diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 7f51d15..fc0553e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ setup(
     # Note that this is a list of additional keywords, separated
     # by commas, to be used to assist searching for the distribution in a
     # larger catalog.
-    keywords='mkdocs, setuptools, development',  # Optional
+    keywords='mkdocs, maven, pom, parser, plugin',  # Optional
 
     # When your source code is in a subdirectory under the project root, e.g.
     # `src/`, it is necessary to specify the `package_dir` argument.
diff --git a/src/mkdocs_pom_parser_plugin/parser.py b/src/mkdocs_pom_parser_plugin/parser.py
index d3ed244..c07ea40 100644
--- a/src/mkdocs_pom_parser_plugin/parser.py
+++ b/src/mkdocs_pom_parser_plugin/parser.py
@@ -1,10 +1,9 @@
-import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
-
 import re
+import sys
+import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
+from pathlib import Path
 
-namespaces = {
-    '': 'http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0',
-}
+namespaces = {'': 'http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0', 'mvn': 'http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0'}
 
 
 class PomParser:
@@ -12,16 +11,23 @@ class PomParser:
     This class is simply a wrapper around ElementTree
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, arg: str):
-        result = re.search("([\n+])", arg)
+    oldPython = True
 
+    def __init__(self, fileOrContent: str, **kwargs):
+        version = sys.version_info
+        if kwargs.get("version_info", None):
+            version = kwargs.get("version_info")
+
+        self.oldPython = version < (3, 8)
+
+        path = Path(fileOrContent)
         # arg is the xml string. (easier testing)
-        if result is not None:
-            self.tree = ET.fromstring(arg)
+        if path.exists() is not True:
+            self.tree = ET.fromstring(fileOrContent)
 
         # arg is file
         else:
-            self.tree = ET.parse(arg)
+            self.tree = ET.parse(fileOrContent)
 
     def getTree(self):
         return self.tree
@@ -50,10 +56,16 @@ class PomParser:
     def getUrl(self):
         return self.findTextByXpath("./url")
 
-    def findByXpath(self, xpath: str):
-        return self.tree.find(xpath, namespaces)
-
     def findTextByXpath(self, xpath: str):
-        element = self.tree.find(xpath, namespaces)
+        element = self.findByXpath(xpath)
         # print(element.text) if element is not None else None
         return element.text if element is not None else None
+
+    def findByXpath(self, xpath: str):
+        # Add support for older Python versions - necessary for Netlify since it does not support >= 3.8 at the time of
+        # writing this.
+        defaultNamespace = "./{" + namespaces.get('') + "}"
+        if self.oldPython and xpath.startswith(defaultNamespace) is False and xpath.startswith("./mvn:") is False:
+            xpath = re.sub(r"^\./(.+)$", r'./mvn:\1', xpath)
+
+        return self.tree.find(xpath, namespaces)
diff --git a/src/mkdocs_pom_parser_plugin/plugin.py b/src/mkdocs_pom_parser_plugin/plugin.py
index 9544ec3..8ea4feb 100644
--- a/src/mkdocs_pom_parser_plugin/plugin.py
+++ b/src/mkdocs_pom_parser_plugin/plugin.py
@@ -43,6 +43,12 @@ class PomParserPlugin(BasePlugin):
     }
 
     def on_config(self, config: Config):
+        oldPython = sys.version_info < (3, 8)
+
+        if oldPython:
+            log.warning("Python versions lower than 3.8 (current: %s) do not support default namespace! ", str(sys.version_info.major) + "." + str(sys.version_info.minor))
+            log.warning("None results while referencing POM_* variables in templates are likely because of that.")
+
         env_vars = {}
         for name, plugin in config.get('plugins').items():
             if name == 'mkdocs-pom-parser-plugin':
@@ -56,21 +62,24 @@ class PomParserPlugin(BasePlugin):
                 path = plugin_config.get('path')
                 if path is not None:
                     log.debug("Configured pom file: %s", path)
-                    path = Path(path).resolve().__str__()
+                    path = Path(path).resolve()
                     log.info("Resolved pom file: %s", path)
 
-                    additional = plugin_config.get('additional', {})
-                    env_vars = copy.copy(self.DEFAULT_ENV_VARS)
+                    if path.exists():
+                        additional = plugin_config.get('additional', {})
+                        env_vars = copy.copy(self.DEFAULT_ENV_VARS)
 
-                    if additional is not None:
-                        log.debug("Additional pom variables detected: %s", additional)
-                        for key, value in additional.items():
-                            env_vars["POM_" + key.upper()] = value
+                        if additional is not None:
+                            log.debug("Additional pom variables detected: %s", additional)
+                            for key, value in additional.items():
+                                env_vars["POM_" + key.upper()] = value
 
-                    parser = PomParser(path)
-                    for key, xpath in env_vars.items():
-                        value = parser.findTextByXpath(xpath)
-                        env_vars[key] = value
+                        parser = PomParser(path.__str__())
+                        for key, xpath in env_vars.items():
+                            value = parser.findTextByXpath(xpath)
+                            env_vars[key] = value
+                    else:
+                        log.warning("File %s does not exist or is not readable/accessible!", path)
 
         config.update({"pom_env_vars": env_vars})
         if env_vars.__sizeof__() > 0:
@@ -89,4 +98,4 @@ class PomParserPlugin(BasePlugin):
         # md_template = Template(markdown)
         env = jinja2.Environment(undefined=jinja2.DebugUndefined)
         md_template = env.from_string(markdown)
-        return md_template.render(copy.copy(config.get("pom_env_vars")))
+        return md_template.render(copy.deepcopy(config.get("pom_env_vars")))
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 42f935c..fb1095e 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ commands =
     # `setup.py check` is not needed. If your project contains a README.rst,
     # use `python setup.py check -m -r -s` instead.
     python setup.py check -m -s
-    flake8 .
+    flake8 --ignore=E501 .
     py.test tests {posargs}
 
 [flake8]

diff --git a/tests/test_parser.py b/tests/test_parser.py
index f298b60..7b07386 100644
--- a/tests/test_parser.py
+++ b/tests/test_parser.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 # the inclusion of the tests module is not meant to offer best practices for
 # testing in general, but rather to support the `find_packages` example in
 # setup.py that excludes installing the "tests" package
-
 import unittest
 
 from mkdocs_pom_parser_plugin.parser import PomParser
@@ -70,6 +69,18 @@ class TestPomParser(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertIsNotNone(element)
         self.assertEqual('scm:git:git://github.com', element)
 
+    def test_findByXpathOlderPythonVersions(self):
+        version = (3, 7, 0, 'final', 0)
+        element = PomParser(self.stringXml, version_info=version).findTextByXpath("./scm/connection")
+        self.assertIsNotNone(element)
+        self.assertEqual('scm:git:git://github.com', element)
+
+    def test_findByXpathOlderPythonVersionsWithExplicitNamespace(self):
+        version = (3, 7, 0, 'final', 0)
+        element = PomParser(self.stringXml, version_info=version).findTextByXpath("./{http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0}scm/connection")
+        self.assertIsNotNone(element)
+        self.assertEqual('scm:git:git://github.com', element)
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()

Add support for older python versions
## Description

Older versions of Python do not support default namespaces for xml parsing - you need to explicitly define the namespace in the xpath or it will simply return `None`. This is problematic for Netlify builds which are currently using Python 3.7 as their "latest" version.


tests/test_parser.py::TestPomParser::test_findByXpathOlderPythonVersions tests/test_parser.py::TestPomParser::test_findByXpathOlderPythonVersionsWithExplicitNamespace
tests/test_parser.py::TestPomParser::test_findByXpath tests/test_parser.py::TestPomParser::test_findByXpathDeep tests/test_parser.py::TestPomParser::test_findTextByXpath tests/test_parser.py::TestPomParser::test_findTextByXpathDeep tests/test_parser.py::TestPomParser::test_getArtifactId tests/test_parser.py::TestPomParser::test_getDescription tests/test_parser.py::TestPomParser::test_getGroupId tests/test_parser.py::TestPomParser::test_getModelVersion tests/test_parser.py::TestPomParser::test_getName tests/test_parser.py::TestPomParser::test_getPackaging tests/test_parser.py::TestPomParser::test_getUrl tests/test_parser.py::TestPomParser::test_getVersion