how to import a project into eXist-db

Question

I'm fairly new to exide and exist-db so i'm getting used to it's gui and menus and ways of doing stuff. my problem is that i already have a project, a teacher downloaded it from his exist and gave it to me as a .rar.

the thing is that i want to import that project in a way that it keeps the same folder structure that it has. i've tried importing it through the collections menu but it ignores the folder structure and just uploads all the files in one folder

folder structure is as follows:

final:
-db
    -contrib
        -file
        -file
    -css
        -somecss
        -somecss
    -js
        -somejs
        -somejs
    -img
        -img1.png
-xqueryelement.xq
-xqueryelement2.xq
-htmlelement.html

Answer 1

If when the .rar file is extracted out and each folder contains "_ _ contents_ _.xml", then you can use the restore functionality from the java admin client.

If it does not, then you can use the following. (I have not tested the code and wrote it on the fly.) Launch eXide from the dashboard. Log in as admin and then copy the code below into the ide and then run it.

The code has some functions copied from Priscilla Walmsley's FUNCTX function module. http://www.xqueryfunctions.com/

xquery version "3.0";

declare namespace file="http://exist-db.org/xquery/file";

(:~
 : Escapes regex special characters 
 :
 : @author  Priscilla Walmsley, Datypic 
 : @version 1.0 
 : @see     http://www.xqueryfunctions.com/xq/functx_escape-for-regex.html 
 : @param   $arg the string to escape 
 :) 
declare function local:escape-for-regex( $arg as xs:string? )  as xs:string {

   replace($arg, '(\.|\[|\]|\\|\||\-|\^|\$|\?|\*|\+|\{|\}|\(|\))','\\$1')
 } ;

(:~
 : The substring before the last occurrence of a delimiter 
 :
 : @author  Priscilla Walmsley, Datypic 
 : @version 1.0 
 : @see     http://www.xqueryfunctions.com/xq/functx_substring-before-last.html 
 : @param   $arg the string to substring 
 : @param   $delim the delimiter 
 :) 
declare function local:substring-before-last( $arg as xs:string?, $delim as xs:string )  as xs:string {

   if (matches($arg, local:escape-for-regex($delim)))
   then replace($arg,
            concat('^(.*)', local:escape-for-regex($delim),'.*'),
            '$1')
   else ''
 } ;

(:~
 : The substring after the last occurrence of a delimiter 
 :
 : @author  Priscilla Walmsley, Datypic 
 : @version 1.0 
 : @see     http://www.xqueryfunctions.com/xq/functx_substring-after-last.html 
 : @param   $arg the string to substring 
 : @param   $delim the delimiter 
 :) 
declare function local:substring-after-last 
  ( $arg as xs:string? ,
    $delim as xs:string )  as xs:string {

   replace ($arg,concat('^.*',local:escape-for-regex($delim)),'')
 } ;


declare function local:import($base as xs:string, $path as xs:string) {
    let $offset := fn:substring-after($path, $base)
    return
    if (file:is-directory($path))
    then
        let $created := xmldb:create-collection('/', '/')
        let $coll := for $resource in file:list($path)
                        return local:import($base, $path || '/' || $resource)
        return $path
    else 
        let $collection : = local:substring-before-last($offset, '/')
        let $resource : = local:substring-after-last($offset, '/')
        let $stored := xmldb:store($collection, $resource, 
                                file:read-binary($path), 'application/octet-stream')
        let $permission := if (fn:ends-with($resource, ".xq")) 
                           then sm:chmod($collection || '/' || $resource, 'rwxr-xr-x')
                           else ()
        return $path
};

let $base := '/tmp/lctmp'
let $path := '/tmp/lctmp/db'
return local:import($base, $path)

Answer 2

Besides the approaches suggested by Ron and Loren, you could use a WebDAV client - probably the simplest. Or you can write a query (e.g., in eXide) using the xmldb:store-files-from-pattern() function. All of the above are mentioned in the article, Getting Data into eXist-db.

If you're interested in using the xmldb:store-files-from-pattern() function, here are specific directions. You'll use the variant of the function with the $preserve-structure parameter. The direct link to the function documentation for this variant of the function is http://exist-db.org/exist/apps/fundocs/view.html?uri=http://exist-db.org/xquery/xmldb#store-files-from-pattern.5. Here are steps:

1. Expand the .rar file into a folder on your file system, e.g., /path/to/files
2. Open eXide (probably at http://localhost:8080/exist/apps/eXide on your local system). Log in, e.g., as the admin user, so that your query will be able to write to the database.

3. Use this query:

   xquery version "3.0";
   
   let $collection-uri := '/db'
   let $directory := '/path/to/files'
   let $pattern := '**/*'
   let $mime-type := ()
   let $preserve-structure := true()
   return
       xmldb:store-files-from-pattern($collection-uri, $directory, $pattern, $mime-type, $preserve-structure)
   

Answer 3

To upload folder structures in eXist, you have 2 options:

1. use the Java admin client; in a vanilla eXist installation, you can access it directly via the browser at http://localhost:8080/exist/webstart/exist.jnlp or via the link in the dashboard at http://localhost:8080/exist/apps/dashboard/index.html; or via the pop-up menu in the quick-launch button (quick launch toolbar in the bottom right if you're on Windows). There you can add entire folders.
2. package the project as a XAR archive, which essentialy is a zip archive with proper project descriptor files. See details at http://exist-db.org/exist/apps/doc/repo.xml

Hope this helps,

Ron