End-to-end XML based publishing workflows teamed with XML content management systems have made it possible for publishers to distribute custom published college course materials to university students in a variety of formats. Applications utilizing XQuery, a programming language designed to query repositories of XML data, allow college professors to search, manipulate and assemble the content into custom published course materials for distribution to their students. This previously cumbersome process of custom coursepack printing now makes it straight forward to provide course material in eBook or print formats and enables the inclusion of local content (PDF, Word, etc.) for a true customized package.
At a recent XML-in-Practice conference, a joint presentation by representatives from John Wiley & Sons in addition to McGraw-Hill demonstrated their implementations of web based custom publishing solutions utilizing XQuery on MarkLogic XML Server systems. Wiley's product, Custom Select, allows the user to search and select Wiley content at a section or chapter level and then customize the output with a cover, arrange the order of the content, and also upload local content. The resulting custom course material can then be previewed and submitted for printing or for the creation of eBooks. McGraw-Hill's implementation will provide the same level of functionality.
XQuery is particularly well suited to this application as it provides the capability to search, extract, and manipulate XML data from documents across many types of data sources. For more information on XQuery see XQuery 1.0: An XML Query Language by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) or the XQuery Wikipedia entry.
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