Re: Re[4]: [Exist-open] problem with exist and tv anytime file

[Michael B. <mbe...@mb...>]

Ok, I'm sure you'll crack it. And you won't have to change any of your
documents, you just have to make a small preliminary addition to your
queries.

I deliberately didn't show you an example that would get a quick result
(though maybe other list members will do so) because there's a Big Problem
with namespaces for people who want to grasp XML.

Show a working example without a lot of additional explanation, and it's
bound to be seriously misleading, because under the wraps, namespaces just
don't work like they seem to on the surface.

But anyone who takes the  other approach of explaining first issues like:
The distinction between being in no namespace and in the default namespace
The namespace scoping of attributes  (which is entangled with the previous
point)
The arbitrary character of the prefix and the processor's sole reliance on
the id to which the prefix is bound
etc etc
and the understandable response is "stop yacking on about theory and show me
how to do it".

But one small pointer to focus your home-study reading...

Where a document has placed the element you want to query in a default
namespace, you need in your query to bind the *identifier* uri for that
namespace to a prefix of your choice (any legal string will do) and use that
prefix in your query. Or, there's XQuery syntax for declaring a default
namespace in an XQuery, but the declaration has to be there up front, and it
must bind to the same identifier as the targetted default namespace in the
document does. Where the document has placed the element you are targetting
in a prefixed namespace, you equally need to bind a prefix (yes "a" prefix,
any one you want that's legal, it doesn't need to be the same one used in
the document) to the identifier to which the prefix in the document is
bound. Look at the "mods" database in the eXist example materials to see
queries that  do this.

Michael Beddow