docbook-apps

I'm running into a problem using xmllint to resolve xincludes
in DocBook 5.0. I'm running xmllint 2.6.31, which I believe
is the latest stable version, on Linux. The only argument I'm
using on xmllint is --xinclude.

I have no problem with a vanilla xinclude that just pulls in
the entire file like this:

<xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
href="chap1.xml"/>

or one that uses xpointer with the element expression like this:

<xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
href="chap1.xml"
xpointer="element(idvalue)"/>

But, xmllint fails if I use an xpointer expression like this:

<xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
href="chap1.xml"
xpointer="xpointer(//chapter/title/node())"/>

After playing around for a while, I found that xmllint will work
with DocBook 5.0 if I remove xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
from the parent element in the included file. The xmlns attribute
is a no-op on the including file; xmllint fails whether the namespace
is there or not.

Since removing xmlns makes the included file invalid, doing that is
not a practical long term solution.

Does anyone know a way to get xmllint (or some alternate processor)
to handle xincludes with xpointer in DocBook 5.0?

Thanks,
Dick Hamilton
rlhamilton@frii.com

Dick Hamilton wrote:

> But, xmllint fails if I use an xpointer expression like this:
>
> <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
> href="chap1.xml"
> xpointer="xpointer(//chapter/title/node())"/>

Your expression //chapter/title is asking for elements which are in no
namespace. You have to declare prefix for DocBook namespace for XPointer
query. In theory you can use something like:

xpointer="xmlns(db=http://docbook.org/ns/docbook)xpointer(//db:chapter/db:title/node())"

Can you confirm whether xmllint supports this syntax?

Jirka

--
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Jirka,

That fixed it; thanks very much for your help.

Dick

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jirka Kosek [mailto:jirka@kosek.cz]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 5:01 PM
> To: Dick Hamilton
> Cc: docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: Re: [docbook-apps] xmllint, xinclude, xpointer, and
> DocBook 5.0
>
>
> Dick Hamilton wrote:
>
> > But, xmllint fails if I use an xpointer expression like this:
> >
> > <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
> > href="chap1.xml"
> > xpointer="xpointer(//chapter/title/node())"/>
>
> Your expression //chapter/title is asking for elements which
> are in no
> namespace. You have to declare prefix for DocBook namespace
> for XPointer
> query. In theory you can use something like:
>
> xpointer="xmlns(db=http://docbook.org/ns/docbook)xpointer(//db
:chapter/db:title/node())"
>
> Can you confirm whether xmllint supports this syntax?
>
> Jirka
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> Jirka Kosek e-mail: jirka@kosek.cz http://xmlguru.cz
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> Professional XML consulting and training services
> DocBook customization, custom XSLT/XSL-FO document processing
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> OASIS DocBook TC member, W3C Invited Expert, ISO JTC1/SC34 member
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>