Tricky XML application?

[steve_marjoribanks]

I am currently doing quite a bit of work on a data exchange format in
XML. As part of this I need to use XLink and XPointer attributes quite
frequently as one of the requirements is for the data in the documents
to be 'linked' to its source. Currently, as far as I'm aware there is
very little (if any) software/browser support for XPointer.

My question is that would it be possible (and if so how difficult) for
me to write a small application which could use the XPointer stuff. ie.
you could load an XML document into it and through some sort of very
simple interface it could say retrieve the source of the required data
when asked to and display it in another frame for example?

What are everyone's views on this? How difficult would it be to write,
and if not too difficult what language would you recommend writing it
in, I'm guessing either Java or VB?
Thanks!!!

 

[Peter Flynn]

I am currently doing quite a bit of work on a data exchange format in
XML. As part of this I need to use XLink and XPointer attributes quite
frequently as one of the requirements is for the data in the documents
to be 'linked' to its source. Currently, as far as I'm aware there is
very little (if any) software/browser support for XPointer.

XPointer is based on the Extended Pointer Notation as defined in the
Guidelines of the Text Encoding Initiative (www.tei-c.org). The only
freely-available implementation I know of is David Megginson's Emacs
psgml-xpointer.el which returns an XPointer for the current node (ie
where the cursor is). See
http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/meggXPointerEmacs.html

My question is that would it be possible (and if so how difficult) for
me to write a small application which could use the XPointer stuff.
ie. you could load an XML document into it and through some sort of
very simple interface it could say retrieve the source of the required
data when asked to and display it in another frame for example?

Would this be similar to what xpathtester already does for XPaths?
See http://www.xslt.com/html/xsl-list/2001-12/msg00055.html

See also the FAQ at http://xml.silmaril.ie/authors/links/ where I give
a trivial example.

What are everyone's views on this? How difficult would it be to write,
and if not too difficult what language would you recommend writing it
in, I'm guessing either Java or VB?

VB would be restricted to Microsoft users only and would be strongly
deprecated. Java would have much wider application.

///Peter

 

[steve_marjoribanks]

Thanks for the response. I couldn't fine the Emacs psgml-xpointer.el on
the site. Also the Fivesight website, or at least the downloads section
doesn't seem to want to load. From the description in the discussion
post you posted though it does sound similar to what I am after but I
am considering writing an XPointer visualiser. Being very new to Java,
does anyone have any idea how easy this would be to implement?
Thanks

 

[Peter Flynn]

Thanks for the response. I couldn't fine the Emacs psgml-xpointer.el
on the site.

I'm sorry, my finger must have slipped.
It's at http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/psgml-xpointer-el-19990304.txt

Also the Fivesight website, or at least the downloads
section doesn't seem to want to load.

I've placed a copy at http://xml.silmaril.ie/xpathtester_1_4_saxon.jar

From the description in the
discussion post you posted though it does sound similar to what I am
after but I am considering writing an XPointer visualiser.

XPathTester is an XPath visualizer.

///Peter

 

[steve_marjoribanks]

Thank you. Is there any documentation for XPathTester?

 

[Peter Flynn]

Thank you. Is there any documentation for XPathTester?

I've never seen any, but all it does is open an XML document and let
you type an XPath statement, and highlight the matching node.

///Peter

 

[Henry S. Thompson]

Mozilla/Firefox already include pretty good XLink and XPointer
support:
http://www.mozilla.org/newlayout/xml/#linking

ht
--
Henry S. Thompson, HCRC Language Technology Group, University of Edinburgh
Half-time member of W3C Team
2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, SCOTLAND -- (44) 131 650-4440
Fax: (44) 131 650-4587, e-mail: (e-mail address removed)
URL: http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/
[mail really from me _always_ has this .sig -- mail without it is forged spam]

 

[steve_marjoribanks]

Ok, thank you

 

[steve_marjoribanks]

Ok, thank you