Can the EXPath File module peacefully co-exist with the eXist native file module?

[joewiz]

What's the best way to make this awesome package available to the eXist community?

Normally I'd propose including this in the default distribution via the installer's autodeployed .xar files, or distributing it via the eXist public-repo, but I see one impediment to this:

After installing the .xar, you have to edit conf.xml to uncomment eXist's native file module (https://github.com/eXist-db/exist/blob/develop/conf.xml.tmpl#L874). Otherwise, the following code (used in eXide's routines that supply function documentation) return an error:

inspect:inspect-module-uri(xs:anyURI("http://expath.org/ns/file"))

The error:

err:XQST0033 Cannot bind prefix 'file' to 'http://expath.org/ns/file' it is already bound to 'http://exist-db.org/xquery/file' [source: xquery version "3.1"; inspect:inspect-module-uri(xs:anyURI("http://expath.org/ns/file"))]

I don't mind commenting it out, but this is a hurdle beyond the "click to install" instructions that we'd like to be able to give users.

Is there something we can do to allow these two "file" modules to coexist more peacefully in eXist?

That said, once the native file module is uncommented, it can be imported into queries that use the old functions.

import module namespace file="http://exist-db.org/xquery/file" at "java:org.exist.xquery.modules.file.FileModule";

The corresponding code for the EXPath File Module, once installed, is:

import module namespace file="http://expath.org/ns/file" at "java:org.exist.xquery.modules.expath.file.ExpathFileModule";

Also, not a dealbreaker, just an observation: the .xar file is 17.2 MB - kind of large.

[joewiz]

If you're interested, compare the list of functions available in the native file module to the EXPath File Module spec:

Native

EXPath File Module

[joewiz]

Moved to eXist-db/exist#1848 after discussion in 2018-03-19 Community Call.