eXist Interface: Maintenance of user annotations

User annotations are maintained by the interface function /mpdl/interface/external/object.xql. This function has 3 parameters:

• operation (possible values: read, create, update, delete)
• type (possible values: element, query)
• object (see examples below)
  • attributes
    • uid: user id (normally email address) of the operation (e.g. andy@…)
    • documentId: the eXist document identifier (e.g. /tei/en/Test_1789.xml)
    • xpointer: the xpointer to the position in that document (e.g.: id('page2')/TEI[1]/text[1]/body[1]/p[1]/s[3]/point(4)); see XPointer specification
  • value: if operation is create or update: the new object (e.g. <note>This is an annotation of Andy</note>)

Examples

Example document

​Test document with user annotations

Read annotations

  http://mpdl-test.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de:30030/mpdl/interface/external/object.xql?
    operation=read&
    type=element&
    object=<object documentId="/tei/en/Test_1789.xml" xpointer="id('page2')"></object>

​Read annotations

Create annotation

  http://mpdl-test.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de:30030/mpdl/interface/external/object.xql?
    operation=create&
    type=element&
    object=<object uid="andy@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de" documentId="/tei/en/Test_1789.xml" xpointer="id('page2')/TEI[1]/text[1]/body[1]/p[1]/s[3]/point(4)"><note>This is an annotation of Andy</note></object>

​Create annotation

Delete annotation

  http://mpdl-test.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de:30030/mpdl/interface/external/object.xql?
    operation=delete&
    type=element&
    object=<object uid="andy@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de" documentId="/tei/en/Test_1789.xml" xpointer="id('page2')/TEI[1]/text[1]/body[1]/p[1]/s[3]"></object>

​Delete annotation

Limitations

• Interface
  • Java: no real user test done
  • Display of a document page with external objects (insertExternalElements.xsl): full redesign and new implementation
• Bugs
  • at one position there could be only one external user annotation so far (bug in XSL script)