Finding processing instructions in project content

If you are an administrator or have permissions, you can find project text only when it's inside a tag that provides information to the processing application. Creating a report allows you to know where the keywords exist without opening or changing each component. You can also update a component without opening it by using the Replace All option.

This option searches for a term only when it appears inside a special type of markup that provides instructions to the processing application about how the content should be handled.

  • You can see processing instructions in Oxygen when you Edit content as XML in the editor.
  • The term must be enclosed in the less than + question mark and greater than + question mark tags.
    • <? ?>
  • An XML processing instruction is a name-value element.
    • For example: 
      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    • The name indicates which application the processing instruction targets. In the example, the names are version and encoding. The name, also called a target, follows the same construction rules as element and attribute names.
    • The value, also called the content or character data, is surrounded with double quotes. In the example the values are "1.0". and "UTF-8"
  • You can search in the name or the value.

For example, if you want to search for places where the XML encoding is set to "UTF-8" :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  • In Find you would enter: UTF-8
  • In Scope you would select: Processing Instructions
  • To find the value of the element, you would select Search Processing Instruction Content.

If you want to search for places where the XML encoding name is set:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  • In Find you would enter: encoding
  • In Scope you would select: Processing Instructions
  • To find the name of the element, you would select Search Processing Instruction Name.

If you want to search for a number in both the name and value:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  • In Find you would enter: 8
  • In Scope you would select: Processing Instructions
  • To find the name of the element, you would select Search Processing Instruction Name.
  • To find the value of the element, you would also select Search Processing Instruction Content.

You can also search in XML values, XML code, comments, or every part of a topic. In each of these cases the steps vary slightly.

For a description of these searches, read Set the scope for find and replace.

Before you begin

Permissions can't be blocked. A content owner or administrator can set permissions to deny access to components or folders. If your permissions to content has been blocked and you are not an administrator, you cannot use the Find and Replace option in the Selected Components pane.

Use supported components

  • If you choose a component that's locked ( by you, by another user, by the system) Inspire skips it and adds a warning to your notification.
  • If you choose a binary component, Inspire skips it and adds a warning to your notification.

Searches are not case sensitive by default

  • You can select the Case Sensitive option.
  • This option limits your results to the word or phrase exactly as it appears in both your criteria and the component.

Searching for text and creating a report does not update or change any of the components you're searching in.