xml-dev - Re: XLink transformations

[Michael Kraus <michael.kraus@informatik.uni-muenchen.de>]

tpassin@home.com wrote:
>
> This is a good example.  I think the approach to take is to create a new XML
> file, based on the xlink file and the source file(s), then to do any
> transformations on it afterwards.

But is this possible with XSLT? How can you write a template that wraps
any element referenced as source of an XLink into an <A>-element, for
example?
 
> The harder part is when you use an XPointer expressions in an XLink, then
> change the document that is pointed to.  Chances are, the XPointer
> expressions won't point to the right place any more.  This problem is
> similar to that of constructing a primary key for a relational database
> table.  If the  key is compound (like (lastname,firstname,company)), and one
> part changes (John Smith changes his employer), what happens everywhere
> there is a pointer to this instsance of the key?
> 
> For databases, the best solution is to give the instance its own identity,
> i.e., the primary key should be a unique ID number.  That could be made to
> work for many XLink cases, too.  But ranges could still be a problem.
> 
> Tom Passin

It might be a simple solution, but if you do so and provide every XML
element with an ID and use this as anchor for XLinks, then XPointer will
become completely useless.

Michael Kraus