How can I update a Sitecore XML patch file using SIF?

Question

I want to leverage SIF with the Set-Xml task to update the value in the datafolder.config patch file. But so far it seems I am not succeeding in finding the correct XPath due to the XML NS in the file.

I am using the following XPath expression:

//configuration/sitecore/sc.variable[@name='dataFolder']/patch:attribute[@name='value']

For your reference, this is the datafolder.config file shipped with Sitecore 8.2 U7:

<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <sc.variable name="dataFolder">
      <patch:attribute name="value">/data</patch:attribute>
    </sc.variable>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

Is it possible to set the value using SIF and an XPath expression? And if so, which XPath might do the trick? Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Okay, I got it working. The problem was with the inability of the SetXml SIF task to provide an XML NS.

So I created a custom task based on the SetXml task with an extra parameter to provide the namespace, the SIF configuration (in my case) then becomes as follows:

"SetDataFolder": {
      "Type": "SetXml",
      "Params": {
        "FilePath": "[joinpath(variable('Site.WebsiteFolder'), 'App_Config', 'Include', 'DataFolder.config')]",
        "XPath": "//configuration/sitecore/sc.variable[@name='dataFolder']/patch:attribute[@name='value']",
        "Namespace": [
          {
            "patch": "http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/"
          }
        ],
        "Value": "[parameter('DataFolder')]"        
      }
    }

To accomplish this, just copy the complete SetXml task from the SIF library, make the necessary modifications to support the namespace in the Select-XML method, and include it in your module loading and be sure to register it using an overwrite of the out-of-the-box module using

Register-SitecoreInstallExtension -Command Invoke-SetXmlTaskEx -As SetXml -Type Task -Force

Hopefully this will help anyone else stumbling into the same problem until it hopefully becomes part of the official SIF version.

Answer 2

As Martine Said you either need to create Extension for SetXml to support namespaces, or in simple cases like DataFolder you can use some trick like this:

"CopyDataFolderConfig": {
        "Type": "Copy",
        "Params": {
            "Source": "[joinpath(variable('Site.PhysicalPath'), 'App_Config','Include','Examples','DataFolder.config.example')]",
            "Destination": "[joinpath(variable('Site.PhysicalPath'), 'App_Config','Include', 'DataFolder.config')]"
        }
    },
    "PatchDataFolder": {
        "Description": "Changing Data Folder.",
        "Type": "SetXml",
        "Params": {
            "FilePath": "[joinpath(variable('Site.PhysicalPath'), 'App_Config','Include', 'DataFolder.config')]",
            "XPath": "//configuration/sitecore/sc.variable[@name='dataFolder']/*",
            "Value": "[variable('Site.DataFolder')]"
        }
    }

using '*' as a selector in such cases is not generaly a good idea, but in this case it wont cause any problem.