fxgrep - The Functional XML Querying Tool

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Contents

0 What is fxgrep?
0 The Processing Model of fxgrep
0 The Pattern Language of fxgrep
0 The Grammar Formalism of fxgrep
0 Text Patterns
0 fxgrep Options
0 fxgrep's Graphical User Interface

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The fxgrep Graphical User Interface

Besides from the command line, fxgrep can be used more comfortably via a graphical user interface. In order to use the GUI you need to have installed it when installing fxgrep (which is the default) and you must have Java installed on your system, version 1.3 or higher.

0 The Main Frame
0 The Options Dialog
0 The Config File

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The Main Frame



The upper part of the GUI main frame allows you to specify the query and the input file. The lower part displays the output of your query.

In the Pattern/Grammar Input Field you must specify your query. This can be done either by specifying a pattern or by specifying a grammar. By default the query is specified via a pattern. In order to specify the query via a grammar, you have to modify the default options in the options dialog. A pattern/grammar can be entered by direclty editing the field. The pattern/grammar can be also retrieved from a file by clicking the Retrieve pattern from file button, which displays a dialog where a file can be choosen.

The XML input file has to be specified in the XML File Input Field. As above the file can be choosen by clicking the button Browse. Both input fields have a history function. By clicking the arrows on the right side of the input fields, an already used file/pattern can be choosen.

By using the Show File button the input file is displyed in a new window.

Using the Clear Input button causes the input fields to be cleared and the options to be reset to the standard.

The Ready/Searching light informs about the status of fxgrep. If the green light is shining fxgrep is not working an it is possible to start a new fxgrep query. If the red light is displayed fxgrep is working.
With the Start and Stop button a new query can be started respectively stoped.

In the Output Window the output of fxgrep is shown.

To save the output to a file the Save Output button has to be used.

The Clear Output button clears the output.

By clicking Exit the fxgrep GUI terminates.

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The Options Dialog

In the options dialog you can configure fxgrep an its GUI.

The Dialog is divided up in five parts. It is possible to switch between the Input Options, Output Options, Algorithm Options, Parse Options and Display Options by choosing the corresponding tab.

The meaning of the different options is explained if you click the Help button. Alternatively, you can read here about fxgrep options and here about fxp options.

In the Display Options tab the font and font size for the Output Window and the Show File Dialog can be chosen. By clicking the Set button apply the changes made.

OK takes over the changes. Cancel gives up the changes.

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The Config File

The Config File of the Graphical User Interface should be automatically properly edited by when you install fxgrep. In this case the GUI uses the documentation that is installed together with fxgrep.

It is advisable to keep this settings, but it is although possible to change the settings after the installation. Nevertheless, in case you want to use a different documentation in the Help you can edit a configuration file in two ways. You can use a text editor to edit the file by hand. The configuration file is located in the directory where fxgrep was installed under directory gui/dat.

The configuration file contains entries specifying where the fxgrep command is, respectively where is the documentation for fxgrep and fxp used in Help: 

Path of fxgrep:
Path of fxgrep doc files:
Path of fxp doc files:

After the installation the corresponding paths are recorded behind the colons. The first path is were fxgrep is installed to, this is needed to find the fxgrep executable. The second and the third path is the location of the fxgrep respectively fxp documentation.
Here a sample configuration file: 

Path of fxgrep:/home/user/bin/
Path of fxgrep doc files:/home/user/xmlsoft/fxgrep-4.2/doc/
Path of fxp doc files:/home/user/xmlsoft/fxp-1.4.6/doc/

Secondly it is possible to edit the configuration file easily by using the GUI. In the Config tab of the Options Dialog the path of fxgrep, of the fxgrep documentaion and of the fxp documentaion can be chosen either by editing the corresponding text fields or by using the file browser.

Note that the GUI needs the absolute path to the documentation directories and that the paths has to end with "/".