[Exist-development] XProc XML Calabash extension committed, ready for testing

[James F. <jam...@ex...>]

Hello,

Just wanted to announce that we now have XML Calabash [1] integrated as an
extension with eXist.

This allows us to use more sophisticated XProc processing whilst I build
eXist own XProc implementation (which I have a planned upcoming release).

--------------------
Dependencies
--------------------

    * lib/user/calabash.jar - I have programmed extension so we should just
be able to 'drop in' latest version of XML Calabash

    * lib/user/saxon9pe.jar - needed as saxon is primary dep

-------
Build
-------

    * edit your local.build.properties (or build.properties)

     include.module.xmlcalabash = true

     * rebuild eXist

----------
Enable
----------

    * edit your conf.xml

    <module class="org.exist.xquery.modules.xmlcalabash.XMLCalabashModule"
          uri="http://xmlcalabash.com" />

    * restart eXist

----------
Usage
----------

   * upload an XProc pipeline somewhere into eXist (ex.
/db/xmlcalabash/pipe.xml)

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<p:declare-step version="1.0" xmlns:p="http://www.w3.org/ns/xproc">
<p:input port="source">
  <p:inline><doc>Helloworld</doc></p:inline>
</p:input>
<p:output port="result"/>
<p:identity/>
</p:declare-step>


   * invoke using xmlcalabash:process (in sandbox for example)

let $result :=
xmlcalabash:process("xmldb:exist:///db/xmlcalabash/pipe.xml","-")
return
   $result

----------
Status
----------

Currently there are a few limitations with this extension

* func signature will change soon to accept xml for pipeline, output, as
well as specify input/output/parameter ports and options ... for now its
primitive

* function returns a string (which you can parse back into xml using eXist
function) ... need to stay this way for a little bit during testing, will
add smart serialization in a bit

* p:xquery has no context with eXist ... this is a big limitation, but there
are several ways around this

* use xmldb:exist type URI

* no documentation, will probably add to existing XProc area

I wanted to 'throw over the wall' the draft version of this extension so I
can get feedback now.

thx, J

[1] XML Calabash - http://xmlcalabash.com/