Predefined Refactoring Operations

The XML Refactoring tool includes a variety of predefined operations that can be used for common refactoring tasks. They are grouped by category in the Refactoring operations wizard page. You can also access the operations from the Refactoring submenu in the contextual menu of Author or Text mode. The operations are also grouped by category in this submenu. When selecting the operations from the contextual menu, Oxygen XML Editor considers the editing context to get the names and namespaces of the current element or attribute, and uses this information to preconfigure some of the parameter values for the selected refactoring operation.
Tip: Each operation includes a link in the lower part of the wizard that opens the XML / XSLT-FO-XQuery / XPath preferences page where you can configure XPath options and declare namespace prefixes.

The following predefined operations are available:

Refactoring Operations for Attributes

Add/Change attribute
Use this operation to change the value of an attribute or insert a new one. This operation allows you to specify the following parameters:
  • Parent element section
    • Element - The parent element of the attribute to be changed, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or an XPath expression.
  • Attribute section
    • Local name - The local name of the affected attribute.
    • Namespace - The namespace of the affected attribute.
    • Value - The value for the affected attribute.
  • Options section
    • You can choose between one of the following options for the Operation mode:
      • Add the attribute in the parent elements where it is missing
      • Change the value in the parent elements where the atrribute already exists
      • Both
Delete attribute
Use this operation to remove one or more attributes. This operation requires you to specify the following parameters:
  • Element - The parent element of the attribute to be deleted, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or an XPath expression.
  • Attribute - The name of the attribute to be deleted.
Rename attribute
Use this operation to rename an attribute. This operation requires you to specify the following parameters:
  • Element - The parent element of the attribute to be renamed, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or an XPath expression.
  • Attribute - The name of the attribute to be renamed.
  • New local name - The new local name of the attribute.
Replace in attribute value
Use this operation to search for a text fragment inside an attribute value and change the fragment to a new value. This operation allows you to specify the following parameters:
  • Target attribute section
    • Element - The parent element of the attribute to be modified, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or an XPath expression.
    • Attribute - The name of the attribute to be modified.
  • Find / Replace section
    • Find - The text fragments to find. You can use Perl-like regular expressions.
    • Replace with - The text fragment to replace the target with. This parameter can bind regular expression capturing groups ($1, $2, etc.) from the find pattern.

Refactoring Operations for Comments

Delete comments
Use this operation to delete comments from one or more elements. This operation requires you specify the following parameter:
  • Element - The target element (or elements) for which comments will be deleted, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or an XPath expression.
Note: Comments that are outside the root element will not be deleted because the serializer preserves the content before and after the root.

Refactoring Operations for Elements

Delete element
Use this operation to delete elements. This operation requires you to specify the following parameter:
  • Element - The target element to be deleted, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or an XPath expression.
Delete element content
Use this operation to delete the content of elements. This operation requires you to specify the following parameter:
  • Element - The target element whose content is to be deleted, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or an XPath expression.
Insert element
Use this operation to insert new elements. This operation allows you to specify the following parameters:
  • Element section
    • Local name - The local name of the element to be inserted.
    • Namespace - The namespace of the element to be inserted.
  • Location section
    • XPath- An XPath expression that identifies an existing element to which the new element is relative, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or other XPath expressions.
    • Position - The position where the new element will be inserted, in relation to the specified existing element. The possible selections in the drop-down menu are: After, Before, First child, or Last child.
Rename element
Use this operation to rename elements. This operation requires you to specify the following parameters:
  • Target elements (XPath) - The target elements to be renamed, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or other XPath expressions.
  • New local name - The new local name of the element.
Unwrap element
Use this operation to remove the surrounding tags of elements, while keeping the content unchanged. This operation requires you to specify the following parameter:
  • Target elements (XPath) - The target elements whose surrounding tags will be removed, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or other XPath expressions.
Wrap element
Use this operation to surround elements with element tags. This operation allows you to specify the following parameters:
  • Target elements (XPath) - The target elements to be surrounded with tags, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or other XPath expressions.
  • Wrapper element section
    • Local name - The local name of the Wrapper element.
    • Namespace - The namespace of the Wrapper element.
Wrap element content
Use this operation to surround the content of elements with element tags. This operation allows you to specify the following parameters:
  • Target elements (XPath) - The target elements whose content will be surrounded with tags, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or other XPath expressions.
  • Wrapper element section
    • Local name - The local name of the Wrapper element that will surround the content of the target.
    • Namespace - The namespace of the Wrapper element that will surround the content of the target.

Refactoring Operations for Fragments

Insert XML fragment
Use this operation to insert an XML fragment. This operation allows you to specify the following:
  • XML Fragment - The XML fragment to be inserted.
  • Location section
    • XPath - An XPath expression that identifies an existing element to which the inserted fragment is relative, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or other XPath expressions.
    • Position - The position where the fragment will be inserted, in relation to the specified existing element. The possible selections in the drop-down menu are: After, Before, First child, or Last child.
Replace element content with XML fragment
Use this operation to replace the content of elements with an XML fragment. This operation allows you to specify the following parameters:
  • Target elements (XPath) - The target elements whose content will be replaced, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or other XPath expressions.
  • XML Fragment - The XML fragment with which to replace the content of the target element.
Replace element with XML fragment
Use this operation to replace elements with an XML fragment. This operation allows you to specify the following parameters:
  • Target elements (XPath) - The target elements to be replaced, in the form of a local name from any namespace, a local name with a namespace prefix, or other XPath expressions.
  • XML Fragment - The XML fragment with which to replace the target element.

Additional Notes

Note: There are some operations that allow <ANY> for the local name and namespace parameters. This value can be used to select an element or attribute regardless of its local name or namespace. Also, the <NO_NAMESPACE> value can be used to select nodes that do not belong to a namespace.
Note: Some operations have parameters that accept XPath expressions to match elements or attributes. In these XPath expressions you can only use the prefixes declared in the Options > Preferences > XML > XSLT-FO-XQUERY > XPath page. This preferences page can be easily opened by clicking the link in the note (Each prefix used in an XPath expression must be declared in the Default prefix-namespace mappings section) at the bottom of the Configure Operation Parameters wizard page.