Features Explained

Default queries per importer

Default queries allow each feed source to be pre-configured in the feed settings so they are ready to run with minimal input. For example, if multiple documents share the same structure, then each newly added node can inherit the same settings and will only need the document's url to import new data.

Query debugger

If a query doesn't return any results or if the results you're getting aren't expected, the query debugger can help you diagnose the issue.

Tidy integration

Tidy can cleanup XML and (X)HTML files by detecting and correcting many common coding errors. Currently, the following configuration options are supported: merge-divs, merge-spans, join-styles, drop-empty-paras, wrap, tidy-mark, escape-cdata, and word-2000. To learn more about these configuration options and other potentially available configuration options, see the Tidy Documentation Quick Reference.

Variable substitution

The result of one XPath query can be substituted as an argument in another XPath query. This could be used for dynamic expressions similar to what is offered in XSLT.
(complex queries)

Browser addons

Firefox

• XPather - Feature rich XPath generator, editor, inspector and simple extraction tool
• XPath Checker - An interactive editor for XPath expressions
• FireXPath - Firebug extension that adds a development tool to edit, inspect and generate XPath expressions
• Firefinder for Firebug - Firebug add-on that finds HTML elements matching chosen CSS selector(s) or XPath expression

Chrome

• Firebug Lite - Firebug for Chrome

Javascript Bookmarklets

• Selector Gadget - Point and click CSS selectors

Note: Though these are not part of Feeds XPath Parser's feature set, because none are directly integrated (yet?), browser addons can be very useful for generating and/or debugging queries when building your importers. Compared to other full-featured XML/HTML import programs, this is a separation of concerns for constructing queries and running them. The trade off is that while potentially improving usability (for example #914216: Mapping on import), it can also unnecessarily increase complexity and also miss opportunities to integrate with other open source projects.