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XML actions

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Power Automate provides the capability to use desktop flows to manage XML attributes and elements.

To read an XML file, use the Read XML from file action. Specify the path or browse for the file, and select one of the encoding options.

After selecting a file, use the Execute XPath expression action to run an Xpath query. The following example uses a produced variable from the Read XML from file action to specify the document.

Screenshot of the Execute XPath expression action.

To retrieve an attribute from an XML file, use the Get XML attribute action. In the following example, status is an attribute of client, which is an element of clientlist. The value will be obtained as a text value.

Screenshot of the Get XML attribute action.

Similarly, to retrieve element values, use the Get XML element value action. You can manage elements and attributes using the respective action to get, set or remove XML attributes or elements.

Read XML from file

Read the contents of an XML file into a variable.

Input parameters

Argument Optional Accepts Default Value Description
File path No File The file that contains the XML document to read
Encoding N/A System default, ASCII, Unicode, Unicode big endian, UTF-8 System default The encoding used for the specified file

Variables produced

Argument Type Description
XmlDocument XML node The variable that holds the read XML document

Exceptions

Exception Description
Directory not found Indicates that the directory doesn't exist
File not found Indicates that the file doesn't exist
Failed to read from file Indicates a problem reading from file
File doesn't contain a valid XML document Indicates that the file doesn't contain a valid XML document

Write XML to file

Write the contents of an XML node variable into a file.

Input parameters

Argument Optional Accepts Default Value Description
File path No File The file to write the XML document into
XML to write No Text value The XML node or document to write into the file
Encoding N/A System default, ASCII, Unicode, Unicode big endian, UTF-8 System default The encoding used for the specified file
Format XML N/A Boolean value True Specifies whether to format the XML
Indentation per level Yes Numeric value 2 Specifies by how many spaces to indent each level of the XML

Variables produced

This action doesn't produce any variables.

Exceptions

Exception Description
Invalid directory specified Indicates that the specified directory is invalid
Failed to write XML to file Indicates a problem writing XML to file

Execute XPath expression

Extract values from an XML document based on the provided XPath query.

Input parameters

Argument Optional Accepts Default Value Description
XML document to parse No Text value The XML as text or a previously defined variable that contains the XML document to parse
XPath query No Text value The XPath expression to execute against the XML document
Get first value only N/A Boolean value False Specifies whether to retrieve a single value (the first value only) or all the values that match the provided XPath expression

Variables produced

Argument Type Description
XPathResult XML node The extracted node(s) as an XML node
XPathResults List of XML nodes The extracted node(s) as a list of XML nodes

Exceptions

Exception Description
Invalid XML document provided Indicates that the XML document provided is invalid
Invalid XPath expression provided Indicates that the XPath expression provided is invalid

Get XML element attribute

Get the value of an attribute of an XML element.

Input parameters

Argument Optional Accepts Default Value Description
XML document No XML node The XML document or XML element to retrieve its attribute
XPath query Yes Text value The XPath expression to locate the subelement and retrieve its attribute
Attribute name No Text value The name of the attribute to retrieve its value
Get value as N/A Text value, Numeric value, Datetime value, Boolean value Text value Specifies the data type for the attribute value

Variables produced

Argument Type Description
XmlAttributeValue Boolean value The retrieved value of the XML attribute
XmlAttributeValue Datetime The retrieved value of the XML attribute
XmlAttributeValue Numeric value The retrieved value of the XML attribute
XmlAttributeValue Text value The retrieved value of the XML attribute

Exceptions

Exception Description
Invalid XPath expression provided Indicates that the XPath expression provided is invalid
XPath expression returns no element Indicates that the XPath expression returns no element
Attribute not found in element Indicates that the attribute doesn't exist in the element
Failed to convert attribute value to the requested data type Indicates a problem converting the attribute value to the requested data type

Set XML element attribute

Set the value of an attribute of an XML element.

Input parameters

Argument Optional Accepts Default Value Description
XML document No XML node The XML document or XML element to set its attribute
XPath query Yes Text value The XPath expression to locate the subelement and set its attribute
Attribute name No Text value The name of the attribute to set its value
Attribute value No Text value The new value for the attribute

Variables produced

This action doesn't produce any variables.

Exceptions

Exception Description
Invalid XPath expression provided Indicates that the XPath expression provided is invalid
XPath expression returns no element Indicates that the XPath expression returns no element
Failed to set XML attribute Indicates a problem setting the XML attribute

Remove XML element attribute

Remove an attribute from an XML element.

Input parameters

Argument Optional Accepts Default Value Description
XML document No XML node The XML document or XML element to remove its attribute
XPath query Yes Text value The XPath expression to locate the subelement and remove its attribute
Attribute name No Text value The name of the attribute to remove

Variables produced

This action doesn't produce any variables.

Exceptions

Exception Description
Invalid XPath expression provided Indicates that the XPath expression provided is invalid
XPath expression returns no element Indicates that the XPath expression returns no element
Attribute not found in element Indicates that the attribute doesn't exist in the element
Failed to remove XML attribute Indicates a problem removing the XML attribute

Get XML element value

Get the value of an XML element.

Input parameters

Argument Optional Accepts Default Value Description
XML document No XML node The XML document or XML element to retrieve its value
XPath query Yes Text value The XPath expression to locate the subelement and retrieve its value
Get value as N/A Text value, Numeric value, Datetime value, Boolean value Text value Specifies the data type for the XML element value

Variables produced

Argument Type Description
XmlElementValue Boolean value The XML element value
XmlElementValue Datetime The XML element value
XmlElementValue Numeric value The XML element value
XmlElementValue Text value The XML element value

Exceptions

Exception Description
Invalid XPath expression provided Indicates that the XPath expression provided is invalid
XPath expression returns no element Indicates that the XPath expression returns no element
Failed to convert element value to the requested data type Indicates a problem converting the element value to the requested data type

Set XML element value

Set the value of an XML element.

Input parameters

Argument Optional Accepts Default Value Description
XML document No XML node The XML document or XML element to retrieve it value
XPath query Yes Text value The XPath expression to locate the subelement and retrieve its value
XML element value No Text value The new value for the XML element

Variables produced

This action doesn't produce any variables.

Exceptions

Exception Description
Invalid XPath expression provided Indicates that the XPath expression provided is invalid
XPath expression returns no element Indicates that the XPath expression returns no element
Failed to set element value Indicates a problem setting the element value

Insert XML element

Insert a new XML element into an XML document.

Input parameters

Argument Optional Accepts Default Value Description
XML document No XML node The XML document to insert the new XML element
XPath query No Text value The XPath expression to locate the parent XML element and insert the new element into it
XML element to insert No XML node The new XML element to insert into the XML document

Variables produced

This action doesn't produce any variables.

Exceptions

Exception Description
Invalid XPath expression provided Indicates that the XPath expression provided is invalid
XPath expression returns no element Indicates that the XPath expression returns no element
Failed to insert XML element Indicates a problem inserting the XML element

Remove XML element

Remove one or more XML elements from an XML document.

Input parameters

Argument Optional Accepts Default Value Description
XML document No XML node The XML document that contains the XML element(s) to remove
XPath query No Text value The XPath expression to locate the element(s) to remove

Variables produced

This action doesn't produce any variables.

Exceptions

Exception Description
Invalid XPath expression provided Indicates that the XPath expression provided is invalid
Failed to remove XML element Indicates a problem removing the XML element