using alexa api from aws but I find difficult in parse the result to get what I want

alexa api return an object tree <

Answer 1

You run into two challenges:

• XML using namespaces
• two namespaces sharing the same namespace prefix

XML document with reused prefix for 2 different namespaces

You see "aws:" prefix, but it is used for two different namespaces:

xmlns:aws="http://alexa.amazonaws.com/doc/2005-10-05/"
xmlns:aws="http://awis.amazonaws.com/doc/2005-07-11"

Using the same namespace prefix in XML is completely legal. The rule is, the later one is valid.

xmlstr = """


  
    
      ccf3f263-ab76-ab63-db99-244666044e85
    
    
      
        
          google.com/
          
            Google
            Enables users to search the world's information, including webpages, images, and videos. Offers unique features and search technology.
            15-Sep-1997
          
          3453627
        
        
          google.com/
          1
        
      
    
    
      Success
    
  

"""

Next challenge is, how to search for namespaced elements.

I prefer using xpath, and for it, you can use whatever namespace you like in the xpath expression, but you have to tell the xpath call what you meant by those prefixes. This is done by namespaces dictionary:

from lxml import etree
doc = etree.fromstring(xmlstr.strip())

namespaces = {"aws": "http://awis.amazonaws.com/doc/2005-07-11"}
texts = doc.xpath("//aws:LinksInCount/text()", namespaces=namespaces)
print texts[0]