Hi Leia
The {$...$} syntax is not part of Xpath, it's specific to Workflow. It's kindof like a mail-merge syntax, that allows you to embed an xpath expression into a string.
A good example is in the email qpac, in the Subject line, you might type: "RE: Your purchase"
Or, if you wanted to embed the purchase order number into the subject line, you could type:
"RE: PO Number: {$/process_data/@po_number$} - your purchase"
Workflow will locate any string between the {$ and $}, and try to evaluate it as an xpath expression.
So your email might go out with a subject of:
"RE: PO Number: 112233 - your purchase"
In your case, the xpath expression is a little more complex, but it's essentially the same thing.
If you used
INSERT into ClaimDetails(formData)
values ('/process_data/frmData');
then the value you inserted into the table would be '/process_data/frmData' - the {$ $} is the hint to workflow that it should evaluate the xpath expression.
Hope this helps...
Howard