Partial update of server side XML documents

[Farrukh Najmi <farrukh@wellfleetsoftware.com>]

I am working on a specification for a service that offers CRUD 
operations on XML documents that conform to a standard schema.
We have C, R and D under control and are looking for an good 
standards-based solution for supporting partial updates for XML
documents already in the server.

I would like to define the schema for an UpdateRequest which identifies 
a server resident XML document by its unique id and provides
an XML element (lets call it UpdateInfo) that encapsulates how the 
server resident object should be updated. The content of the UpdateInfo
element should specify how to partially update the desired XML document 
while leaving the rest of it unchanged.

I am unfamiliar with XQuery but I suspect that it may be allow me to 
embed an XQuery statement within the UpdateInfo element to specify how 
to partially update the target XML document. The server would fetch the 
XML document by its id and then process it using the XQuery to modify it 
before storing it back.

Another option might be to use simpler XPath/XSLT expressions to do the 
same.

Does any one have any experience or advice on how best to do this.

BTW, the specification I am working on is OASIS ebXML RegRep 4.0.

TIA for your help.

-- 
Regards,
Farrukh Najmi

Web: http://www.wellfleetsoftware.com