(1) Create a test directory and put the sparta.jar file from the download into it.

(2) Put the following in a file called foo.xml:

 <foo>
   <bar>This one should not be selected.</bar>
   <bar hello="yes">Hello World!</bar>
   <bar>This one should not be selected.</bar>
 </foo>

(3) Put the following in a file called SpartaExample.java:

 import com.hp.hpl.sparta.*;
 import java.io.*;

 /** Example of using SpartaXml */
 public class SpartaExample
 {
     static public void main(String[] args)
     {
         try{

             //Get command line arguments
             if( args.length != 2 )
                 throw new Error("USAGE: java SpartaExample xmlFile xpath");
             File xmlFile = new File(args[0]);
             String xpath = args[1];

             //Parse file to DOM Document
             Document doc = Parser.parse( xmlFile );

             //Find first Element that matches XPath
             Element match = doc.xpathSelectElement(xpath);

             //Report result, serializing DOM element to XML
             if( match == null )
                 throw new Error("No match for "+xpath+" in "+xmlFile);
             System.out.println( match.toXml() );

         } catch (Exception e){
             System.out.println( e.getMessage() );
         }
     }
 }

(4) Compile using:

 javac -classpath ".;sparta.jar" SpartaExample.java

 

(Replacing semicolon with colon in classpath if running on UNIX.)

(5) Run using:

 javac -classpath ".;sparta.jar" SpartaExample.java

You should get the following output:

 <bar hello="yes">Hello World!</bar>