WWP eXist-DB applications

The Women Writers Project uses the eXist-DB database to query, transform, and publish XML files. Most of these "applications" are actually divided between eXist and the WWP server file system. In general, eXist is used to store and index XML files. The database also holds XQuery scripts which, on request, parse and return data in a web-friendly format (generally JSON or HTML).

On the server file system, an application mainly consists of an index HTML file and a Javascript file, as well as other web assets (CSS, images, etc.). The Javascript file is a Backbone.js application that makes calls out to the eXist application, using the responses to populate most pages in the browser. In fact, though the URL changes, a user navigating the WWP subproject site never actually leaves index.html. Instead, the Backbone app modifies the webpage and browser URL to match the conceptual "page" chosen by the user.

Publications with eXist

WWP endeavors which have an eXist-DB component are:

• Women Writers in Context
• Women Writers in Review
• the front page quote generator
• Text Tracker, aka Forthcoming Texts
• Internal Documentation
• Inspectre

Women Writers in Context

The website code for WWiC can be found in Subversion at DEV/exhibits. (Unlike the other endeavors, WWiC has no separation of code from data.) On the server, the index page and assets are symlinked from the "exhibits" directory to WEB/context. As a result, WWiC is visible from both https://wwp.northeastern.edu/context and https://wwp.northeastern.edu/research/projects/exhibits.

WWiC is not an EXPath application, but it does use XQueries as REST endpoints. In eXist, the XML, XSLT, and XQueries can be found at /db/exhibits. Exhibits encoders should have write access to this collection on the WWP-Test server, which enables easy pre-publication proofing.

Front-page quote

The front-page quote system is not an EXPath application.

Internal Documentation

WWiC is not an EXPath application, but it does use XQueries as REST endpoints.