[Bug 27498] New: [ser 3.1]Unfailing serialization

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=27498

            Bug ID: 27498
           Summary: [ser 3.1]Unfailing serialization
           Product: XPath / XQuery / XSLT
           Version: Last Call drafts
          Hardware: PC
                OS: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: Serialization 3.1
          Assignee: cmsmcq@blackmesatech.com
          Reporter: mike@saxonica.com
        QA Contact: public-qt-comments@w3.org

When a user enters a query at a command line or other "ad-hoc" interface, they
expect to see an answer displayed. They don't expect to be told that the query
succeeded, but the results can't be displayed because there was a serialization
error.

This wasn't a problem in the past because in nearly all cases, if the query
succeeded, then serialization would also succeed (one of the notable exceptions
was a query that returns attribute nodes).

But with the introduction of maps and arrays, we're seeing lots of ad-hoc
queries that produce serialization errors. In fact, we're moving towards
displaying the results of queries using our own ad-hoc serialization that
doesn't correspond to anything in the serialization spec. The logic is
something like: display nodes using XML serialization, display maps and arrays
using JSON serialization.

I feel uncomfortable that we are finding we need to do serialization in a way
that isn't covered by the spec. Anyone else feel the same?

Especially as the item-separator property was apparently invented for this kind
of use case.

I think there's a need for some kind of "adaptive" serialization where a
sequence is serialized by choosing an appropriate serialization method for each
item based on what kind of item it is, and then separating the items using
item-separator.

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Received on Wednesday, 3 December 2014 15:42:41 UTC