Add the Saxon processor to MBS Plugins?

For years we had XLST 1.0 and XQuery in the plugins using open source libraries. We could add the Saxon processor library for XLST, XQuery and XML Schema functionality. But that library has a cost as a commercial library, so making a plugin would only work if we have enough people taking it. We are collecting a list of developers interested in this to know whether it is feasible to do this.

We could have:

1. XSLT 3.0 Processor

   Saxon Professional supports the latest version of XSLT (3.0) for transforming XML documents into various formats (HTML, text, other XML formats). It supports full XPath 3.1 and XQuery 3.1 standards.

2. XPath 3.1 Support

   XPath is a language for navigating through elements and attributes in an XML document. Saxon Professional provides comprehensive support for XPath 3.1, allowing complex expressions for querying and filtering XML data.

3. XQuery 3.1 Support

   XQuery is used for querying XML data. Saxon Professional Edition supports XQuery 3.1, which is highly flexible and useful for querying both XML and non-XML data sources.

4. Streaming for XSLT 3.0

   Streaming allows Saxon to process large XML files that do not fit into memory by reading the document sequentially. This is essential for dealing with very large documents efficiently.

5. Schema-Aware XSLT and XQuery

   Saxon Professional Edition is schema-aware, meaning it can process and validate XML documents against XML Schema definitions. This ensures data integrity and adherence to data structures during transformation or query.

6. EXSLT Support

   Saxon includes support for EXSLT, which is a set of extensions to XSLT. These extensions provide additional functions for working with strings, dates, numbers, and more.

7. JSON Processing

   In addition to XML, Saxon/C++ can process JSON documents. It can convert JSON to XML for XSLT processing or use XPath/XQuery directly on JSON data, making it versatile for different data formats.

8. Serialization Features

   It provides advanced serialization options, including support for JSON output, binary data formats, and text formats, making it versatile for different kinds of output requirements.

We got a prototype working and now look for interested FileMaker developers interested in this functionality. Let us know whether you are interested. We will probably make it an add-on to our plugins to pay an extra licensing fee. Then we would add Saxon features to our plugin over time.

Please let us know if you would be interested to have Saxon library available for use in your projects.