Dear all,
I have a question about the value of attribute xml:base generated when processing an xi:include. Let me explain it with an example.
My example employs xi:include elements to include other xml files. It is constituted by a main.xml file which includes another file (include1.xml) stored in a subfolder, called include1.
include1.xml, in turn, includes another xml file (include2.xml) stored in a subfolder of include1 which is called include2.
Overall, the example consists of four folder levels and only the last file, include4.xml, contains data.
This is the contents of the files:
./main.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<main xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
<xi:include href="" />
</main >
/include1/include1.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<level1 xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
<xi:include href="" />
</level1 >
./include1/include2/include2.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<level2 xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
<xi:include href="" />
</level2 >
./include1/include2/include3/include3.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<level3 xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
<xi:include href="" />
</level3 >
./include1/include2/include3/include4/include4.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<level4 xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
<data> 0 </data>
<data> 1 </data>
</level4 >
When I process main.xml, I obtain the following result:
<main xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
<level1 xml:base="./include1/include1.xml">
<level2 xml:base="./include1/include2/include2.xml">
<level3 xml:base="./include2/include3/include3.xml">
<level4 xml:base="./include3/include4/include4.xml">
<data>0</data>
<data>1</data>
</level4>
</level3>
</level2>
</level1>
</main>
The xml tree is correct, but I have doubts about the value of the attribute xml:base.
In particular:
- level1: I think that the value of xml:base ( i.e. ./include1/include1.xml) is correct.
- level2: xml:base value is correct if its meaning is a path relative to the root file. Otherwise, if xml:base is supposed to store a path relative to the current file, then it should be ./include2/include2.xml.
- level3: This seems to be not correct, neither as an absolute path, nor as a relative path. I think it should be ./include1/include2/include3/include3.xml as a path relative to the root file or ./include3/include3.xml as a path relative
to the current file.
- level4: Same as level3.
I also tried to execute a Xquery command http://www.xqueryfunctions.com/xq/fn_base-uri.html on the output.
The result returned by base-uri(//level3) is:
file:///C:/software/test_include/include1/include1/include2/include2/include3/include3.xml
which I think is wrong, I think it should be:
file:///C:/software/test_include/include1/include2/include3/include3.xml
I thus suspect that either the implementation of how xi:include generates the value of xml:base or the implementation of base-uri function has a problem.
My suspect is on xi:include. What do you think?
I currently experienced the same strange behavior on two different XML/XQuery processors, i.e.
- baseX http://basex.org (wrapping SAX xml library)
- Saxon EE 9.7 https://www.saxonica.com/download/java.xml