Adding meta data support to Xindice

[David Ku <ku...@yahoo-inc.com>]

Hi all,

We have recently started using Xindice as a platform to store, analyze,
and manipulate XML data.  We have identified two areas of enhancement to
meet our needs:

1)  The ability to associate "Meta-Data" with any collection and
document in the Xindice hierarchy.  The Meta-Data can be structured as
an XML document/fragment that can be retrieved and modified, and can
cover both system attributes (creation time, last modified time) as well
as application-specific attributes.   Side effect: the last modified
time is not available for a document.

2)  The ability to create file-system like "Document Links".  This is a
restricted form of XLink (not within a document) that works on the
entire document as a whole.  A good analogy is the difference between
#include and file system links.  We want file system links, where
writing to a link will write to the actual document.  

Our current implementation strategy is to modify the Collection class,
adding meta-data persistence, and extending the interface to support
meta-data access.  We will be careful to make sure the system is
backwards and forwards compatible.  

Any suggestions or comments before we dive into it?  If there is
sufficient interest we will be happy to contribute the code additions
back to Xindice.

Thanks in advance!

David