making conversion dead simple in xproc ...

[ndw]

xml to csv

<address xmlns="http://www.example.org/address" id="1">
    <name>Ola Nordmann</name>
    <address>Langgt 23</address>
    <city>4000 Stavanger</city>
    <country>Norway</country>
</address>

namespace "http://www.example.org/address";

("some.xml")
-> text{ {$_/@id},{$_/name},{$_/country}}

should yield

1,"Ola Nordmann","Norway"

though this works only if each document is an xml document with an address root.

Its an open question about how to handle 'foreach' in these scenarios or if we are able to perform xpath filter on the input, like the following:

("some.xml")/address

Which is roughly equivalent to old syntax @select on p:input.

csv to xml

GID,Name,Country
1,Henry,UK
2,Alex,USA

namespace "http://www.example.org/address";

("some.csv")
-> ?

How can we make text selection easier in this scenario to yield the following ?

<wrapper xmlns="http://www.example.org/address">
<address id="1">
<name>Henry</name>
<country>UK</country>
</address>
<address id="2">
<name>Alex</name>
<country>USA</country>
</address>
</wrapper>

We can imagine other conversion scenarios that pose similar questions:

• triples to xml
• xml to triples
• json to xml
• xml to json

as well as questions surrounding 'exclude-inline-prefixes' and what 'expand-text' may mean in our new syntax. I propose we add this to next meeting agenda item.