Integrate BaseX into oXygen XML Editor

[Graydon2014]

I would like to be able to use oXygen XML Editor to write, run, and debug XQuery against the BaseX XML database from https://basex.org/
I would like this to include the full scope of BaseX modules (full text, higher order functions, etc.) as well as XQuery 3.1 (and eventually XQuery 4).
I would like some reasonably current version of BaseX to ship with oXygen XML Editor.
I would like to be able to do the full CRUD set of XML database functionality from inside oXygen XML Editor.

BaseX is open source, written in Java, small (< 10 MB) and reasonably documented, so this seems to be like a technically plausible ask. It's also far and away the best XQuery processor I know of, since it's nigh-complete against the XQuery 3.1 spec and highly performant.

Why would you want to? XQuery has something of a chicken-and-egg problem; it'd be great to use if people could use it. If they can use it, it solves many legibility problems for large XML content sets that don't have effective alternative solutions. Providing a way to use XQuery ought to wedge open the door to a market.

[alex_jitianu]

Hi,

There is an Oxygen plugin developed by Axxepta that that provides inside Oxygen:
https://github.com/axxepta/project-argon
http://argon-author.com/

I suggest giving it a test and see how it performs against your requirement. It has quite a lot of feature.
I've also added your vote for an internal BaseX support inside Oxygen.

Best regards,
Alex

[Graydon2014]

Hi Alex --
While that plugin does look interesting, I observe that the gitHub repository hasn't been updated in five years and that the plugin is unsigned.
Putting myself in a position where I have to explain why I installed something unsigned on a work machine isn't something I would want to do.

Might there be an appropriate way for other people to express interest in adding internal support for BaseX in oXygen?

Thanks!
Graydon

[alex_jitianu]

Hi Graydon,

Whenever people ask us for a feature, on the forum, on our support email address or when we meet them in person during conferences, we add their vote for the feature and we increase its priority. Because our development resources are limited, there is always a challenge to weight and decide which feature should be included in the roadmap.

I observe that the gitHub repository hasn't been updated in five years and that the plugin is unsigned.

We used to meet the Axxepta team quite frequently during conferences and there was a time when they develop intensively the plugin. Perhaps now they consider it mature enough. If you write an email on support@oxygenxml.com I can try and put you in contact with them.
Signing the plugin requires a certificate issued by a trusted authority. If a company doesn't have such a certificate already for other reasons, unfortunately it is a slim chance for it to purchase such a certificate only for signing an Oxygen addon.

Best regards,
Alex

[Graydon2014]

Hi Alex --
Thank you! Appreciate the clarity on the weighting process.

It wouldn't be possible for me to advocate for an unsigned anything in a work context, is what I was trying to get at there. (Nor do I think it ought to be.)

Thank you!
Graydon

[cwittern]

This is a two year old post, so I would like to know what the situation with BaseX integration is? I would very much like to use oXygen in the same way with BaseX as I use it with eXist.
All the best,
Christian

[Radu]

Hi Christian,
For now we have no plans to create such an integration ourselves. If a third party wants to, Oxygen has APIs which would allow plugins to be built for this.
Regards,
Radu

[cwittern]

Dear Radu,
Thank you for your reply. This is unfortunate, but I guess you have reasons to do so.
I think I can execute XQuerys with BaseX over a command line from oXygen without too much problems, the real question is the validation.
Can you point me to places where to start an investigation of how to get this going?
All the best,
Christian
P.S. I just realized my first post in this forum was 20 years ago. You have come along quite a bit in all these years, and I really have to thank you for creating such a great tool!

[Radu]

Hi Christian,

the real question is the validation.
Can you point me to places where to start an investigation of how to get this going?

We have an API which would allow a plugin to add or remove errors when an opened document is being validated.
An example of using this APi from a Javascript plugin which uses Oxygen's Java APIs to remove certain validation problems:
https://github.com/oxygenxml/wsaccess-j ... lemsFilter

I just realized my first post in this forum was 20 years ago. You have come along quite a bit in all these years, and I really have to thank you for creating such a great tool!

Thanks for the kind words! I see I joined the forum about 21 years ago

Regards,
Radu

[piotrb]

Hello, I was hoping to switch to the next page of this thread when I realised that Radu's reply to Christian was the last message... so no happy end announced... yet. (Sigh.)

Here's a pointer to BaseX's instructions on how to integrate (no date stamp and probably a somewhat outdated dialog screenshot): https://docs.basex.org/main/Integrating_oXygen

I have so far failed both using the server and the standalone technique, but that says something about me rather than about the instructions -- my colleague tells me she was able to get it going to some extent (and even to get a very mildly informative error message when validating).

Please kindly record my "+1" for whatever issue connected to BaseX support in oXygen. And I'll be most grateful if someone shares a success story, perhaps with some hints for the undersigned and for others like me.

Cheers,
Piotr (only 15 years old, in these parts ;-))

[Radu]

Hi Piotr,
We (the Oxygen team) do not plan to build an integration with BaseX ourselves.
Posts on the Oxygen forum in general notify only people who have started the discussion thread so it's not a good place where to ask a community if they managed to make the BaseX integration work.
As the documentation is on the BaseX side, maybe you could ask a question on the BaseX user's list and give some details about what exactly did not work. Or post your details here (maybe screenshot with error) and I can try to follow the steps, see where they stop working for me.
I see the documentation is about using the XQJ connector which we still support:
https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/versions/ ... rmers.html

Regards,
Radu

[piotrb]

Hi Radu,
Thanks for your reply! I wouldn't dream of abusing your time for troubleshooting an issue that a colleague of mine has more or less solved (to an extent that is not clear to me, yet: I primarily need it as an external validation engine, and the BaseX doc doesn't seem to mention that use case), so I am going to bother her first :-)
As for community support -- well, what else is there to try, on the oXygen side, if not going to the forum, look for "BaseX" related topics and see what others have achieved and may be willing to share? :-) That's how I got to this thread in the first place. Sure thing, I'll try "on the other side" as well, and will update this thread if I discover anything worth mentioning for oXygen users in a situation similar to mine now.
Best wishes and thanks for your work :-)
Piotr

[Radu]

Hi Piotr,
There is also the Oxygen Users Mailing list if you want to join and email all its participants: https://www.oxygenxml.com/mailinglists.html#oxygen-user
Regards,
Radu