GuessXQ

Abstract

XML is a widely used general-purpose annotation formalism for creating custom markup languages. XML annotations give structure to plain documents to interpret their content. To extract information from XML documents XPath and XQuery languages can be used. However, the learning of these dialects requires a considerable effort. In this context, the traditional Query-By-Example methodology (for Relational Databases) can be an important contribution to leverage this learning process, freeing the user from knowing the specific query language details or even the document structure. This chapter describes how to apply the Query-By-Example concept in a Web-application for information retrieval from XML documents, the GuessXQ system. This engine is capable of deducing, from an example, the respective XQuery statement. The example consists of marking the desired components directly on a sample document, picked-up from a collection. After inferring the corresponding query, GuessXQ applies it to the collection to obtain the desired result.