Servlex

Servlex, an implementation of the EXPath Webapp framework.

Breaking news

The Servlex code has just moved to GitHub at https://github.com/fgeorges/servlex/. The deliverables are still uploaded here, in the download area, as GitHub does not provide any. So please continue to download from here, but for the code go to GitHub.

Introduction

Servlex is an open-source implementation of the EXPath Webapp framework,(see also the editor draft of the spec), based on Saxon and Calabash as its XSLT, XQuery and XProc processors. It is developed as a Java EE application (requiring only Servlets technology for binding to HTTP server-side).

Installation

Download the latest servlex-x.y.z-installer.jar file from the download area and execute it by double-clicking on it (or from the command-line: java -jar servlex-x.y.z-installer.jar). Follow the instructions, that's it!

If you want to install Servlex into the servlet container of your choice, use the latest servlex-x.y.z.zip file instead. It contains a suitable WAR file and install instructions.

Setup

There is nothing to setup if you use the graphical installer. Just start Servlex by executing bin/startup.sh (resp. bin/startup.bat on Windows) and go to http://localhost:19757/. You can change the default port number in conf/server.xml.

If you install the WAR file yourself, you have to point the property org.expath.servlex.repo.dir to a repository on the disk. On Tomcat for instance, you can add the property to conf/catalina.properties.

Try it

Once installed, you can access the Servlex Admin Console at http://localhost:19757/manager/home. From there you can deploy the sample web application in the release, hello-world-x.y-z.xaw, by filling in the form. Go to http://localhost:19757/servlex/hello-world/ to access the example once installed. The sources are available in the dir hello-world/src/.

This sample application is just a few forms, each one-field, sending a string to either an XSLT function, an XQuery function or an XProc step, which in turn responds with a page based on this parameter. You can use the tool http://h2oconsulting.be/tools/dump to display the XML representation of the HTTP request which is send to the XSLT, XQuery and/or XProc components in a web application.

Some docs about Servlex are also available here and there on the EXPath's wiki.

Real-world usage

Servlex is used to run CXAN (as well as its Sandbox, the sources of which are available on GitHub. The EXPath website runs on Servlex too (see the sources). H2O Consulting website runs on Servlex as well.