GUI for XML Documents Access using Query-By-Example Paradigm

Abstract

In the context of our research project, we propose an interactive tool (GuessXQ) to perform the access to the information in a collection of eXtensible Markup Language (XML) documents. Due to the complex nature of those structured documents, the associated standard query language is also complex and, thus, not easy for most of the users. The GUI we propose does not require any knowledge about the query language, it is based on the Query-By-Example (QBE) paradigm from traditional databases. Using QBE, instead of specifying the desired components of the documents and eventual restrictions in a query, the user exemplifies those components marking them directly on a sample document picked-up from the collection. We believe this leverages the user's cognition about the object to search. GuessXQ is then responsible for the generation of the query to be treated by the information retrieval engine.