"Interoperability among Knowledge-Building Environments"

The export functions can output data in one of two formats: recursive or linked, corresponding to the two defined DTDs. For different purposes it is useful to have data in one or the other of these formats. For instance, to view data in a browser, it is useful to have the data in the recursive format so that the tree structure of the discussion is displayed. On the other hand, this tree structure distorts a multiply-linked graph of notes. If one is importing data into a program that can manipulate such a graph and that requires explicit linking information, it is useful to have the data in the linked format.

A translation procedure will convert between the recursive and the linked formats. This allows people to export data in either format, translate if necessary, and then import the data in either format.

Here is an interface to translate XML files from one format to another:

            Translator between recursive and linked formats

Here is the code to translate, along with test data to make sure that multiple linking information is properly preserved:

Source code to translate from recursive to linked format

Source code to translate from linked to recursive format

Data to test translators

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This page last modified on August 01, 2003