XRX/Building your First XRX Application

How Build Your First XRX Application
Although there are many different ways you can build an XRX application, there are two vital ingredients to get you started. First you will need a way to create XQueries with RESTFul interfaces. The OpenSource native XML database eXist seems to be the favorite of most people although the MarkLogic server has a community version that is free as long as your data sets are under 10GB which seems to be enough for most pilot and learning projects.

The second component you will need is some client that will take an XForms data stream intended for a browser and build applications with it. Because the XSLTForms client is now bundled with both eXist and MarkLogic and runs on all browsers many people are using this client.

If you need forms that need to load quickly without the overhead of loading the large XSLT transforms and JavaScript libraries, the FireFox XForms addon is also a very mature product, but does not run on FireFox versions higher than 3.0.12.

The Picoforms XForms client for IE and Chiba forms will also work very well. If you are looking for a pure server-side transform you may want to look into Orbeon Forms or the IBM Workplace Forms tools.

There are five architectural tasks that you will need to master. They go by phrase CRUDS: Create, Read, Update, Delete and Search. Having a tool to quickly import XML data from spreadsheets is also very useful as you migrate more data into your XRX application server. The oXygen XML editor is a favorite because is has strong support for the eXist database.

Once you have understood the basic concepts in the CRUDS cycle, you can then explore ways to optimize reports using XQuery and XQuery functions and modules.

Back: XRX Application Server • Next: Background Technologies