I have an RDF/OWL file where I want to add some new child nodes. These new nodes are in a seperate file with the similar structure but only with new nodes that are to be added to the first RDF/OWL file. I tried to do that using XSLT but it has some problems finding the desiried place to insert the new element (I beleive) caused by the rdf:RDF wrapping. Anyway a simple format of my files are below. I also tried to do the same with XQuery but it, atleast for me, is difficult. Can anybody suggest a way to do that. I have following requirements: first the it should find the matching node (for example <TransferType rdf:ID="xx"> in the file1) and the insert the new nodes in, say,under the node matching node <TransferType rdf:ID="xx"> in the file 2 under it. Can anybody help me?


file1:

<rdf:RDF --goes here>
<Transaction rdf:ID="vi34+vi94">
    <Exchanges rdf:ID="ve107">
           <hasEventTypes>
            <TransferType rdf:ID="vp94">
            <isEventType rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string">decrement</isEventType>
        </TransferType>
    </hasEventTypes>
    <hasEventTypes>
        <TransferType rdf:ID="vp29">
            <ActorType rdf:resource="rightUsers"/>
            <isEventType rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string">increment</isEventType>
            </TransferType>
        </hasEventTypes>
    </Exchanges>
</Transaction>
</rdf:RDF>

file2:

<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
<Transaction rdf:ID="vi34+vi94">
    <Exchanges rdf:ID="ve107">
           <hasEventTypes>
            <TransferType rdf:ID="vp94">
                     <actorType rdf:ID="rightSociety"/>
                     <hasTransferedRight rdf:ID="Ownership"/>
                     </TransferType>
    </Exchanges>
</Transaction>
</rdf:RDF>

First define your identity template which copies everything unchanged:

<xsl:template match="*">
  <xsl:copy>
    <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

Declare a global variable holding your second file:

<xsl:variable name="file2" select="document('file2.xml')"/>

Then add a template rule that modifies the element you want to change:

<xsl:template match="TransferType"
              xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
  <xsl:copy>
    <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
    <xsl:copy-of select="$file2//TransferType[@rdf:ID = current()/@rdf:ID]/*"/>
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>


This kind of thing is much harder in XQuery, which doesn't support this "copy everything exactly except X" coding pattern. To do the same thing in XQuery, you'll have to wait for XQuery updates to be supported.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference

Thanks Michael, It works nicely. I have done somethings wrong in my xslt preogram and you have explained it so nicely. Also thanks for your explanation of my XQuery problem as well.