The QURSED System
Michalis Petropoulos, Yannis Papakonstantinou, Vasilis Vassalos · 2002
QURSED enables the development of web-based query forms and reports (QFRs) that query and report semistructured XML data, i.e., data that are characterized by nesting, irregularities and structural variance. The query aspects of a QFR are captured by its query set specification, which formally encodes multiple parameterized, possibly interdependent condition fragments and can describe large numbers of queries. The run-time component of QURSED produces XQuery-compliant queries by synthesizing fragments from the query set specification that have been activated during the interaction of the end-user with the QFR. The design-time component of QURSED, called QURSED Editor, semiautomates the development of the query set specification and its association with the visual components of the QFR and guides the development of meaningful dependencies between condition fragments by translating the visual actions into appropriate query set specifications. We describe QURSED and illustrate how it accommodates the intricacies that the semistructured nature of the underlying database introduces. We specifically focus on the formal model of the query set specification, its generation via the QURSED Editor, and its coupling with the visual aspects of the Web-based form and report. An on-line demonstration of the system is available at