Apache VXQuery (Versatile XQuery) will be a standards compliant XML Query processor implemented in Java. We believe that there exists a strong (and growing) need to process semi-structured data in many applications. The W3C standardized v1.0 of the XML Query Language in early 2007. Since then, a few processors have surfaced (both commercial and open source). VXQuery will implement this standard.
VXQuery plans to be the glue that brings together imperative programming in Java and declarative programming in XQuery. The project would enable developers to use XQuery to navigate and transform application objects declaratively in Java applications with minimal overhead. In the VXQuery project we plan to build an implementation that allows users to run declarative XQueries on arbitrary object models. Existing XQuery engines execute queries by translating the user data into some form of XML Object model. With VXQuery, we take the opposing view - Translate the query to work natively on the user's object model. In addition, VXQuery works on top of different XML representations including DOM, Stax, and a space optimized model motivated by Xalan's DTM (Document Table Model). VXQuery will also provide a library that allows application developers to express declarative queries without the need to learn a new syntax. We believe that this will speed up the adoption process.
Apache VXQuery is an effort undergoing incubation at The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), sponsored by the Apache XMLBeans PMC. Incubation is required of all newly accepted projects until a further review indicates that the infrastructure, communications, and decision making process have stabilized in a manner consistent with other successful ASF projects. While incubation status is not necessarily a reflection of the completeness or stability of the code, it does indicate that the project has yet to be fully endorsed by the ASF.
