XGI: A Graphical Interface for XQuery Creation

Li, Xiang and Gennari, John H and Brinkley, James F (2007) XGI: A Graphical Interface for XQuery Creation. In Proceedings, American Medical Informatics Association Fall Symposium, Chicago, IL.

Abstract

XML has become the default standard for data exchange among heterogeneous data sources, and in January 2007 XQuery (XML Query language) was recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium as the query language for XML. However, XQuery is a complex language that is difficult for nonprogrammers to learn. We have therefore developed XGI (XQuery Graphical Interface), a visual interface for graphically generating XQuery. In this paper we demonstrate the functionality of XGI through its application to a biomedical XML dataset. We describe the system architecture and the features of XGI in relation to several existing querying systems, we demonstrate the system's usability through a sample query construction, and we discuss a preliminary evaluation of XGI. Finally, we describe some limitations of the system, and our plans for future improvements.