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xmldocbookxinclude

Is it possible to use wildcards with XInclude tags?

I'm afraid it's not possible, but haven't found anywhere it is said to be impossible either.

I'd like to include a set of files within a XML document using wildcards. Like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mydocument>
  <!-- ... -->
  <xi:include href="*include.xml"/>
</mydocument>

I know it doesn't work, but I think it clearly expresses my intentions. Is there a way to achieve this?

Edit:

I tried to use xpointer attribute, but couldn't make it work.

Solution

  • Is it possible to use wildcards with XInclude tags?

    No. The href denotes a URI, and these do not have a concept of wildcards.

    Otherwise it would be possible to mirror the Google homepage by saying something like href="http://www.google.com/*".

    Hint: File systems do also not have any concept of wildcards. Shells do. They do the heavy lifting of filling in the blanks for you when they parse a path and see a *. The underlying file system never gets to see the asterisk.