Databases

In BaseX, a single database contains an arbitrary number of resources. By default, resources are XML documents. Since Version 7.0, raw files (binaries) can be stored as well.

Create Database

New databases can either be created in the GUI or on the command line. Optionally, initial database XML input can be specified:

• GUI: Go to Database → New, press Browse to choose an initial file or directory, and press OK
• Console: enter basex -c "CREATE DB dbname /path/to/resources".
  

Various Parsers are available to convert different formats to XML,

Manage Resources

Once you have created a database, additional commands exist to modify its contents:

• XML documents can be added with the ADD command.
• Raw files are added with STORE.
• Resources can be replaced with others using the REPLACE command.
• Resources can be deleted with the DELETE command.

The following commands create an empty database, add two resources and finally delete them again:

CREATE DB example
ADD example.xml
ADD TO images/ 123.jpg
DELETE /

You may as well use the BaseX-specific XQuery Database Functions to add, replace and delete XML documents:

for $file in file:list("/path/to/xml/documents")
return db:add("database", $file)

Last but not least, XML documents can also be added via the GUI and the Database menu.

Access Resources

Various XQuery functions exist to access the XML documents in databases and other locations:

• db:open("dbname", "path/to/docs"): returns documents that are found in the specified database.
• collection("path/to/docs"): returns the documents that are either found in the database specified in the argument, or the specified location.
• doc("path/to/document.xml"): returns a single document found at the specified location. If a database exists for the specified file, it is opened instead.