Not able to select XML root node having an attribute using XmlTask - ant

Question

I want to insert an element in the XML.
This is an XML file - named web.xml
<web-app>
<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file>index.html</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>
</web-app>
This is the ANT task I am using to insert an element in the web-app node.
<taskdef name="xmltask" classname="com.oopsconsultancy.xmltask.ant.XmlTask" classpath="C:/xmltask.jar"/>
<xmltask source="C:\web.xml" dest="C:\web.xml>
<insert path="/web-app">
<![CDATA[
<hello_world id="3">hello world</hello_world>
]]>
</insert>
</xmltask>
Ant task run inserts the hello_world node in the web-app.
The insert (actually root node selection) fails when the root has an attribute.
So the xmltask insert doesn't work when the XML is -
<web-app xmlns="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee">
<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file>index.html</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>
</web-app>
I tried to use insert like this, but no luck -
<insert path="/web-app/[#xmlns='http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee']">
What is the way to select the root node? Why this is not working, an explanation would help.

Answer 1

This is most likely a problem for XmlTask/xpath when the Xml uses a declared namespace (xmlns= is not just an attribute).
See this other answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/35778167/366749
I suggest you try:
<taskdef name="xmltask" classname="com.oopsconsultancy.xmltask.ant.XmlTask" classpath="C:/xmltask.jar"/>
<xmltask source="C:\web.xml" dest="C:\web.xml>
<insert path="*[local-name()='web-app']">
<![CDATA[
<hello_world id="3">hello world</hello_world>
]]>
</insert>
</xmltask>