# Hpricot query **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [August 28, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hpricot-query/147122 "2008-08-28T16:46:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mark)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hpricot-query/147122/1 "2008-08-28T16:46:31Z")
Hi all, I have a question about Hpricot: I’m trying to parse an XML document (a google calendar feed), but I have problems when I try to get attributes of a tag with a namespace (ie: a colon). Here’s my code for this: date = entry.at(‘gd:when’).attributes[‘startTime’] Instead of having the expected time returned I just get ‘nil’. Anyone know why this is? Or how to get it to work properly? Many thanks in advance, Mark ---
**Author:** ![mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mark)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hpricot-query/147122/2 "2008-08-28T16:52:59Z")
hpricot isn’t quite friendly with namespaces from what I have tried before (unsure about the current version). Did you tried doing a full xpath query? @ ---
**Author:** ![mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mark)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 5:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hpricot-query/147122/3 "2008-08-28T17:03:32Z")
On Aug 28, 3:47 pm, Anthony P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > have problems when I try to get attributes of a tag with a namespace > > > Mark Hi Anthony, I haven’t I must admit, unfortunately I’m not really familiar with xpath and I don’t know how to find the tag I need with it, if anybody knows how to do that I’d be very grateful for some pointers! Thanks, Mark ---
**Author:** ![mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mark)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 5:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hpricot-query/147122/4 "2008-08-28T17:52:47Z")
Actually google calander has a ruby plugin/api located here [http://googlecalendar.rubyforge.org/plugins/doc/](http://googlecalendar.rubyforge.org/plugins/doc/) If that’s not your flavor you can start with hpricot’s documentation on xpaths here [http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/hpricot/wiki/SupportedXpathExpressions](http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/hpricot/wiki/SupportedXpathExpressions) ---
**Author:** ![mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mark)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hpricot-query/147122/5 "2008-08-28T20:23:24Z")
On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 11:40:33PM +0900, Mark wrote: > I’m trying to parse an XML document (a google calendar feed), but I > have problems when I try to get attributes of a tag with a namespace > (ie: a colon). > > Here’s my code for this: date = > entry.at(‘gd:when’).attributes[‘startTime’] Your query is good. I think it must be something else. require ‘rubygems’ require ‘open-uri’ require ‘hpricot’ url = “[http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid/public/full](http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/removed_email_address@domain.invalid/public/full)” xml = Hpricot.XML(open(url).read) puts xml.at(‘gd:when’).attributes[‘startTime’] \_why ---
**Author:** ![mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mark)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2008, 12:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hpricot-query/147122/6 "2008-08-29T12:32:42Z")
On Aug 28, 7:18 pm, \_why [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > require ‘rubygems’ > require ‘open-uri’ > require ‘hpricot’ > > url = “[http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid/public/full](http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/removed_email_address@domain.invalid/public/full)” > xml = Hpricot.XML(open(url).read) > puts xml.at(‘gd:when’).attributes[‘startTime’] > > \_why Aha, putting the .XML in the Hpricot call seems to have done the trick, thanks! And thanks for creating such a useful tool! ---
**Author:** ![mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mark)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hpricot-query/147122/7 "2009-01-20T20:37:29Z")
\_why wrote: > require ‘rubygems’ > require ‘open-uri’ > require ‘hpricot’ > > url = > “[http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid/public/full](http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/removed_email_address@domain.invalid/public/full)” > xml = Hpricot.XML(open(url).read) > puts xml.at(‘gd:when’).attributes[‘startTime’] > > \_why Old thread brought to life… The .XML() method was the key for me to get namespaces. Although I did notice that it still doesn’t quite work as expected. For example this works: xml.at(‘media:content’) But not this: xml.search(‘media:content/media:category’) What I ended up having to do to get the desire effect was: xml.at(‘media:content’).search(‘media:category’) Is this a bug? ---
**Author:** ![mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@mark](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mark)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 6:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hpricot-query/147122/8 "2008-08-28T18:07:25Z")
On Aug 28, 4:45 pm, Anthony P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > entry.at(‘gd:when’).attributes[‘startTime’] > > > > familiar with xpath and I don’t know how to find the tag I need with > > > > it, if anybody knows how to do that I’d be very grateful for some > > > > pointers! > > > Thanks, > > > Mark Thanks Anthony, unfortunately there are no examples of what I need to do and it appears the colon has another meaning in xpath queries. Thanks for the link to the ruby plugin, I’ll have to look into that further. I’m still very much open to suggestions of how to do it the original way, however.