Javascript get XPath of a node

javascript dom xpath

79,123

Solution 1

There's not a unique XPath to a node, so you'll have to decide what's the most appropriate way of constructing a path. Use IDs where available? Numeral position in the document? Position relative to other elements?

See getPathTo() in this answer for one possible approach.

Solution 2

I refactored this from another example. It will attempt to check or there is for sure a unique id and if so use that case to shorten the expression.

function createXPathFromElement(elm) { 
    var allNodes = document.getElementsByTagName('*'); 
    for (var segs = []; elm && elm.nodeType == 1; elm = elm.parentNode) 
    { 
        if (elm.hasAttribute('id')) { 
                var uniqueIdCount = 0; 
                for (var n=0;n < allNodes.length;n++) { 
                    if (allNodes[n].hasAttribute('id') && allNodes[n].id == elm.id) uniqueIdCount++; 
                    if (uniqueIdCount > 1) break; 
                }; 
                if ( uniqueIdCount == 1) { 
                    segs.unshift('id("' + elm.getAttribute('id') + '")'); 
                    return segs.join('/'); 
                } else { 
                    segs.unshift(elm.localName.toLowerCase() + '[@id="' + elm.getAttribute('id') + '"]'); 
                } 
        } else if (elm.hasAttribute('class')) { 
            segs.unshift(elm.localName.toLowerCase() + '[@class="' + elm.getAttribute('class') + '"]'); 
        } else { 
            for (i = 1, sib = elm.previousSibling; sib; sib = sib.previousSibling) { 
                if (sib.localName == elm.localName)  i++; }; 
                segs.unshift(elm.localName.toLowerCase() + '[' + i + ']'); 
        }; 
    }; 
    return segs.length ? '/' + segs.join('/') : null; 
}; 

function lookupElementByXPath(path) { 
    var evaluator = new XPathEvaluator(); 
    var result = evaluator.evaluate(path, document.documentElement, null,XPathResult.FIRST_ORDERED_NODE_TYPE, null); 
    return  result.singleNodeValue; 
}

Solution 3

Here is a functional programming style ES6 function for the job:

function getXPathForElement(element) {
    const idx = (sib, name) => sib 
        ? idx(sib.previousElementSibling, name||sib.localName) + (sib.localName == name)
        : 1;
    const segs = elm => !elm || elm.nodeType !== 1 
        ? ['']
        : elm.id && document.getElementById(elm.id) === elm
            ? [`id("${elm.id}")`]
            : [...segs(elm.parentNode), `${elm.localName.toLowerCase()}[${idx(elm)}]`];
    return segs(element).join('/');
}

function getElementByXPath(path) { 
    return (new XPathEvaluator()) 
        .evaluate(path, document.documentElement, null, 
                        XPathResult.FIRST_ORDERED_NODE_TYPE, null) 
        .singleNodeValue; 
} 

// Demo:
const li = document.querySelector('li:nth-child(2)');
const path = getXPathForElement(li);
console.log(path);
console.log(li === getElementByXPath(path)); // true

<div>
    <table id="start"></table>
    <div>
        <ul><li>option</ul></ul> 
        <span>title</span>
        <ul>
            <li>abc</li>
            <li>select this</li>
        </ul>
    </div>
</div>

It will use an id selector, unless the element is not the first one with that id. Class selectors are not used, because in interactive web pages classes may change often.

Solution 4

I've adapted the algorithm Chromium uses to calculate the XPath from devtools below.

To use this as-written you'd call Elements.DOMPath.xPath(<some DOM node>, false). The last parameter controls whether you get the shorter "Copy XPath" (if true) or "Copy full XPath".

// Copyright 2018 The Chromium Authors. All rights reserved.
// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
// found in the LICENSE file.

Elements = {};
Elements.DOMPath = {};

/**
 * @param {!Node} node
 * @param {boolean=} optimized
 * @return {string}
 */
Elements.DOMPath.xPath = function (node, optimized) {
    if (node.nodeType === Node.DOCUMENT_NODE) {
        return '/';
    }

    const steps = [];
    let contextNode = node;
    while (contextNode) {
        const step = Elements.DOMPath._xPathValue(contextNode, optimized);
        if (!step) {
            break;
        }  // Error - bail out early.
        steps.push(step);
        if (step.optimized) {
            break;
        }
        contextNode = contextNode.parentNode;
    }

    steps.reverse();
    return (steps.length && steps[0].optimized ? '' : '/') + steps.join('/');
};

/**
 * @param {!Node} node
 * @param {boolean=} optimized
 * @return {?Elements.DOMPath.Step}
 */
Elements.DOMPath._xPathValue = function (node, optimized) {
    let ownValue;
    const ownIndex = Elements.DOMPath._xPathIndex(node);
    if (ownIndex === -1) {
        return null;
    }  // Error.

    switch (node.nodeType) {
        case Node.ELEMENT_NODE:
            if (optimized && node.getAttribute('id')) {
                return new Elements.DOMPath.Step('//*[@id="' + node.getAttribute('id') + '"]', true);
            }
            ownValue = node.localName;
            break;
        case Node.ATTRIBUTE_NODE:
            ownValue = '@' + node.nodeName;
            break;
        case Node.TEXT_NODE:
        case Node.CDATA_SECTION_NODE:
            ownValue = 'text()';
            break;
        case Node.PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE:
            ownValue = 'processing-instruction()';
            break;
        case Node.COMMENT_NODE:
            ownValue = 'comment()';
            break;
        case Node.DOCUMENT_NODE:
            ownValue = '';
            break;
        default:
            ownValue = '';
            break;
    }

    if (ownIndex > 0) {
        ownValue += '[' + ownIndex + ']';
    }

    return new Elements.DOMPath.Step(ownValue, node.nodeType === Node.DOCUMENT_NODE);
};

/**
 * @param {!Node} node
 * @return {number}
 */
Elements.DOMPath._xPathIndex = function (node) {
    // Returns -1 in case of error, 0 if no siblings matching the same expression,
    // <XPath index among the same expression-matching sibling nodes> otherwise.
    function areNodesSimilar(left, right) {
        if (left === right) {
            return true;
        }

        if (left.nodeType === Node.ELEMENT_NODE && right.nodeType === Node.ELEMENT_NODE) {
            return left.localName === right.localName;
        }

        if (left.nodeType === right.nodeType) {
            return true;
        }

        // XPath treats CDATA as text nodes.
        const leftType = left.nodeType === Node.CDATA_SECTION_NODE ? Node.TEXT_NODE : left.nodeType;
        const rightType = right.nodeType === Node.CDATA_SECTION_NODE ? Node.TEXT_NODE : right.nodeType;
        return leftType === rightType;
    }

    const siblings = node.parentNode ? node.parentNode.children : null;
    if (!siblings) {
        return 0;
    }  // Root node - no siblings.
    let hasSameNamedElements;
    for (let i = 0; i < siblings.length; ++i) {
        if (areNodesSimilar(node, siblings[i]) && siblings[i] !== node) {
            hasSameNamedElements = true;
            break;
        }
    }
    if (!hasSameNamedElements) {
        return 0;
    }
    let ownIndex = 1;  // XPath indices start with 1.
    for (let i = 0; i < siblings.length; ++i) {
        if (areNodesSimilar(node, siblings[i])) {
            if (siblings[i] === node) {
                return ownIndex;
            }
            ++ownIndex;
        }
    }
    return -1;  // An error occurred: |node| not found in parent's children.
};

/**
 * @unrestricted
 */
Elements.DOMPath.Step = class {
    /**
     * @param {string} value
     * @param {boolean} optimized
     */
    constructor(value, optimized) {
        this.value = value;
        this.optimized = optimized || false;
    }

    /**
     * @override
     * @return {string}
     */
    toString() {
        return this.value;
    }
};

Solution 5

function getElementXPath (element) {
  if (!element) return null

  if (element.id) {
    return `//*[@id=${element.id}]`
  } else if (element.tagName === 'BODY') {
    return '/html/body'
  } else {
    const sameTagSiblings = Array.from(element.parentNode.childNodes)
      .filter(e => e.nodeName === element.nodeName)
    const idx = sameTagSiblings.indexOf(element)

    return getElementXPath(element.parentNode) +
      '/' +
      element.tagName.toLowerCase() +
      (sameTagSiblings.length > 1 ? `[${idx + 1}]` : '')
  }
}

console.log(getElementXPath(document.querySelector('#a div')))