[oXygen-user] XPath over sets of files

[Wendell Piez]

Hi George,

At 08:59 AM 10/1/2008, you wrote:
>Executing XPath over a set of files it is already possible using the 
>Saxon 9 collection function. For example
>
>collection('.?select=*.xsd;on-error=ignore')/*
>
>will return the root elements from all the *.xsd files from the 
>directory holding the current file and will ignore errors if some 
>*.xsd file is not wellformed XML.

Yes, I have used this on occasion.

As I have used Schematron for similar purposes (as a querying 
application not a means of validation).

What I'm looking for now is an option that would allow me, with very 
minimal overhead (i.e., no Schematron or XQuery file creation, no 
Scenario setup) run an XPath over an arbitrary set of files defined 
as a folder in a project, in a very ad-hoc way.

Many if not most of my projects already end up with utility XQuery 
and/or Schematron files for this purpose. But something more 
accessible from the menus would also be easier for beginners to find and use.

Even duplicating functionalities found elsewhere, IMHO, anything that 
makes it easier for beginners (including editorial staff who are 
nervous about XQuery but who know more XPath than they pretend) is in 
principle a good thing, especially when it sets up a learning 
feedback loop (with XPath in this case). And I bet people (even we 
experts) would use this feature. :-)

>Adding in oXygen support for some default collections as Florent 
>suggested looks like a nice idea and we recorded it on our issues 
>tracking system.

Once this is in place, I bet implementing a widget such as I've 
described would be a proverbial piece of cake.

Thanks again,
Wendell


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Wendell Piez                            mailto:
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