Brainstorming ways to link academic writing to records in a database

[davideps]

Hi,

I'm brainstorming ways to use Oxygen for social science writing to link assertions to items stored in a relational database. I would want to have quick access to the database records within Oxygen. For example, given the XML below, is there a way to make the "evidence" tag display as a link that when clicked, shows the relevant records (via ID number) of the database? The solution would not necessarily need to work within a web browser.

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<doc>

    <span>This is the first assertion

    <data evidence="3,2,3" problem="10"/>

    </span>

    <span>This is the second assertion

        <data evidence="10"/>

    </span>

</doc>

Thank you,
-david

[Radu]

Hi David,

I don't know how we could help you.
Maybe if you export the data from the database to an XML format you could write an XSLT stylesheet and transform it to HTML and create anchors for every record.
Then you could also output your XML document to HTML and link from it to anchors in the other document.

Regards,
Radu

[davideps]

Thanks Radu. I like the flexibility XML provides in structuring ideas, evidence, argument, etc...but I'm not sure if a manageable workflow is possible. Luckily, I'm not chained to the idea of using XML & Oxygen--I'm just investigating their potential advantages and disadvantages. Thanks again for your input.

-david