1 | /****************************************************************************
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2 | **
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3 | ** Copyright (C) 2009 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
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4 | ** All rights reserved.
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5 | ** Contact: Nokia Corporation ([email protected])
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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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14 | ** a written agreement between you and Nokia.
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38 | ** $QT_END_LICENSE$
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39 | **
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40 | ****************************************************************************/
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41 |
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42 | /*!
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43 | \page xmlprocessing.html
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44 | \title Using XML Technologies
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45 |
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46 | \previouspage Working with the DOM Tree
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47 | \contentspage XML Processing
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48 |
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49 | \keyword Patternist
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50 |
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51 | \brief An overview of Qt's support for using XML technologies in
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52 | Qt programs.
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53 |
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54 | \tableofcontents
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55 |
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56 | \section1 Introduction
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57 |
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58 | XQuery is a language for traversing XML documents to select and
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59 | aggregate items of interest and to transform them for output as
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60 | XML or some other format. XPath is the \e{element selection} part
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61 | of XQuery.
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62 |
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63 | The QtXmlPatterns module supports using
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64 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery} {XQuery 1.0} and
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65 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath20} {XPath 2.0} in Qt applications,
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66 | for querying XML data \e{and} for querying
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67 | \l{QAbstractXmlNodeModel} {non-XML data that can be modeled to
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68 | look like XML}. The QtXmlPatterns module is included in the \l{Qt
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69 | Full Framework Edition}, and the \l{Open Source Versions of Qt}.
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70 | Readers who are not familiar with the XQuery/XPath language can read
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71 | \l {A Short Path to XQuery} for a brief introduction.
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72 |
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73 | \section1 Advantages of using QtXmlPatterns and XQuery
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74 |
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75 | The XQuery/XPath language simplifies data searching and
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76 | transformation tasks by eliminating the need for doing a lot of
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77 | C++ or Java procedural programming for each new query task. Here
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78 | is an XQuery that constructs a bibliography of the contents of a
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79 | library:
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80 |
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81 | \target qtxmlpatterns_example_query
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82 | \quotefile snippets/patternist/introductionExample.xq
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83 |
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84 | First, the query opens a \c{<bibliography>} element in the
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85 | output. The
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86 | \l{xquery-introduction.html#using-path-expressions-to-match-select-items}
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87 | {embedded path expression} then loads the XML document describing
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88 | the contents of the library (\c{library.xml}) and begins the
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89 | search. For each \c{<book>} element it finds, where the publisher
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90 | was Addison-Wesley and the publication year was after 1991, it
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91 | creates a new \c{<book>} element in the output as a child of the
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92 | open \c{<bibliography>} element. Each new \c{<book>} element gets
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93 | the book's title as its contents and the book's publication year
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94 | as an attribute. Finally, the \c{<bibliography>} element is
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95 | closed.
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96 |
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97 | The advantages of using QtXmlPatterns and XQuery in your Qt
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98 | programs are summarized as follows:
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99 |
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100 | \list
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101 |
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102 | \o \bold{Ease of development}: All the C++ programming required to
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103 | perform data query tasks can be replaced by a simple XQuery
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104 | like the example above.
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105 |
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106 | \o \bold{Comprehensive functionality}: The
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107 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/#id-expressions} {expression
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108 | syntax} and rich set of
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109 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath-functions} {functions and
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110 | operators} provided by XQuery are sufficient for performing any
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111 | data searching, selecting, and sorting tasks.
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112 |
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113 | \o \bold{Conformance to standards}: Conformance to all applicable
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114 | XML and XQuery standards ensures that QtXmlPatterns can always
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115 | process XML documents generated by other conformant
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116 | applications, and that XML documents created with QtXmlPatterns
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117 | can be processed by other conformant applications.
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118 |
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119 | \o \bold{Maximal flexibility} The QtXmlPatterns module can be used
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120 | to query XML data \e{and} non-XML data that can be
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121 | \l{QAbstractXmlNodeModel} {modeled to look like XML}.
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122 |
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123 | \endlist
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124 |
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125 | \section1 Using the QtXmlPatterns module
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126 |
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127 | There are two ways QtXmlPatterns can be used to evaluate queries.
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128 | You can run the query engine in your Qt application using the
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129 | QtXmlPatterns C++ API, or you can run the query engine from the
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130 | command line using Qt's \c{xmlpatterns} command line utility.
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131 |
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132 | \section2 Running the query engine from your Qt application
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133 |
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134 | If we save the example XQuery shown above in a text file (e.g.
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135 | \c{myquery.xq}), we can run it from a Qt application using a
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136 | standard QtXmlPatterns code sequence:
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137 |
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138 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/src_xmlpatterns_api_qxmlquery.cpp 3
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139 |
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140 | First construct a QFile for the text file containing the XQuery
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141 | (\c{myquery.xq}). Then create an instance of QXmlQuery and call
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142 | its \l{QXmlQuery::}{setQuery()} function to load and parse the
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143 | XQuery file. Then create an \l{QXmlSerializer} {XML serializer} to
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144 | output the query's result set as unformatted XML. Finally, call
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145 | the \l{QXmlQuery::}{evaluateTo()} function to evaluate the query
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146 | and serialize the results as XML.
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147 |
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148 | \note If you compile Qt yourself, the QtXmlPatterns module will
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149 | \e{not} be built if exceptions are disabled, or if you compile Qt
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150 | with a compiler that doesn't support member templates, e.g., MSVC
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151 | 6.
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152 |
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153 | See the QXmlQuery documentation for more information about the
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154 | QtXmlPatterns C++ API.
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155 |
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156 | \section2 Running the query engine from the command line utility
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157 |
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158 | \e xmlpatterns is a command line utility for running XQueries. It
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159 | expects the name of a file containing the XQuery text.
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160 |
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161 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qtxmlpatterns.qdoc 2
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162 |
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163 | The XQuery in \c{myQuery.xq} will be evaluated and its output
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164 | written to \c stdout. Pass the \c -help switch to get the list of
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165 | input flags and their meanings.
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166 |
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167 | xmlpatterns can be used in scripting. However, the descriptions
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168 | and messages it outputs were not meant to be parsed and may be
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169 | changed in future releases of Qt.
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170 |
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171 | \target QtXDM
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172 | \section1 The XQuery Data Model
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173 |
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174 | XQuery represents data items as \e{atomic values} or \e{nodes}. An
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175 | atomic value is a value in the domain of one of the
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176 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/#built-in-datatypes} {built-in
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177 | datatypes} defined in \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2} {Part
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178 | 2} of the W3C XML Schema. A node is normally an XML element or
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179 | attribute, but when non-XML data is \l{QAbstractXmlNodeModel}
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180 | {modeled to look like XML}, a node can also represent a non-XML
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181 | data items.
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182 |
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183 | When you run an XQuery using the C++ API in a Qt application, you
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184 | will often want to bind program variables to $variables in the
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185 | XQuery. After the query is evaluated, you will want to interpret
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186 | the sequence of data items in the result set.
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187 |
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188 | \section2 Binding program variables to XQuery variables
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189 |
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190 | When you want to run a parameterized XQuery from your Qt
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191 | application, you will need to \l{QXmlQuery::bindVariable()} {bind
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192 | variables} in your program to $name variables in your XQuery.
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193 |
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194 | Suppose you want to parameterize the bibliography XQuery in the
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195 | example above. You could define variables for the catalog that
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196 | contains the library (\c{$file}), the publisher name
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197 | (\c{$publisher}), and the year of publication (\c{$year}):
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198 |
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199 | \target qtxmlpatterns_example_query2
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200 | \quotefile snippets/patternist/introExample2.xq
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201 |
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202 | Modify the QtXmlPatterns code to use one of the \l{QXmlQuery::}
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203 | {bindVariable()} functions to bind a program variable to each
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204 | XQuery $variable:
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205 |
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206 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/src_xmlpatterns_api_qxmlquery.cpp 4
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207 |
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208 | Each program variable is passed to QtXmlPatterns as a QVariant of
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209 | the type of the C++ variable or constant from which it is
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210 | constructed. Note that QtXmlPatterns assumes that the type of the
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211 | QVariant in the bindVariable() call is the correct type, so the
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212 | $variable it is bound to must be used in the XQuery accordingly.
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213 | The following table shows how QVariant types are mapped to XQuery
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214 | $variable types:
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215 |
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216 | \table
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217 |
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218 | \header
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219 | \o QVariant type
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220 | \o XQuery $variable type
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221 |
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222 | \row
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223 | \o QVariant::LongLong
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224 | \o \c xs:integer
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225 |
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226 | \row
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227 | \o QVariant::Int
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228 | \o \c xs:integer
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229 |
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230 | \row
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231 | \o QVariant::UInt
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232 | \o \c xs:nonNegativeInteger
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233 |
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234 | \row
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235 | \o QVariant::ULongLong
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236 | \o \c xs:unsignedLong
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237 |
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238 | \row
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239 | \o QVariant::String
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240 | \o \c xs:string
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241 |
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242 | \row
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243 | \o QVariant::Double
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244 | \o \c xs:double
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245 |
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246 | \row
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247 | \o QVariant::Bool
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248 | \o \c xs:boolean
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249 |
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250 | \row
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251 | \o QVariant::Double
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252 | \o \c xs:decimal
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253 |
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254 | \row
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255 | \o QVariant::ByteArray
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256 | \o \c xs:base64Binary
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257 |
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258 | \row
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259 | \o QVariant::StringList
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260 | \o \c xs:string*
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261 |
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262 | \row
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263 | \o QVariant::Url
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264 | \o \c xs:string
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265 |
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266 | \row
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267 | \o QVariant::Date
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268 | \o \c xs:date.
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269 |
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270 | \row
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271 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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272 | \o \c xs:dateTime
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273 |
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274 | \row
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275 | \o QVariant::Time.
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276 | \o \c xs:time. (see \l{Binding To Time}{Binding To
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277 | QVariant::Time} below)
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278 |
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279 | \row
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280 | \o QVariantList
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281 | \o (see \l{Binding To QVariantList}{Binding To QVariantList}
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282 | below)
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283 |
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284 | \endtable
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285 |
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286 | A type not shown in the table is not supported and will cause
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287 | undefined XQuery behavior or a $variable binding error, depending
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288 | on the context in the XQuery where the variable is used.
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289 |
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290 | \target Binding To Time
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291 | \section3 Binding To QVariant::Time
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292 |
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293 | Because the instance of QTime used in QVariant::Time does not
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294 | include a zone offset, an instance of QVariant::Time should not be
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295 | bound to an XQuery variable of type \c xs:time, unless the QTime is
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296 | UTC. When binding a non-UTC QTime to an XQuery variable, it should
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297 | first be passed as a string, or converted to a QDateTime with an arbitrary
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298 | date, and then bound to an XQuery variable of type \c xs:dateTime.
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299 |
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300 | \target Binding To QVariantList
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301 | \section3 Binding To QVariantList
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302 |
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303 | A QVariantList can be bound to an XQuery $variable. All the
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304 | \l{QVariant}s in the list must be of the same atomic type, and the
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305 | $variable the variant list is bound to must be of that same atomic
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306 | type. If the QVariants in the list are not all of the same atomic
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307 | type, the XQuery behavior is undefined.
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308 |
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309 | \section2 Interpreting XQuery results
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310 |
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311 | When the results of an XQuery are returned in a sequence of \l
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312 | {QXmlResultItems} {result items}, atomic values in the sequence
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313 | are treated as instances of QVariant. Suppose that instead of
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314 | serializing the results of the XQuery as XML, we process the
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315 | results programatically. Modify the standard QtXmlPatterns code
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316 | sequence to call the overload of QXmlQuery::evaluateTo() that
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317 | populates a sequence of \l {QXmlResultItems} {result items} with
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318 | the XQuery results:
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319 |
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320 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/src_xmlpatterns_api_qxmlquery.cpp 5
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321 |
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322 | Iterate through the \l {QXmlResultItems} {result items} and test
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323 | each QXmlItem to see if it is an atomic value or a node. If it is
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324 | an atomic value, convert it to a QVariant with \l {QXmlItem::}
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325 | {toAtomicValue()} and switch on its \l {QVariant::type()} {variant
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326 | type} to handle all the atomic values your XQuery might return.
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327 | The following table shows the QVariant type to expect for each
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328 | atomic value type (or QXmlName):
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329 |
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330 | \table
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331 |
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332 | \header
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333 | \o XQuery result item type
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334 | \o QVariant type returned
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335 |
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336 | \row
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337 | \o \c xs:QName
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338 | \o QXmlName (see \l{Handling QXmlNames}{Handling QXmlNames}
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339 | below)
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340 |
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341 | \row
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342 | \o \c xs:integer
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343 | \o QVariant::LongLong
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344 |
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345 | \row
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346 | \o \c xs:string
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347 | \o QVariant::String
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348 |
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349 | \row
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350 | \o \c xs:string*
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351 | \o QVariant::StringList
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352 |
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353 | \row
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354 | \o \c xs:double
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355 | \o QVariant::Double
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356 |
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357 | \row
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358 | \o \c xs:float
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359 | \o QVariant::Double
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360 |
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361 | \row
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362 | \o \c xs:boolean
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363 | \o QVariant::Bool
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364 |
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365 | \row
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366 | \o \c xs:decimal
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367 | \o QVariant::Double
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368 |
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369 | \row
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370 | \o \c xs:hexBinary
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371 | \o QVariant::ByteArray
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372 |
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373 | \row
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374 | \o \c xs:base64Binary
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375 | \o QVariant::ByteArray
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376 |
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377 | \row
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378 | \o \c xs:gYear
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379 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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380 |
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381 | \row
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382 | \o \c xs:gYearMonth
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383 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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384 |
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385 | \row
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386 | \o \c xs:gMonthDay
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387 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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388 |
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389 | \row
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390 | \o \c xs:gDay
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391 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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392 |
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393 | \row
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394 | \o \c xs:gMonth
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395 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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396 |
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397 | \row
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398 | \o \c xs:anyURI
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399 | \o QVariant::Url
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400 |
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401 | \row
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402 | \o \c xs:untypedAtomic
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403 | \o QVariant::String
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404 |
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405 | \row
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406 | \o \c xs:ENTITY
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407 | \o QVariant::String
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408 |
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409 | \row
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410 | \o \c xs:date
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411 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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412 |
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413 | \row
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414 | \o \c xs:dateTime
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415 | \o QVariant::DateTime
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416 |
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417 | \row
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418 | \o \c xs:time
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419 | \o (see \l{xstime-not-mapped}{No mapping for xs:time} below)
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420 |
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421 | \endtable
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422 |
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423 | \target Handling QXmlNames
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424 | \section3 Handling QXmlNames
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425 |
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426 | If your XQuery can return atomic value items of type \c{xs:QName},
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427 | they will appear in your QXmlResultItems as instances of QXmlName.
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428 | Since the QVariant class does not support the QXmlName class
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429 | directly, extracting them from QXmlResultItems requires a bit of
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430 | slight-of-hand using the \l{QMetaType} {Qt metatype system}. We
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431 | must modify our example to use a couple of template functions, a
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432 | friend of QMetaType (qMetaTypeId<T>()) and a friend of QVariant
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433 | (qVariantValue<T>()):
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434 |
|
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435 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/src_xmlpatterns_api_qxmlquery.cpp 6
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436 |
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437 | To access the strings in a QXmlName returned by an
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438 | \l{QXmlQuery::evaluateTo()} {XQuery evaluation}, the QXmlName must
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439 | be accessed with the \l{QXmlNamePool} {name pool} from the
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440 | instance of QXmlQuery that was used for the evaluation.
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441 |
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442 | \target xstime-not-mapped
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443 | \section3 No mapping for xs:time
|
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444 |
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445 | An instance of \c xs:time can't be represented correctly as an
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446 | instance of QVariant::Time, unless the \c xs:time is a UTC time.
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447 | This is because xs:time has a zone offset (0 for UTC) in addition
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448 | to the time value, which the QTime in QVariant::Time does not
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449 | have. This means that if an XQuery tries to return an atomic value
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450 | of type \c xs:time, an invalid QVariant will be returned. A query
|
---|
451 | can return an atomic value of type xs:time by either converting it
|
---|
452 | to an \c xs:dateTime with an arbitrary date, or to an \c xs:string.
|
---|
453 |
|
---|
454 | \section1 Using XQuery with Non-XML Data
|
---|
455 |
|
---|
456 | Although the XQuery language was designed for querying XML, with
|
---|
457 | QtXmlPatterns one can use XQuery for querying any data that can
|
---|
458 | be modeled to look like XML. Non-XML data is modeled to look like
|
---|
459 | XML by loading it into a custom subclass of QAbstractXmlNodeModel,
|
---|
460 | where it is then presented to the QtXmlPatterns XQuery engine via
|
---|
461 | the same API the XQuery engine uses for querying XML.
|
---|
462 |
|
---|
463 | When QtXmlPatterns loads and queries XML files and produces XML
|
---|
464 | output, it can always load the XML data into its default XML node
|
---|
465 | model, where it can be traversed efficiently. The XQuery below
|
---|
466 | traverses the product orders found in the XML file \e myOrders.xml
|
---|
467 | to find all the skin care product orders and output them ordered
|
---|
468 | by shipping date.
|
---|
469 |
|
---|
470 | \quotefile snippets/patternist/introAcneRemover.xq
|
---|
471 |
|
---|
472 | QtXmlPatterns can be used out of the box to perform this
|
---|
473 | query, provided \e myOrders.xml actually contains well-formed XML. It
|
---|
474 | can be loaded directly into the default XML node model and
|
---|
475 | traversed. But suppose we want QtXmlPatterns to perform queries on
|
---|
476 | the hierarchical structure of the local file system. The default
|
---|
477 | XML node model in QtXmlPatterns is not suitable for navigating the
|
---|
478 | file system, because there is no XML file to load that contains a
|
---|
479 | description of it. Such an XML file, if it existed, might look
|
---|
480 | something like this:
|
---|
481 |
|
---|
482 | \quotefile snippets/patternist/introFileHierarchy.xml
|
---|
483 |
|
---|
484 | The \l{File System Example}{File System Example} does exactly this.
|
---|
485 |
|
---|
486 | There is no such file to load into the default XML node model, but
|
---|
487 | one can write a subclass of QAbstractXmlNodeModel to represent the
|
---|
488 | file system. This custom XML node model, once populated with all
|
---|
489 | the directory and file descriptors obtained directly from the
|
---|
490 | system, presents the complete file system hierarchy to the query
|
---|
491 | engine via the same API used by the default XML node model to
|
---|
492 | present the contents of an XML file. In other words, once the
|
---|
493 | custom XML node model is populated, it presents the file system to
|
---|
494 | the query engine as if a description of it had been loaded into
|
---|
495 | the default XML node model from an XML file like the one shown
|
---|
496 | above.
|
---|
497 |
|
---|
498 | Now we can write an XQuery to find all the XML files and parse
|
---|
499 | them to find the ones that don't contain well-formed XML.
|
---|
500 |
|
---|
501 | \quotefromfile snippets/patternist/introNavigateFS.xq
|
---|
502 | \skipto <html>
|
---|
503 | \printuntil
|
---|
504 |
|
---|
505 | Without QtXmlPatterns, there is no simple way to solve this kind
|
---|
506 | of problem. You might do it by writing a C++ program to traverse
|
---|
507 | the file system, sniff out all the XML files, and submit each one
|
---|
508 | to an XML parser to test that it contains valid XML. The C++ code
|
---|
509 | required to write that program will probably be more complex than
|
---|
510 | the C++ code required to subclass QAbstractXmlNodeModel, but even
|
---|
511 | if the two are comparable, your custom C++ program can be used
|
---|
512 | only for that one task, while your custom XML node model can be
|
---|
513 | used by any XQuery that must navigate the file system.
|
---|
514 |
|
---|
515 | The general approach to using XQuery to perform queries on non-XML
|
---|
516 | data has been a three step process. In the first step, the data is
|
---|
517 | loaded into a non-XML data model. In the second step, the non-XML
|
---|
518 | data model is serialized as XML and output to XML (text) files. In
|
---|
519 | the final step, an XML tool loads the XML files into a second, XML
|
---|
520 | data model, where the XQueries can be performed. The development
|
---|
521 | cost of implementing this process is often high, and the three
|
---|
522 | step system that results is inefficient because the two data
|
---|
523 | models must be built and maintained separately.
|
---|
524 |
|
---|
525 | With QtXmlPatterns, subclassing QAbstractXmlNodeModel eliminates
|
---|
526 | the transformation required to convert the non-XML data model to
|
---|
527 | the XML data model, because there is only ever one data model
|
---|
528 | required. The non-XML data model presents the non-XML data to the
|
---|
529 | query engine via the XML data model API. Also, since the query
|
---|
530 | engine uses the API to access the QAbstractXmlNodeModel, the data
|
---|
531 | model subclass can construct the elements, attributes and other
|
---|
532 | data on demand, responding to the query's specific requests. This
|
---|
533 | can greatly improve efficiency, because it means the entire model
|
---|
534 | might not have to be built. For example, in the file system model
|
---|
535 | above, it is not necessary to build an instance for a whole
|
---|
536 | XML file representing the whole file system. Instead nodes are
|
---|
537 | created on demand, which also likely is a small subset of the file
|
---|
538 | system.
|
---|
539 |
|
---|
540 | Examples of other places where XQuery could be used in
|
---|
541 | QtXmlPatterns to query non-XML data:
|
---|
542 |
|
---|
543 | \list
|
---|
544 |
|
---|
545 | \o The internal representation for word processor documents
|
---|
546 |
|
---|
547 | \o The set of dependencies for a software build system
|
---|
548 |
|
---|
549 | \o The hierarchy (or graph) that links a set of HTML documents
|
---|
550 | from a web crawler
|
---|
551 |
|
---|
552 | \o The images and meta-data in an image collection
|
---|
553 |
|
---|
554 | \o The set of D-Bus interfaces available in a system
|
---|
555 |
|
---|
556 | \o A QObject hierarchy, as seen in the \l{QObject XML Model
|
---|
557 | Example} {QObject XML Model example}.
|
---|
558 |
|
---|
559 | \endlist
|
---|
560 |
|
---|
561 | See the QAbstractXmlNodeModel documentation for information about
|
---|
562 | how to implement custom XML node models.
|
---|
563 |
|
---|
564 | \section1 More on using QtXmlPatterns with non-XML Data
|
---|
565 |
|
---|
566 | Subclassing QAbstractXmlNodeModel to let the query engine access
|
---|
567 | non-XML data by the same API it uses for XML is the feature that
|
---|
568 | enables QtXmlPatterns to query non-XML data with XQuery. It allows
|
---|
569 | XQuery to be used as a mapping layer between different non-XML
|
---|
570 | node models or between a non-XML node model and the built-in XML
|
---|
571 | node model. Once the subclass(es) of QAbstractXmlNodeModel have
|
---|
572 | been written, XQuery can be used to select a set of elements from
|
---|
573 | one node model, transform the selected elements, and then write
|
---|
574 | them out, either as XML using QXmlQuery::evaluateTo() and QXmlSerializer,
|
---|
575 | or as some other format using a subclass of QAbstractXmlReceiver.
|
---|
576 |
|
---|
577 | Consider a word processor application that must import and export
|
---|
578 | data in several different formats. Rather than writing a lot of
|
---|
579 | C++ code to convert each input format to an intermediate form, and
|
---|
580 | more C++ code to convert the intermediate form back to each
|
---|
581 | output format, one can implement a solution based on QtXmlPatterns
|
---|
582 | that uses simple XQueries to transform each XML or non-XML format
|
---|
583 | (e.g. MathFormula.xml below) to the intermediate form (e.g. the
|
---|
584 | DocumentRepresentation node model class below), and more simple
|
---|
585 | XQueries to transform the intermediate form back to each XML or
|
---|
586 | non-XML format.
|
---|
587 |
|
---|
588 | \image patternist-wordProcessor.png
|
---|
589 |
|
---|
590 | Because CSV files are not XML, a subclass of QAbstractXmlNodeModel
|
---|
591 | is used to present the CSV data to the XQuery engine as if it were
|
---|
592 | XML. What are not shown are the subclasses of QAbstractXmlReceiver
|
---|
593 | that would then send the selected elements into the
|
---|
594 | DocumentRepresentation node model, and the subclasses of
|
---|
595 | QAbstractXmlNodeModel that would ultimately write the output files
|
---|
596 | in each format.
|
---|
597 |
|
---|
598 | \section1 Security Considerations
|
---|
599 |
|
---|
600 | \section2 Code Injection
|
---|
601 |
|
---|
602 | XQuery is vulnerable to
|
---|
603 | \l{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_injection} {code injection
|
---|
604 | attacks} in the same way as the SQL language. If an XQuery is
|
---|
605 | constructed by concatenating strings, and the strings come from
|
---|
606 | user input, the constructed XQuery could be malevolent. The best
|
---|
607 | way to prevent code injection attacks is to not construct XQueries
|
---|
608 | from user-written strings, but only accept user data input using
|
---|
609 | QVariant and variable bindings. See QXmlQuery::bindVariable().
|
---|
610 |
|
---|
611 | The articles
|
---|
612 | \l{http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-xpathinjection.html}
|
---|
613 | {Avoid the dangers of XPath injection}, by Robi Sen and
|
---|
614 | \l{http://www.packetstormsecurity.org/papers/bypass/Blind_XPath_Injection_20040518.pdf}
|
---|
615 | {Blind XPath Injection}, by Amit Klein, discuss the XQuery code
|
---|
616 | injection problem in more detail.
|
---|
617 |
|
---|
618 | \section2 Denial of Service Attacks
|
---|
619 |
|
---|
620 | Applications using QtXmlPatterns are subject to the same
|
---|
621 | limitations of software as other systems. Generally, these can not
|
---|
622 | be checked. This means QtXmlPatterns does not prevent rogue
|
---|
623 | queries from consuming too many resources. For example, a query
|
---|
624 | could take too much time to execute or try to transfer too much
|
---|
625 | data. A query could also do too much recursion, which could crash
|
---|
626 | the system. XQueries can do these things accidentally, but they
|
---|
627 | can also be done as deliberate denial of service attacks.
|
---|
628 |
|
---|
629 | \section1 Features and Conformance
|
---|
630 |
|
---|
631 | \section2 XQuery 1.0
|
---|
632 |
|
---|
633 | QtXmlPatterns aims at being a
|
---|
634 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/#id-xquery-conformance} {conformant
|
---|
635 | XQuery processor}. It adheres to
|
---|
636 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/#id-minimal-conformance} {Minimal
|
---|
637 | Conformance} and supports the
|
---|
638 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/#id-serialization-feature}
|
---|
639 | {Serialization Feature} and the
|
---|
640 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/#id-full-axis-feature} {Full Axis
|
---|
641 | Feature}. QtXmlPatterns currently passes 97% of the tests in the
|
---|
642 | \l{http://www.w3.org/XML/Query/test-suite} {XML Query Test Suite}.
|
---|
643 | Areas where conformance may be questionable and where behavior may
|
---|
644 | be changed in future releases include:
|
---|
645 |
|
---|
646 | \list
|
---|
647 |
|
---|
648 | \o Some corner cases involving namespaces and element constructors
|
---|
649 | are incorrect.
|
---|
650 |
|
---|
651 | \o XPath is a subset of XQuery and the implementation of
|
---|
652 | QtXmlPatterns uses XPath 2.0 with XQuery 1.0.
|
---|
653 |
|
---|
654 | \endlist
|
---|
655 |
|
---|
656 | The specifications discusses conformance further:
|
---|
657 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/}{XQuery 1.0: An XML Query
|
---|
658 | Language}. W3C's XQuery testing effort can be of interest as
|
---|
659 | well, \l{http://www.w3.org/XML/Query/test-suite/}{XML Query Test
|
---|
660 | Suite}.
|
---|
661 |
|
---|
662 | Currently \c fn:collection() does not access any data set, and
|
---|
663 | there is no API for providing data through the collection. As a
|
---|
664 | result, evaluating \c fn:collection() returns the empty
|
---|
665 | sequence. We intend to provide functionality for this in a future
|
---|
666 | release of Qt.
|
---|
667 |
|
---|
668 | Only queries encoded in UTF-8 are supported.
|
---|
669 |
|
---|
670 | \section2 XSLT 2.0
|
---|
671 |
|
---|
672 | Partial support for XSLT was introduced in Qt 4.5. Future
|
---|
673 | releases of QtXmlPatterns will aim to support these XSLT
|
---|
674 | features:
|
---|
675 |
|
---|
676 | \list
|
---|
677 | \o Basic XSLT 2.0 processor
|
---|
678 | \o Serialization feature
|
---|
679 | \o Backwards Compatibility feature
|
---|
680 | \endlist
|
---|
681 |
|
---|
682 | For details, see \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/#conformance}{XSL
|
---|
683 | Transformations (XSLT) Version 2.0, 21 Conformance}.
|
---|
684 |
|
---|
685 | \note In this release, XSLT support is considered experimental.
|
---|
686 |
|
---|
687 | Unsupported or partially supported XSLT features are documented
|
---|
688 | in the following table. The implementation of XSLT in Qt 4.5 can
|
---|
689 | be seen as XSLT 1.0 but with the data model of XPath 2.0 and
|
---|
690 | XSLT 2.0, and using the using the functionality of XPath 2.0 and
|
---|
691 | its accompanying function library. When QtXmlPatterns encounters
|
---|
692 | an unsupported or partially support feature, it will either report
|
---|
693 | a syntax error or silently continue, unless otherwise noted in the
|
---|
694 | table.
|
---|
695 |
|
---|
696 | The implementation currently passes 42% of W3C's XSLT test suite,
|
---|
697 | which focus on features introduced in XSLT 2.0.
|
---|
698 |
|
---|
699 | \table
|
---|
700 | \header
|
---|
701 | \o XSL Feature
|
---|
702 | \o Support Status
|
---|
703 | \row
|
---|
704 | \o \c xsl:key and \c fn:key()
|
---|
705 | \o not supported
|
---|
706 | \row
|
---|
707 | \o \c xsl:include
|
---|
708 | \o not supported
|
---|
709 | \row
|
---|
710 | \o \c xsl:import
|
---|
711 | \o not supported
|
---|
712 | \row
|
---|
713 | \o \c xsl:copy
|
---|
714 |
|
---|
715 | \o The \c copy-namespaces and \c inherit-namespaces attributes
|
---|
716 | have no effect. For copied comments, attributes and
|
---|
717 | processing instructions, the copy has the same node
|
---|
718 | identity as the original.
|
---|
719 |
|
---|
720 | \row
|
---|
721 | \o \c xsl:copy-of
|
---|
722 | \o The \c copy-namespaces attribute has no effect.
|
---|
723 | \row
|
---|
724 | \o \c fn:format-number()
|
---|
725 | \o not supported
|
---|
726 | \row
|
---|
727 | \o \c xsl:message
|
---|
728 | \o not supported
|
---|
729 | \row
|
---|
730 | \o \c xsl:use-when
|
---|
731 | \o not supported
|
---|
732 | \row
|
---|
733 | \o \c Tunnel Parameters
|
---|
734 | \o not supported
|
---|
735 | \row
|
---|
736 | \o \c xsl:attribute-set
|
---|
737 | \o not supported
|
---|
738 | \row
|
---|
739 | \o \c xsl:decimal-format
|
---|
740 | \o not supported
|
---|
741 | \row
|
---|
742 | \o \c xsl:fallback
|
---|
743 | \o not supported
|
---|
744 | \row
|
---|
745 | \o \c xsl:apply-imports
|
---|
746 | \o not supported
|
---|
747 | \row
|
---|
748 | \o \c xsl:character-map
|
---|
749 | \o not supported
|
---|
750 | \row
|
---|
751 | \o \c xsl:number
|
---|
752 | \o not supported
|
---|
753 | \row
|
---|
754 | \o \c xsl:namespace-alias
|
---|
755 | \o not supported
|
---|
756 | \row
|
---|
757 | \o \c xsl:output
|
---|
758 | \o not supported
|
---|
759 | \row
|
---|
760 | \o \c xsl:output-character
|
---|
761 | \o not supported
|
---|
762 | \row
|
---|
763 | \o \c xsl:preserve-space
|
---|
764 | \o not supported
|
---|
765 | \row
|
---|
766 | \o \c xsl:result-document
|
---|
767 | \o not supported
|
---|
768 | \row
|
---|
769 | \o Patterns
|
---|
770 | \o Complex patterns or patterns with predicates have issues.
|
---|
771 | \row
|
---|
772 | \o \c 2.0 Compatibility Mode
|
---|
773 |
|
---|
774 | \o Stylesheets are interpreted as XSLT 2.0 stylesheets, even
|
---|
775 | if the \c version attribute is in the XSLT source is
|
---|
776 | 1.0. In other words, the version attribute is ignored.
|
---|
777 |
|
---|
778 | \row
|
---|
779 | \o Grouping
|
---|
780 |
|
---|
781 | \o \c fn:current-group(), \c fn:grouping-key() and \c
|
---|
782 | xsl:for-each-group.
|
---|
783 |
|
---|
784 | \row
|
---|
785 | \o Regexp elements
|
---|
786 | \o \c xsl:analyze-string, \c xsl:matching-substring,
|
---|
787 | \c xsl:non-matching-substring, and \c fn:regex-group()
|
---|
788 | \row
|
---|
789 | \o Date & Time formatting
|
---|
790 | \o \c fn:format-dateTime(), \c fn:format-date() and fn:format-time().
|
---|
791 |
|
---|
792 | \row
|
---|
793 | \o XPath Conformance
|
---|
794 | \o Since XPath is a subset of XSLT, its issues are in affect too.
|
---|
795 | \endtable
|
---|
796 |
|
---|
797 | The QtXmlPatterns implementation of the XPath Data Model does not
|
---|
798 | include entities (due to QXmlStreamReader not reporting them).
|
---|
799 | This means that functions \c unparsed-entity-uri() and \c
|
---|
800 | unparsed-entity-public-id() always return negatively.
|
---|
801 |
|
---|
802 | \section2 XPath 2.0
|
---|
803 |
|
---|
804 | Since XPath 2.0 is a subset of XQuery 1.0, XPath 2.0 is
|
---|
805 | supported. Areas where conformance may be questionable and,
|
---|
806 | consequently, where behavior may be changed in future releases
|
---|
807 | include:
|
---|
808 |
|
---|
809 | \list
|
---|
810 | \o Regular expression support is currently not conformant
|
---|
811 | but follows Qt's QRegExp standard syntax.
|
---|
812 |
|
---|
813 | \o Operators for \c xs:time, \c xs:date, and \c xs:dateTime
|
---|
814 | are incomplete.
|
---|
815 |
|
---|
816 | \o Formatting of very large or very small \c xs:double, \c
|
---|
817 | xs:float, and \c xs:decimal values may be incorrect.
|
---|
818 | \endlist
|
---|
819 |
|
---|
820 | \section2 xml:id
|
---|
821 |
|
---|
822 | Processing of XML files supports \c xml:id. This allows elements
|
---|
823 | that have an attribute named \c xml:id to be looked up efficiently
|
---|
824 | with the \c fn:id() function. See
|
---|
825 | \l{http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-id/}{xml:id Version 1.0} for details.
|
---|
826 |
|
---|
827 | \section2 XML Schema 1.0
|
---|
828 |
|
---|
829 | There are two ways QtXmlPatterns can be used to validate schemas:
|
---|
830 | You can use the C++ API in your Qt application using the classes
|
---|
831 | QXmlSchema and QXmlSchemaValidator, or you can use the command line
|
---|
832 | utility named xmlpatternsvalidator (located in the "bin" directory
|
---|
833 | of your Qt build).
|
---|
834 |
|
---|
835 | The QtXmlPatterns implementation of XML Schema validation supports
|
---|
836 | the schema specification version 1.0 in large parts. Known problems
|
---|
837 | of the implementation and areas where conformancy may be questionable
|
---|
838 | are:
|
---|
839 |
|
---|
840 | \list
|
---|
841 | \o Large \c minOccurs or \c maxOccurs values or deeply nested ones
|
---|
842 | require huge amount of memory which might cause the system to freeze.
|
---|
843 | Such a schema should be rewritten to use \c unbounded as value instead
|
---|
844 | of large numbers. This restriction will hopefully be fixed in a later release.
|
---|
845 | \o Comparison of really small or large floating point values might lead to
|
---|
846 | wrong results in some cases. However such numbers should not be relevant
|
---|
847 | for day-to-day usage.
|
---|
848 | \o Regular expression support is currently not conformant but follows
|
---|
849 | Qt's QRegExp standard syntax.
|
---|
850 | \o Identity constraint checks can not use the values of default or fixed
|
---|
851 | attribute definitions.
|
---|
852 | \endlist
|
---|
853 |
|
---|
854 | \section2 Resource Loading
|
---|
855 |
|
---|
856 | When QtXmlPatterns loads an XML resource, e.g., using the
|
---|
857 | \c fn:doc() function, the following schemes are supported:
|
---|
858 |
|
---|
859 | \table
|
---|
860 | \header
|
---|
861 | \o Scheme Name
|
---|
862 | \o Description
|
---|
863 | \row
|
---|
864 | \o \c file
|
---|
865 | \o Local files.
|
---|
866 | \row
|
---|
867 | \o \c data
|
---|
868 |
|
---|
869 | \o The bytes are encoded in the URI itself. e.g., \c
|
---|
870 | data:application/xml,%3Ce%2F%3E is \c <e/>.
|
---|
871 |
|
---|
872 | \row
|
---|
873 | \o \c ftp
|
---|
874 | \o Resources retrieved via FTP.
|
---|
875 | \row
|
---|
876 | \o \c http
|
---|
877 | \o Resources retrieved via HTTP.
|
---|
878 | \row
|
---|
879 | \o \c https
|
---|
880 | \o Resources retrieved via HTTPS. This will succeed if no SSL
|
---|
881 | errors are encountered.
|
---|
882 | \row
|
---|
883 | \o \c qrc
|
---|
884 | \o Qt Resource files. Expressing it as an empty scheme, :/...,
|
---|
885 | is not supported.
|
---|
886 |
|
---|
887 | \endtable
|
---|
888 |
|
---|
889 | \section2 XML
|
---|
890 |
|
---|
891 | XML 1.0 and XML Namespaces 1.0 are supported, as opposed to the
|
---|
892 | 1.1 versions. When a strings is passed to a query as a QString,
|
---|
893 | the characters must be XML 1.0 characters. Otherwise, the behavior
|
---|
894 | is undefined. This is not checked.
|
---|
895 |
|
---|
896 | URIs are first passed to QAbstractUriResolver. Check
|
---|
897 | QXmlQuery::setUriResolver() for possible rewrites.
|
---|
898 | */
|
---|
899 |
|
---|
900 | /*!
|
---|
901 | \namespace QPatternist
|
---|
902 | \brief The QPatternist namespace contains classes and functions required by the QtXmlPatterns module.
|
---|
903 | \internal
|
---|
904 | */
|
---|