[xsl] [ANN] Online XPath 2.0 analyser: significant update and new name

[Philip Fearon <pgfearo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm pleased to announce a significant update to the very simple online
XPath 2.0 analysis tool I've been developing, now named 'PathEnq'.

Initial work on this predominantly XSLT 2.0-coded tool (using the
Saxon-CE processor) was focused on analysing the XPath expression tree
without any dynamic execution. This fresh update now allows for XPath
evaluation against a number of uploaded XML files - with results
reviewed in a simple grid; the expression analyser permits evaluation
of sub-expressions also, context is inferred from the surrounding
expression.

Some implementation detail:
Evaluation works by calling JavaScript from the XSLT to inject the
XPath expression and evaluation context into a template XSLT
stylesheet as a string - using 'marker' targets for replacement - this
was necessary because of namespace limitations in browser XML DOM
implementations - especially where namespaces are associated with
QNames within node content. Once updated, the XSLT stylesheet is
loaded into the Saxon-CE processor via the JavaScript - and the
results returned to the hosting XSLT application in the form of a
result document.

Character references and pre-defined XML entity references within the
XPath are resolved for the purposes of XPath editing, but restored
(unseen) where necessary prior to injection into the XSLT. There's a
convenience feature that escapes characters back to XML entity
references so XPaths can be copied into an XSLT stylesheet or other
XML host file. For namespaces, there's a reliance on the namespace
prefixes declared in the document element of the source XML, the
default namespace is supported for XPath expressions if it's declared
in the document element also.

The 'PathEnq' analyser can be found here:

http://www.qutoric.com/xslt/analyser/xpathtool.html

Please let me know if you have any questions,.

Thanks,

Phil Fearon
Qutoric LImited.