xmlhack: eXist open-source repository system and retrieval engine

Wolfgang Meier <meier@ifs.tu-darmstadt.de> continues development of eXist, an open-source, mySQL-based system for storage and structured retrieval (via XPath queries) of arbitrary XML documents. Version 0.2.2 is now available.

Meier writes:

The software does not require any knowledge about the document's DTD or schema and will index arbitrary xml documents. All the documents in the repository may be queried at the same time, regardless of the DTD or schema they use.

Though eXist is based on a relational database backend (mysql) at the moment, it is quite fast and less memory consuming compared to other implementations. XML is stored in a native form which allows fast, index- based retrieval.

Contributors welcome

Meier welcomes collaboration with other developers interested in the project:

Despite it's alpha status, the software is already usable for smaller projects. Yet a lot of features and standards requirements are missing. I would appreciate any help in making eXist a stable retrieval software.

He also provides a list of specific missing features that other developers might help to implement.

Interested developers will want to read the Technical Overview section on the eXist homepage, which provides some details about the application's internal architecture, and perhaps browse the source code in the project's CVS repository

A sample search interface to a demonstration eXist instance is also available.