Need help selecting values from XML file using SQL xQuery

Question

Help!

I have an XML log file generated by WinSCP, and I'd like to trigger an alert based on it's contents. I have no control on how the XML is formatted.

I'm trying to use xQuery to read the values, but no luck. All I get are column heading with 0 rows. I've also tried OPENXML and VBA ImportXML, but both methods return nulls.

DECLARE @XML XML =
'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<session xmlns="http://winscp.net/schema/session/1.0" name="ftpuser@ftphost.com" start="2017-11-09T18:00:09.051Z">
  <upload>
    <filename value="e:\MyUploadFile.txt" />
    <destination value="/HostFolder/MyUploadFile.txt" />
    <result success="true" />
  </upload>
  <touch>
    <filename value="/HostFolder/MyUploadFile.txt" />
    <modification value="2017-11-09T18:00:08.000Z" />
    <result success="true" />
  </touch>
</session>
'

SELECT
    Sess.Upload.value('../filename[1]','varchar(250)') [Filename]
    ,Sess.Upload.value('../destination[1]','varchar(250)') [Destination]
    ,Sess.Upload.value('../result[1]','varchar(250)')        [Result]

FROM
            @XML.nodes ('/session/upload')  AS Sess(Upload)

Answer 1

Did you manipulate your XML? There is a quote missing after .../session/1.0 and name in the second line.

This XML has a default namespace which you have to declare. I do not know, what you expect as output, but my magic crystal ball tells me, that it might be something like this:

DECLARE @XML XML =
'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<session xmlns="http://winscp.net/schema/session/1.0" name="ftpuser@ftphost.com" start="2017-11-09T18:00:09.051Z">
  <upload>
    <filename value="e:\MyUploadFile.txt" />
    <destination value="/HostFolder/MyUploadFile.txt" />
    <result success="true" />
  </upload>
  <touch>
    <filename value="/HostFolder/MyUploadFile.txt" />
    <modification value="2017-11-09T18:00:08.000Z" />
    <result success="true" />
  </touch>
</session>
';

WITH XMLNAMESPACES(DEFAULT 'http://winscp.net/schema/session/1.0')
SELECT
     Sess.Upload.value('local-name(.)','nvarchar(max)') AS FileAction
    ,Sess.Upload.value('(filename/@value)[1]','varchar(250)') [Filename]
    ,Sess.Upload.value('(destination/@value)[1]','varchar(250)') [Destination]
    ,Sess.Upload.value('(modification/@value)[1]','varchar(250)') [Modification]
    ,Sess.Upload.value('(result/@success)[1]','varchar(250)')        [Result]

FROM @XML.nodes ('/session/*')  AS Sess(Upload);

Answer 2

1. It seems that you have omitted double-quote at the end of the namespace, so your XML is effectively invalid.

2. You have to declare the namespace . Like:

    WITH XMLNAMESPACES (DEFAULT 'http://winscp.net/schema/session/1.0') 

3. ../ is wrong. It should be ./ .