Re: [Exist-open] Building REST client

[Wolfgang M. <wol...@gm...>]

Hi,

> I would really like to use eXist's REST API, but I still miss a few
> points. Could anybody help me to make it clear?
> In fact, all I want is a kind of DB browser/manager. It should have an
> interface built with XSLT, and invoke HTTP methods to manage the DB
> through REST.

Recent development snapshots provide a new feature that may simplify
your project: stored XQuery modules. You can store an XQuery script
(and all the resources and modules it imports) into the database as a
binary resource. The REST server will see that it is an executable
resource, process the query and send the results back to the client.
In fact, you can try this by storing all the modules in webapp/admin
into a database collection "/db/admin", then point your web browser to

http://localhost:8080/exist/servlet/db/modules/admin.xql

The whole admin app will now be served out of the database instead of
the file system.

The stored XQuery feature allows you to extend the current
functionality of the REST server with your own custom scripts. This
approach is probably easier than translating requests to PUT or
DELETE.

> So I assume I need a middle-layer to do at least that:
> * pass parameters into XSLT

If you use the transform:transform XQuery extension function, you can
pass parameters to the XSLT via the optional third argument (see
docs). Passing parameters to a stylesheet that is called via a GET
request is not possible.

Wolfgang