[556] | 1 | /****************************************************************************
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| 2 | **
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[846] | 3 | ** Copyright (C) 2011 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
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[556] | 4 | ** All rights reserved.
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| 5 | ** Contact: Nokia Corporation (qt-info@nokia.com)
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| 6 | **
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| 7 | ** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit.
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| 8 | **
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[846] | 9 | ** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:FDL$
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[556] | 10 | ** Commercial Usage
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| 11 | ** Licensees holding valid Qt Commercial licenses may use this file in
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| 12 | ** accordance with the Qt Commercial License Agreement provided with the
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[846] | 13 | ** Software or, alternatively, in accordance with the terms contained in a
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| 14 | ** written agreement between you and Nokia.
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[556] | 15 | **
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[846] | 16 | ** GNU Free Documentation License
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| 17 | ** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Free
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| 18 | ** Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software
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| 19 | ** Foundation and appearing in the file included in the packaging of this
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| 20 | ** file.
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[556] | 21 | **
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| 22 | ** If you have questions regarding the use of this file, please contact
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| 23 | ** Nokia at qt-info@nokia.com.
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| 24 | ** $QT_END_LICENSE$
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| 25 | **
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| 26 | ****************************************************************************/
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| 27 |
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| 28 | /*!
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| 29 | \page xmlprocessing.html
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[846] | 30 | \title XQuery
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[556] | 31 |
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| 32 | \previouspage Working with the DOM Tree
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| 33 | \contentspage XML Processing
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| 34 |
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| 35 | \keyword Patternist
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| 36 |
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| 37 | \brief An overview of Qt's support for using XML technologies in
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| 38 | Qt programs.
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| 39 |
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| 40 | \tableofcontents
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| 41 |
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| 42 | \section1 Introduction
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| 43 |
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| 44 | XQuery is a language for traversing XML documents to select and
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| 45 | aggregate items of interest and to transform them for output as
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| 46 | XML or some other format. XPath is the \e{element selection} part
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| 47 | of XQuery.
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| 48 |
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| 49 | The QtXmlPatterns module supports using
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| 50 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery} {XQuery 1.0} and
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| 51 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath20} {XPath 2.0} in Qt applications,
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| 52 | for querying XML data \e{and} for querying
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| 53 | \l{QAbstractXmlNodeModel} {non-XML data that can be modeled to
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[846] | 54 | look like XML}.
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[556] | 55 | Readers who are not familiar with the XQuery/XPath language can read
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| 56 | \l {A Short Path to XQuery} for a brief introduction.
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| 57 |
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| 58 | \section1 Advantages of using QtXmlPatterns and XQuery
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| 59 |
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| 60 | The XQuery/XPath language simplifies data searching and
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| 61 | transformation tasks by eliminating the need for doing a lot of
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| 62 | C++ or Java procedural programming for each new query task. Here
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| 63 | is an XQuery that constructs a bibliography of the contents of a
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| 64 | library:
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| 65 |
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| 66 | \target qtxmlpatterns_example_query
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| 67 | \quotefile snippets/patternist/introductionExample.xq
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| 68 |
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| 69 | First, the query opens a \c{<bibliography>} element in the
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| 70 | output. The
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[846] | 71 | \l{xquery-introduction.html#using-path-expressions-to-match-and-select-items}
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[556] | 72 | {embedded path expression} then loads the XML document describing
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| 73 | the contents of the library (\c{library.xml}) and begins the
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| 74 | search. For each \c{<book>} element it finds, where the publisher
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| 75 | was Addison-Wesley and the publication year was after 1991, it
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| 76 | creates a new \c{<book>} element in the output as a child of the
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| 77 | open \c{<bibliography>} element. Each new \c{<book>} element gets
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| 78 | the book's title as its contents and the book's publication year
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| 79 | as an attribute. Finally, the \c{<bibliography>} element is
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| 80 | closed.
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| 81 |
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| 82 | The advantages of using QtXmlPatterns and XQuery in your Qt
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| 83 | programs are summarized as follows:
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| 84 |
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| 85 | \list
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| 86 |
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| 87 | \o \bold{Ease of development}: All the C++ programming required to
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| 88 | perform data query tasks can be replaced by a simple XQuery
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| 89 | like the example above.
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| 90 |
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| 91 | \o \bold{Comprehensive functionality}: The
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| 92 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/#id-expressions} {expression
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| 93 | syntax} and rich set of
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| 94 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath-functions} {functions and
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| 95 | operators} provided by XQuery are sufficient for performing any
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| 96 | data searching, selecting, and sorting tasks.
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| 97 |
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| 98 | \o \bold{Conformance to standards}: Conformance to all applicable
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| 99 | XML and XQuery standards ensures that QtXmlPatterns can always
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| 100 | process XML documents generated by other conformant
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| 101 | applications, and that XML documents created with QtXmlPatterns
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| 102 | can be processed by other conformant applications.
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| 103 |
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| 104 | \o \bold{Maximal flexibility} The QtXmlPatterns module can be used
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| 105 | to query XML data \e{and} non-XML data that can be
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| 106 | \l{QAbstractXmlNodeModel} {modeled to look like XML}.
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| 107 |
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| 108 | \endlist
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| 109 |
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| 110 | \section1 Using the QtXmlPatterns module
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| 111 |
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| 112 | There are two ways QtXmlPatterns can be used to evaluate queries.
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| 113 | You can run the query engine in your Qt application using the
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| 114 | QtXmlPatterns C++ API, or you can run the query engine from the
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| 115 | command line using Qt's \c{xmlpatterns} command line utility.
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| 116 |
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| 117 | \section2 Running the query engine from your Qt application
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| 118 |
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| 119 | If we save the example XQuery shown above in a text file (e.g.
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| 120 | \c{myquery.xq}), we can run it from a Qt application using a
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| 121 | standard QtXmlPatterns code sequence:
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| 122 |
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| 123 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/src_xmlpatterns_api_qxmlquery.cpp 3
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| 124 |
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| 125 | First construct a QFile for the text file containing the XQuery
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| 126 | (\c{myquery.xq}). Then create an instance of QXmlQuery and call
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| 127 | its \l{QXmlQuery::}{setQuery()} function to load and parse the
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| 128 | XQuery file. Then create an \l{QXmlSerializer} {XML serializer} to
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| 129 | output the query's result set as unformatted XML. Finally, call
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| 130 | the \l{QXmlQuery::}{evaluateTo()} function to evaluate the query
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| 131 | and serialize the results as XML.
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| 132 |
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| 133 | \note If you compile Qt yourself, the QtXmlPatterns module will
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| 134 | \e{not} be built if exceptions are disabled, or if you compile Qt
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| 135 | with a compiler that doesn't support member templates, e.g., MSVC
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| 136 | 6.
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| 137 |
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| 138 | See the QXmlQuery documentation for more information about the
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| 139 | QtXmlPatterns C++ API.
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| 140 |
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| 141 | \section2 Running the query engine from the command line utility
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| 142 |
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| 143 | \e xmlpatterns is a command line utility for running XQueries. It
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| 144 | expects the name of a file containing the XQuery text.
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| 145 |
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| 146 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qtxmlpatterns.qdoc 2
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| 147 |
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| 148 | The XQuery in \c{myQuery.xq} will be evaluated and its output
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| 149 | written to \c stdout. Pass the \c -help switch to get the list of
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| 150 | input flags and their meanings.
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| 151 |
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| 152 | xmlpatterns can be used in scripting. However, the descriptions
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| 153 | and messages it outputs were not meant to be parsed and may be
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| 154 | changed in future releases of Qt.
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| 155 |
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| 156 | \target QtXDM
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| 157 | \section1 The XQuery Data Model
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| 158 |
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| 159 | XQuery represents data items as \e{atomic values} or \e{nodes}. An
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| 160 | atomic value is a value in the domain of one of the
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| 161 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/#built-in-datatypes} {built-in
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| 162 | datatypes} defined in \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2} {Part
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| 163 | 2} of the W3C XML Schema. A node is normally an XML element or
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| 164 | attribute, but when non-XML data is \l{QAbstractXmlNodeModel}
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| 165 | {modeled to look like XML}, a node can also represent a non-XML
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| 166 | data items.
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| 167 |
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| 168 | When you run an XQuery using the C++ API in a Qt application, you
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| 169 | will often want to bind program variables to $variables in the
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| 170 | XQuery. After the query is evaluated, you will want to interpret
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| 171 | the sequence of data items in the result set.
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| 172 |
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| 173 | \section2 Binding program variables to XQuery variables
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| 174 |
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| 175 | When you want to run a parameterized XQuery from your Qt
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| 176 | application, you will need to \l{QXmlQuery::bindVariable()} {bind
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| 177 | variables} in your program to $name variables in your XQuery.
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| 178 |
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| 179 | Suppose you want to parameterize the bibliography XQuery in the
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| 180 | example above. You could define variables for the catalog that
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| 181 | contains the library (\c{$file}), the publisher name
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| 182 | (\c{$publisher}), and the year of publication (\c{$year}):
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| 183 |
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| 184 | \target qtxmlpatterns_example_query2
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| 185 | \quotefile snippets/patternist/introExample2.xq
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| 186 |
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| 187 | Modify the QtXmlPatterns code to use one of the \l{QXmlQuery::}
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| 188 | {bindVariable()} functions to bind a program variable to each
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| 189 | XQuery $variable:
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| 190 |
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| 191 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/src_xmlpatterns_api_qxmlquery.cpp 4
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| 192 |
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| 193 | Each program variable is passed to QtXmlPatterns as a QVariant of
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| 194 | the type of the C++ variable or constant from which it is
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| 195 | constructed. Note that QtXmlPatterns assumes that the type of the
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| 196 | QVariant in the bindVariable() call is the correct type, so the
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| 197 | $variable it is bound to must be used in the XQuery accordingly.
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| 198 | The following table shows how QVariant types are mapped to XQuery
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| 199 | $variable types:
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| 200 |
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| 201 | \table
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| 202 |
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| 203 | \header
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| 204 | \o QVariant type
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| 205 | \o XQuery $variable type
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| 206 |
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| 207 | \row
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| 208 | \o QVariant::LongLong
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| 209 | \o \c xs:integer
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| 210 |
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| 211 | \row
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| 212 | \o QVariant::Int
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| 213 | \o \c xs:integer
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| 214 |
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| 215 | \row
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| 216 | \o QVariant::UInt
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| 217 | \o \c xs:nonNegativeInteger
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| 218 |
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| 219 | \row
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| 220 | \o QVariant::ULongLong
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| 221 | \o \c xs:unsignedLong
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| 222 |
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| 223 | \row
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| 224 | \o QVariant::String
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| 225 | \o \c xs:string
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| 226 |
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| 227 | \row
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| 228 | \o QVariant::Double
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| 229 | \o \c xs:double
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| 230 |
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| 231 | \row
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| 232 | \o QVariant::Bool
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| 233 | \o \c xs:boolean
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| 234 |
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| 235 | \row
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| 236 | \o QVariant::Double
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| 237 | \o \c xs:decimal
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| 238 |
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| 239 | \row
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| 240 | \o QVariant::ByteArray
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| 241 | \o \c xs:base64Binary
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| 242 |
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| 243 | \row
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| 244 | \o QVariant::StringList
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| 245 | \o \c xs:string*
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| 246 |
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| 247 | \row
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| 248 | \o QVariant::Url
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| 249 | \o \c xs:string
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| 250 |
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| 251 | \row
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| 252 | \o QVariant::Date
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| 253 | \o \c xs:date.
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| 254 |
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| 255 | \row
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| 256 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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| 257 | \o \c xs:dateTime
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| 258 |
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| 259 | \row
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| 260 | \o QVariant::Time.
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| 261 | \o \c xs:time. (see \l{Binding To Time}{Binding To
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| 262 | QVariant::Time} below)
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| 263 |
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| 264 | \row
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| 265 | \o QVariantList
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| 266 | \o (see \l{Binding To QVariantList}{Binding To QVariantList}
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| 267 | below)
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| 268 |
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| 269 | \endtable
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| 270 |
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| 271 | A type not shown in the table is not supported and will cause
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| 272 | undefined XQuery behavior or a $variable binding error, depending
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| 273 | on the context in the XQuery where the variable is used.
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| 274 |
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| 275 | \target Binding To Time
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| 276 | \section3 Binding To QVariant::Time
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| 277 |
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| 278 | Because the instance of QTime used in QVariant::Time does not
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| 279 | include a zone offset, an instance of QVariant::Time should not be
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| 280 | bound to an XQuery variable of type \c xs:time, unless the QTime is
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| 281 | UTC. When binding a non-UTC QTime to an XQuery variable, it should
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| 282 | first be passed as a string, or converted to a QDateTime with an arbitrary
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| 283 | date, and then bound to an XQuery variable of type \c xs:dateTime.
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| 284 |
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| 285 | \target Binding To QVariantList
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| 286 | \section3 Binding To QVariantList
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| 287 |
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| 288 | A QVariantList can be bound to an XQuery $variable. All the
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| 289 | \l{QVariant}s in the list must be of the same atomic type, and the
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| 290 | $variable the variant list is bound to must be of that same atomic
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| 291 | type. If the QVariants in the list are not all of the same atomic
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| 292 | type, the XQuery behavior is undefined.
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| 293 |
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| 294 | \section2 Interpreting XQuery results
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| 295 |
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| 296 | When the results of an XQuery are returned in a sequence of \l
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| 297 | {QXmlResultItems} {result items}, atomic values in the sequence
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| 298 | are treated as instances of QVariant. Suppose that instead of
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| 299 | serializing the results of the XQuery as XML, we process the
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| 300 | results programatically. Modify the standard QtXmlPatterns code
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| 301 | sequence to call the overload of QXmlQuery::evaluateTo() that
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| 302 | populates a sequence of \l {QXmlResultItems} {result items} with
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| 303 | the XQuery results:
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| 304 |
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| 305 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/src_xmlpatterns_api_qxmlquery.cpp 5
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| 306 |
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| 307 | Iterate through the \l {QXmlResultItems} {result items} and test
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| 308 | each QXmlItem to see if it is an atomic value or a node. If it is
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| 309 | an atomic value, convert it to a QVariant with \l {QXmlItem::}
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| 310 | {toAtomicValue()} and switch on its \l {QVariant::type()} {variant
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| 311 | type} to handle all the atomic values your XQuery might return.
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| 312 | The following table shows the QVariant type to expect for each
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| 313 | atomic value type (or QXmlName):
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| 314 |
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| 315 | \table
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| 316 |
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| 317 | \header
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| 318 | \o XQuery result item type
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| 319 | \o QVariant type returned
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| 320 |
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| 321 | \row
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| 322 | \o \c xs:QName
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| 323 | \o QXmlName (see \l{Handling QXmlNames}{Handling QXmlNames}
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| 324 | below)
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| 325 |
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| 326 | \row
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| 327 | \o \c xs:integer
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| 328 | \o QVariant::LongLong
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| 329 |
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| 330 | \row
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| 331 | \o \c xs:string
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| 332 | \o QVariant::String
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| 333 |
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| 334 | \row
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| 335 | \o \c xs:string*
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| 336 | \o QVariant::StringList
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| 337 |
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| 338 | \row
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| 339 | \o \c xs:double
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| 340 | \o QVariant::Double
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| 341 |
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| 342 | \row
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| 343 | \o \c xs:float
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| 344 | \o QVariant::Double
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| 345 |
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| 346 | \row
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| 347 | \o \c xs:boolean
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| 348 | \o QVariant::Bool
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| 349 |
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| 350 | \row
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| 351 | \o \c xs:decimal
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| 352 | \o QVariant::Double
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| 353 |
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| 354 | \row
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| 355 | \o \c xs:hexBinary
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| 356 | \o QVariant::ByteArray
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| 357 |
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| 358 | \row
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| 359 | \o \c xs:base64Binary
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| 360 | \o QVariant::ByteArray
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| 361 |
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| 362 | \row
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| 363 | \o \c xs:gYear
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| 364 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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| 365 |
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| 366 | \row
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| 367 | \o \c xs:gYearMonth
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| 368 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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| 369 |
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| 370 | \row
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| 371 | \o \c xs:gMonthDay
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| 372 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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| 373 |
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| 374 | \row
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| 375 | \o \c xs:gDay
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| 376 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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| 377 |
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| 378 | \row
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| 379 | \o \c xs:gMonth
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| 380 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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| 381 |
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| 382 | \row
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| 383 | \o \c xs:anyURI
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| 384 | \o QVariant::Url
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| 385 |
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| 386 | \row
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| 387 | \o \c xs:untypedAtomic
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| 388 | \o QVariant::String
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| 389 |
|
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| 390 | \row
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| 391 | \o \c xs:ENTITY
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| 392 | \o QVariant::String
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| 393 |
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| 394 | \row
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| 395 | \o \c xs:date
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| 396 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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| 397 |
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| 398 | \row
|
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| 399 | \o \c xs:dateTime
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| 400 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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| 401 |
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| 402 | \row
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| 403 | \o \c xs:time
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| 404 | \o (see \l{xstime-not-mapped}{No mapping for xs:time} below)
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| 405 |
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| 406 | \endtable
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| 407 |
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| 408 | \target Handling QXmlNames
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| 409 | \section3 Handling QXmlNames
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| 410 |
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| 411 | If your XQuery can return atomic value items of type \c{xs:QName},
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| 412 | they will appear in your QXmlResultItems as instances of QXmlName.
|
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| 413 | Since the QVariant class does not support the QXmlName class
|
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| 414 | directly, extracting them from QXmlResultItems requires a bit of
|
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| 415 | slight-of-hand using the \l{QMetaType} {Qt metatype system}. We
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| 416 | must modify our example to use a couple of template functions, a
|
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| 417 | friend of QMetaType (qMetaTypeId<T>()) and a friend of QVariant
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| 418 | (qVariantValue<T>()):
|
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| 419 |
|
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| 420 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/src_xmlpatterns_api_qxmlquery.cpp 6
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| 421 |
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| 422 | To access the strings in a QXmlName returned by an
|
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| 423 | \l{QXmlQuery::evaluateTo()} {XQuery evaluation}, the QXmlName must
|
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| 424 | be accessed with the \l{QXmlNamePool} {name pool} from the
|
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| 425 | instance of QXmlQuery that was used for the evaluation.
|
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| 426 |
|
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| 427 | \target xstime-not-mapped
|
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| 428 | \section3 No mapping for xs:time
|
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| 429 |
|
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| 430 | An instance of \c xs:time can't be represented correctly as an
|
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| 431 | instance of QVariant::Time, unless the \c xs:time is a UTC time.
|
---|
| 432 | This is because xs:time has a zone offset (0 for UTC) in addition
|
---|
| 433 | to the time value, which the QTime in QVariant::Time does not
|
---|
| 434 | have. This means that if an XQuery tries to return an atomic value
|
---|
| 435 | of type \c xs:time, an invalid QVariant will be returned. A query
|
---|
| 436 | can return an atomic value of type xs:time by either converting it
|
---|
| 437 | to an \c xs:dateTime with an arbitrary date, or to an \c xs:string.
|
---|
| 438 |
|
---|
| 439 | \section1 Using XQuery with Non-XML Data
|
---|
| 440 |
|
---|
| 441 | Although the XQuery language was designed for querying XML, with
|
---|
| 442 | QtXmlPatterns one can use XQuery for querying any data that can
|
---|
| 443 | be modeled to look like XML. Non-XML data is modeled to look like
|
---|
| 444 | XML by loading it into a custom subclass of QAbstractXmlNodeModel,
|
---|
| 445 | where it is then presented to the QtXmlPatterns XQuery engine via
|
---|
| 446 | the same API the XQuery engine uses for querying XML.
|
---|
| 447 |
|
---|
| 448 | When QtXmlPatterns loads and queries XML files and produces XML
|
---|
| 449 | output, it can always load the XML data into its default XML node
|
---|
| 450 | model, where it can be traversed efficiently. The XQuery below
|
---|
| 451 | traverses the product orders found in the XML file \e myOrders.xml
|
---|
| 452 | to find all the skin care product orders and output them ordered
|
---|
| 453 | by shipping date.
|
---|
| 454 |
|
---|
| 455 | \quotefile snippets/patternist/introAcneRemover.xq
|
---|
| 456 |
|
---|
| 457 | QtXmlPatterns can be used out of the box to perform this
|
---|
| 458 | query, provided \e myOrders.xml actually contains well-formed XML. It
|
---|
| 459 | can be loaded directly into the default XML node model and
|
---|
| 460 | traversed. But suppose we want QtXmlPatterns to perform queries on
|
---|
| 461 | the hierarchical structure of the local file system. The default
|
---|
| 462 | XML node model in QtXmlPatterns is not suitable for navigating the
|
---|
| 463 | file system, because there is no XML file to load that contains a
|
---|
| 464 | description of it. Such an XML file, if it existed, might look
|
---|
| 465 | something like this:
|
---|
| 466 |
|
---|
| 467 | \quotefile snippets/patternist/introFileHierarchy.xml
|
---|
| 468 |
|
---|
| 469 | The \l{File System Example}{File System Example} does exactly this.
|
---|
| 470 |
|
---|
| 471 | There is no such file to load into the default XML node model, but
|
---|
| 472 | one can write a subclass of QAbstractXmlNodeModel to represent the
|
---|
| 473 | file system. This custom XML node model, once populated with all
|
---|
| 474 | the directory and file descriptors obtained directly from the
|
---|
| 475 | system, presents the complete file system hierarchy to the query
|
---|
| 476 | engine via the same API used by the default XML node model to
|
---|
| 477 | present the contents of an XML file. In other words, once the
|
---|
| 478 | custom XML node model is populated, it presents the file system to
|
---|
| 479 | the query engine as if a description of it had been loaded into
|
---|
| 480 | the default XML node model from an XML file like the one shown
|
---|
| 481 | above.
|
---|
| 482 |
|
---|
| 483 | Now we can write an XQuery to find all the XML files and parse
|
---|
| 484 | them to find the ones that don't contain well-formed XML.
|
---|
| 485 |
|
---|
| 486 | \quotefromfile snippets/patternist/introNavigateFS.xq
|
---|
| 487 | \skipto <html>
|
---|
| 488 | \printuntil
|
---|
| 489 |
|
---|
| 490 | Without QtXmlPatterns, there is no simple way to solve this kind
|
---|
| 491 | of problem. You might do it by writing a C++ program to traverse
|
---|
| 492 | the file system, sniff out all the XML files, and submit each one
|
---|
| 493 | to an XML parser to test that it contains valid XML. The C++ code
|
---|
| 494 | required to write that program will probably be more complex than
|
---|
| 495 | the C++ code required to subclass QAbstractXmlNodeModel, but even
|
---|
| 496 | if the two are comparable, your custom C++ program can be used
|
---|
| 497 | only for that one task, while your custom XML node model can be
|
---|
| 498 | used by any XQuery that must navigate the file system.
|
---|
| 499 |
|
---|
| 500 | The general approach to using XQuery to perform queries on non-XML
|
---|
| 501 | data has been a three step process. In the first step, the data is
|
---|
| 502 | loaded into a non-XML data model. In the second step, the non-XML
|
---|
| 503 | data model is serialized as XML and output to XML (text) files. In
|
---|
| 504 | the final step, an XML tool loads the XML files into a second, XML
|
---|
| 505 | data model, where the XQueries can be performed. The development
|
---|
| 506 | cost of implementing this process is often high, and the three
|
---|
| 507 | step system that results is inefficient because the two data
|
---|
| 508 | models must be built and maintained separately.
|
---|
| 509 |
|
---|
| 510 | With QtXmlPatterns, subclassing QAbstractXmlNodeModel eliminates
|
---|
| 511 | the transformation required to convert the non-XML data model to
|
---|
| 512 | the XML data model, because there is only ever one data model
|
---|
| 513 | required. The non-XML data model presents the non-XML data to the
|
---|
| 514 | query engine via the XML data model API. Also, since the query
|
---|
| 515 | engine uses the API to access the QAbstractXmlNodeModel, the data
|
---|
| 516 | model subclass can construct the elements, attributes and other
|
---|
| 517 | data on demand, responding to the query's specific requests. This
|
---|
| 518 | can greatly improve efficiency, because it means the entire model
|
---|
| 519 | might not have to be built. For example, in the file system model
|
---|
| 520 | above, it is not necessary to build an instance for a whole
|
---|
| 521 | XML file representing the whole file system. Instead nodes are
|
---|
| 522 | created on demand, which also likely is a small subset of the file
|
---|
| 523 | system.
|
---|
| 524 |
|
---|
| 525 | Examples of other places where XQuery could be used in
|
---|
| 526 | QtXmlPatterns to query non-XML data:
|
---|
| 527 |
|
---|
| 528 | \list
|
---|
| 529 |
|
---|
| 530 | \o The internal representation for word processor documents
|
---|
| 531 |
|
---|
| 532 | \o The set of dependencies for a software build system
|
---|
| 533 |
|
---|
| 534 | \o The hierarchy (or graph) that links a set of HTML documents
|
---|
| 535 | from a web crawler
|
---|
| 536 |
|
---|
| 537 | \o The images and meta-data in an image collection
|
---|
| 538 |
|
---|
| 539 | \o The set of D-Bus interfaces available in a system
|
---|
| 540 |
|
---|
| 541 | \o A QObject hierarchy, as seen in the \l{QObject XML Model
|
---|
| 542 | Example} {QObject XML Model example}.
|
---|
| 543 |
|
---|
| 544 | \endlist
|
---|
| 545 |
|
---|
| 546 | See the QAbstractXmlNodeModel documentation for information about
|
---|
| 547 | how to implement custom XML node models.
|
---|
| 548 |
|
---|
| 549 | \section1 More on using QtXmlPatterns with non-XML Data
|
---|
| 550 |
|
---|
| 551 | Subclassing QAbstractXmlNodeModel to let the query engine access
|
---|
| 552 | non-XML data by the same API it uses for XML is the feature that
|
---|
| 553 | enables QtXmlPatterns to query non-XML data with XQuery. It allows
|
---|
| 554 | XQuery to be used as a mapping layer between different non-XML
|
---|
| 555 | node models or between a non-XML node model and the built-in XML
|
---|
| 556 | node model. Once the subclass(es) of QAbstractXmlNodeModel have
|
---|
| 557 | been written, XQuery can be used to select a set of elements from
|
---|
| 558 | one node model, transform the selected elements, and then write
|
---|
| 559 | them out, either as XML using QXmlQuery::evaluateTo() and QXmlSerializer,
|
---|
| 560 | or as some other format using a subclass of QAbstractXmlReceiver.
|
---|
| 561 |
|
---|
| 562 | Consider a word processor application that must import and export
|
---|
| 563 | data in several different formats. Rather than writing a lot of
|
---|
| 564 | C++ code to convert each input format to an intermediate form, and
|
---|
| 565 | more C++ code to convert the intermediate form back to each
|
---|
| 566 | output format, one can implement a solution based on QtXmlPatterns
|
---|
| 567 | that uses simple XQueries to transform each XML or non-XML format
|
---|
| 568 | (e.g. MathFormula.xml below) to the intermediate form (e.g. the
|
---|
| 569 | DocumentRepresentation node model class below), and more simple
|
---|
| 570 | XQueries to transform the intermediate form back to each XML or
|
---|
| 571 | non-XML format.
|
---|
| 572 |
|
---|
| 573 | \image patternist-wordProcessor.png
|
---|
| 574 |
|
---|
| 575 | Because CSV files are not XML, a subclass of QAbstractXmlNodeModel
|
---|
| 576 | is used to present the CSV data to the XQuery engine as if it were
|
---|
| 577 | XML. What are not shown are the subclasses of QAbstractXmlReceiver
|
---|
| 578 | that would then send the selected elements into the
|
---|
| 579 | DocumentRepresentation node model, and the subclasses of
|
---|
| 580 | QAbstractXmlNodeModel that would ultimately write the output files
|
---|
| 581 | in each format.
|
---|
| 582 |
|
---|
| 583 | \section1 Security Considerations
|
---|
| 584 |
|
---|
| 585 | \section2 Code Injection
|
---|
| 586 |
|
---|
| 587 | XQuery is vulnerable to
|
---|
| 588 | \l{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_injection} {code injection
|
---|
| 589 | attacks} in the same way as the SQL language. If an XQuery is
|
---|
| 590 | constructed by concatenating strings, and the strings come from
|
---|
| 591 | user input, the constructed XQuery could be malevolent. The best
|
---|
| 592 | way to prevent code injection attacks is to not construct XQueries
|
---|
| 593 | from user-written strings, but only accept user data input using
|
---|
| 594 | QVariant and variable bindings. See QXmlQuery::bindVariable().
|
---|
| 595 |
|
---|
| 596 | The articles
|
---|
| 597 | \l{http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-xpathinjection.html}
|
---|
| 598 | {Avoid the dangers of XPath injection}, by Robi Sen and
|
---|
| 599 | \l{http://www.packetstormsecurity.org/papers/bypass/Blind_XPath_Injection_20040518.pdf}
|
---|
| 600 | {Blind XPath Injection}, by Amit Klein, discuss the XQuery code
|
---|
| 601 | injection problem in more detail.
|
---|
| 602 |
|
---|
| 603 | \section2 Denial of Service Attacks
|
---|
| 604 |
|
---|
| 605 | Applications using QtXmlPatterns are subject to the same
|
---|
| 606 | limitations of software as other systems. Generally, these can not
|
---|
| 607 | be checked. This means QtXmlPatterns does not prevent rogue
|
---|
| 608 | queries from consuming too many resources. For example, a query
|
---|
| 609 | could take too much time to execute or try to transfer too much
|
---|
| 610 | data. A query could also do too much recursion, which could crash
|
---|
| 611 | the system. XQueries can do these things accidentally, but they
|
---|
| 612 | can also be done as deliberate denial of service attacks.
|
---|
| 613 |
|
---|
| 614 | \section1 Features and Conformance
|
---|
| 615 |
|
---|
| 616 | \section2 XQuery 1.0
|
---|
| 617 |
|
---|
| 618 | QtXmlPatterns aims at being a
|
---|
| 619 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/#id-xquery-conformance} {conformant
|
---|
| 620 | XQuery processor}. It adheres to
|
---|
| 621 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/#id-minimal-conformance} {Minimal
|
---|
| 622 | Conformance} and supports the
|
---|
| 623 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/#id-serialization-feature}
|
---|
| 624 | {Serialization Feature} and the
|
---|
| 625 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/#id-full-axis-feature} {Full Axis
|
---|
| 626 | Feature}. QtXmlPatterns currently passes 97% of the tests in the
|
---|
| 627 | \l{http://www.w3.org/XML/Query/test-suite} {XML Query Test Suite}.
|
---|
| 628 | Areas where conformance may be questionable and where behavior may
|
---|
| 629 | be changed in future releases include:
|
---|
| 630 |
|
---|
| 631 | \list
|
---|
| 632 |
|
---|
| 633 | \o Some corner cases involving namespaces and element constructors
|
---|
| 634 | are incorrect.
|
---|
| 635 |
|
---|
| 636 | \o XPath is a subset of XQuery and the implementation of
|
---|
| 637 | QtXmlPatterns uses XPath 2.0 with XQuery 1.0.
|
---|
| 638 |
|
---|
| 639 | \endlist
|
---|
| 640 |
|
---|
| 641 | The specifications discusses conformance further:
|
---|
| 642 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/}{XQuery 1.0: An XML Query
|
---|
| 643 | Language}. W3C's XQuery testing effort can be of interest as
|
---|
| 644 | well, \l{http://www.w3.org/XML/Query/test-suite/}{XML Query Test
|
---|
| 645 | Suite}.
|
---|
| 646 |
|
---|
| 647 | Currently \c fn:collection() does not access any data set, and
|
---|
| 648 | there is no API for providing data through the collection. As a
|
---|
| 649 | result, evaluating \c fn:collection() returns the empty
|
---|
| 650 | sequence. We intend to provide functionality for this in a future
|
---|
| 651 | release of Qt.
|
---|
| 652 |
|
---|
| 653 | Only queries encoded in UTF-8 are supported.
|
---|
| 654 |
|
---|
| 655 | \section2 XSLT 2.0
|
---|
| 656 |
|
---|
| 657 | Partial support for XSLT was introduced in Qt 4.5. Future
|
---|
| 658 | releases of QtXmlPatterns will aim to support these XSLT
|
---|
| 659 | features:
|
---|
| 660 |
|
---|
| 661 | \list
|
---|
| 662 | \o Basic XSLT 2.0 processor
|
---|
| 663 | \o Serialization feature
|
---|
| 664 | \o Backwards Compatibility feature
|
---|
| 665 | \endlist
|
---|
| 666 |
|
---|
| 667 | For details, see \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/#conformance}{XSL
|
---|
| 668 | Transformations (XSLT) Version 2.0, 21 Conformance}.
|
---|
| 669 |
|
---|
| 670 | \note In this release, XSLT support is considered experimental.
|
---|
| 671 |
|
---|
| 672 | Unsupported or partially supported XSLT features are documented
|
---|
| 673 | in the following table. The implementation of XSLT in Qt 4.5 can
|
---|
| 674 | be seen as XSLT 1.0 but with the data model of XPath 2.0 and
|
---|
| 675 | XSLT 2.0, and using the using the functionality of XPath 2.0 and
|
---|
| 676 | its accompanying function library. When QtXmlPatterns encounters
|
---|
| 677 | an unsupported or partially support feature, it will either report
|
---|
| 678 | a syntax error or silently continue, unless otherwise noted in the
|
---|
| 679 | table.
|
---|
| 680 |
|
---|
| 681 | The implementation currently passes 42% of W3C's XSLT test suite,
|
---|
| 682 | which focus on features introduced in XSLT 2.0.
|
---|
| 683 |
|
---|
| 684 | \table
|
---|
| 685 | \header
|
---|
| 686 | \o XSL Feature
|
---|
| 687 | \o Support Status
|
---|
| 688 | \row
|
---|
| 689 | \o \c xsl:key and \c fn:key()
|
---|
| 690 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 691 | \row
|
---|
| 692 | \o \c xsl:include
|
---|
| 693 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 694 | \row
|
---|
| 695 | \o \c xsl:import
|
---|
| 696 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 697 | \row
|
---|
| 698 | \o \c xsl:copy
|
---|
| 699 |
|
---|
| 700 | \o The \c copy-namespaces and \c inherit-namespaces attributes
|
---|
| 701 | have no effect. For copied comments, attributes and
|
---|
| 702 | processing instructions, the copy has the same node
|
---|
| 703 | identity as the original.
|
---|
| 704 |
|
---|
| 705 | \row
|
---|
| 706 | \o \c xsl:copy-of
|
---|
| 707 | \o The \c copy-namespaces attribute has no effect.
|
---|
| 708 | \row
|
---|
| 709 | \o \c fn:format-number()
|
---|
| 710 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 711 | \row
|
---|
| 712 | \o \c xsl:message
|
---|
| 713 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 714 | \row
|
---|
| 715 | \o \c xsl:use-when
|
---|
| 716 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 717 | \row
|
---|
| 718 | \o \c Tunnel Parameters
|
---|
| 719 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 720 | \row
|
---|
| 721 | \o \c xsl:attribute-set
|
---|
| 722 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 723 | \row
|
---|
| 724 | \o \c xsl:decimal-format
|
---|
| 725 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 726 | \row
|
---|
| 727 | \o \c xsl:fallback
|
---|
| 728 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 729 | \row
|
---|
| 730 | \o \c xsl:apply-imports
|
---|
| 731 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 732 | \row
|
---|
| 733 | \o \c xsl:character-map
|
---|
| 734 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 735 | \row
|
---|
| 736 | \o \c xsl:number
|
---|
| 737 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 738 | \row
|
---|
| 739 | \o \c xsl:namespace-alias
|
---|
| 740 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 741 | \row
|
---|
| 742 | \o \c xsl:output
|
---|
| 743 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 744 | \row
|
---|
| 745 | \o \c xsl:output-character
|
---|
| 746 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 747 | \row
|
---|
| 748 | \o \c xsl:preserve-space
|
---|
| 749 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 750 | \row
|
---|
| 751 | \o \c xsl:result-document
|
---|
| 752 | \o not supported
|
---|
| 753 | \row
|
---|
| 754 | \o Patterns
|
---|
| 755 | \o Complex patterns or patterns with predicates have issues.
|
---|
| 756 | \row
|
---|
| 757 | \o \c 2.0 Compatibility Mode
|
---|
| 758 |
|
---|
| 759 | \o Stylesheets are interpreted as XSLT 2.0 stylesheets, even
|
---|
| 760 | if the \c version attribute is in the XSLT source is
|
---|
| 761 | 1.0. In other words, the version attribute is ignored.
|
---|
| 762 |
|
---|
| 763 | \row
|
---|
| 764 | \o Grouping
|
---|
| 765 |
|
---|
| 766 | \o \c fn:current-group(), \c fn:grouping-key() and \c
|
---|
| 767 | xsl:for-each-group.
|
---|
| 768 |
|
---|
| 769 | \row
|
---|
| 770 | \o Regexp elements
|
---|
| 771 | \o \c xsl:analyze-string, \c xsl:matching-substring,
|
---|
| 772 | \c xsl:non-matching-substring, and \c fn:regex-group()
|
---|
| 773 | \row
|
---|
| 774 | \o Date & Time formatting
|
---|
| 775 | \o \c fn:format-dateTime(), \c fn:format-date() and fn:format-time().
|
---|
| 776 |
|
---|
| 777 | \row
|
---|
| 778 | \o XPath Conformance
|
---|
| 779 | \o Since XPath is a subset of XSLT, its issues are in affect too.
|
---|
| 780 | \endtable
|
---|
| 781 |
|
---|
| 782 | The QtXmlPatterns implementation of the XPath Data Model does not
|
---|
| 783 | include entities (due to QXmlStreamReader not reporting them).
|
---|
| 784 | This means that functions \c unparsed-entity-uri() and \c
|
---|
| 785 | unparsed-entity-public-id() always return negatively.
|
---|
| 786 |
|
---|
| 787 | \section2 XPath 2.0
|
---|
| 788 |
|
---|
| 789 | Since XPath 2.0 is a subset of XQuery 1.0, XPath 2.0 is
|
---|
| 790 | supported. Areas where conformance may be questionable and,
|
---|
| 791 | consequently, where behavior may be changed in future releases
|
---|
| 792 | include:
|
---|
| 793 |
|
---|
| 794 | \list
|
---|
| 795 | \o Regular expression support is currently not conformant
|
---|
| 796 | but follows Qt's QRegExp standard syntax.
|
---|
| 797 |
|
---|
| 798 | \o Operators for \c xs:time, \c xs:date, and \c xs:dateTime
|
---|
| 799 | are incomplete.
|
---|
| 800 |
|
---|
| 801 | \o Formatting of very large or very small \c xs:double, \c
|
---|
| 802 | xs:float, and \c xs:decimal values may be incorrect.
|
---|
| 803 | \endlist
|
---|
| 804 |
|
---|
| 805 | \section2 xml:id
|
---|
| 806 |
|
---|
| 807 | Processing of XML files supports \c xml:id. This allows elements
|
---|
| 808 | that have an attribute named \c xml:id to be looked up efficiently
|
---|
| 809 | with the \c fn:id() function. See
|
---|
| 810 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-id/}{xml:id Version 1.0} for details.
|
---|
| 811 |
|
---|
| 812 | \section2 XML Schema 1.0
|
---|
| 813 |
|
---|
| 814 | There are two ways QtXmlPatterns can be used to validate schemas:
|
---|
| 815 | You can use the C++ API in your Qt application using the classes
|
---|
| 816 | QXmlSchema and QXmlSchemaValidator, or you can use the command line
|
---|
| 817 | utility named xmlpatternsvalidator (located in the "bin" directory
|
---|
| 818 | of your Qt build).
|
---|
| 819 |
|
---|
| 820 | The QtXmlPatterns implementation of XML Schema validation supports
|
---|
| 821 | the schema specification version 1.0 in large parts. Known problems
|
---|
| 822 | of the implementation and areas where conformancy may be questionable
|
---|
| 823 | are:
|
---|
| 824 |
|
---|
| 825 | \list
|
---|
| 826 | \o Large \c minOccurs or \c maxOccurs values or deeply nested ones
|
---|
| 827 | require huge amount of memory which might cause the system to freeze.
|
---|
| 828 | Such a schema should be rewritten to use \c unbounded as value instead
|
---|
| 829 | of large numbers. This restriction will hopefully be fixed in a later release.
|
---|
| 830 | \o Comparison of really small or large floating point values might lead to
|
---|
| 831 | wrong results in some cases. However such numbers should not be relevant
|
---|
| 832 | for day-to-day usage.
|
---|
| 833 | \o Regular expression support is currently not conformant but follows
|
---|
| 834 | Qt's QRegExp standard syntax.
|
---|
| 835 | \o Identity constraint checks can not use the values of default or fixed
|
---|
| 836 | attribute definitions.
|
---|
| 837 | \endlist
|
---|
| 838 |
|
---|
| 839 | \section2 Resource Loading
|
---|
| 840 |
|
---|
| 841 | When QtXmlPatterns loads an XML resource, e.g., using the
|
---|
| 842 | \c fn:doc() function, the following schemes are supported:
|
---|
| 843 |
|
---|
| 844 | \table
|
---|
| 845 | \header
|
---|
| 846 | \o Scheme Name
|
---|
| 847 | \o Description
|
---|
| 848 | \row
|
---|
| 849 | \o \c file
|
---|
| 850 | \o Local files.
|
---|
| 851 | \row
|
---|
| 852 | \o \c data
|
---|
| 853 |
|
---|
| 854 | \o The bytes are encoded in the URI itself. e.g., \c
|
---|
| 855 | data:application/xml,%3Ce%2F%3E is \c <e/>.
|
---|
| 856 |
|
---|
| 857 | \row
|
---|
| 858 | \o \c ftp
|
---|
| 859 | \o Resources retrieved via FTP.
|
---|
| 860 | \row
|
---|
| 861 | \o \c http
|
---|
| 862 | \o Resources retrieved via HTTP.
|
---|
| 863 | \row
|
---|
| 864 | \o \c https
|
---|
| 865 | \o Resources retrieved via HTTPS. This will succeed if no SSL
|
---|
| 866 | errors are encountered.
|
---|
| 867 | \row
|
---|
| 868 | \o \c qrc
|
---|
| 869 | \o Qt Resource files. Expressing it as an empty scheme, :/...,
|
---|
| 870 | is not supported.
|
---|
| 871 |
|
---|
| 872 | \endtable
|
---|
| 873 |
|
---|
| 874 | \section2 XML
|
---|
| 875 |
|
---|
| 876 | XML 1.0 and XML Namespaces 1.0 are supported, as opposed to the
|
---|
| 877 | 1.1 versions. When a strings is passed to a query as a QString,
|
---|
| 878 | the characters must be XML 1.0 characters. Otherwise, the behavior
|
---|
| 879 | is undefined. This is not checked.
|
---|
| 880 |
|
---|
| 881 | URIs are first passed to QAbstractUriResolver. Check
|
---|
| 882 | QXmlQuery::setUriResolver() for possible rewrites.
|
---|
| 883 | */
|
---|
| 884 |
|
---|
| 885 | /*!
|
---|
| 886 | \namespace QPatternist
|
---|
| 887 | \brief The QPatternist namespace contains classes and functions required by the QtXmlPatterns module.
|
---|
| 888 | \internal
|
---|
| 889 | */
|
---|