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    <newsblock>
        <div id="quotes">
            <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/reports/01SRtoy06.html">
                <img src="resources/TOY2006s.jpg" border="0"/>
            </a>
            <blockquote>A smooth, even pleasurable introduction to the power of XQuery and XML
                content management</blockquote>
            <div class="source">InfoWorld</div>
        </div>
    </newsblock>

    <body>
        <section id="overview" title="Overview">

            <p> eXist is an Open Source native XML database featuring efficient, index-based <a
                    href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/">XQuery</a> processing, automatic indexing,
                extensions for full-text search, <a
                    href="http://xmldb-org.sourceforge.net/xupdate/">XUpdate</a> support,
                XQuery <a href="update_ext.xml">update extensions</a> and tight integration with
                existing XML development tools. The database implements the current XQuery 1.0
                working drafts, with exception of the schema import and schema validation features
                defined as optional in the XQuery specification.</p>

            <p>eXist provides a powerful environment for the development of web applications
                based on XQuery and related standards. Entire web applications can be written 
                in XQuery, using XSLT, XHTML, CSS and maybe Javascript (for AJAX functionality). XQuery 
                server pages can be executed from the filesystem or stored in the database.</p>

            <p> To avoid memory-intensive document tree traversals during query processing, eXist
                uses an efficient index structure which is based on a numerical indexing scheme for
                identifying XML nodes in the index.</p>

        </section>

        <section id="download" title="Download">
            <p> eXist is released to the public under the terms of the <link
                    href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html"> GNU LGPL </link> license.</p>
            
            <note>
                <p><b>Even</b> release numbers indicate 'production' releases
                whose code has been tested for a longer time but are frozen except for important bug fixes. 
                <b>Odd</b> releases are created from the active branch of development and
                contain all features and bug fixes.</p>
            </note>
            
            <p>Versions <option>1.0</option> and <option>1.1</option> were published simultaneously. This situation
            was special in the sense that there has been a real technology switch between the two releases. The
            1.1 code replaces the old indexing scheme at the core of the database by a new one. The <b>new indexing 
            scheme</b> fixes some limitations eXist previously had. In particular, it</p>
            
            <ul>
                <li>drops the previous document size/complexity limit</li>
                <li>removes the need to reindex a document after every node update</li>
            </ul>
            
            <p>So if you ever had trouble with large documents or slow XUpdates, you should
            definitely have a look at the 1.1 version. For a discussion of the two schemes, have
                a look at our <a href="xmlprague06.xml">XML Prague article</a> 
                (<a href="http://wiki.exist-db.org/space/XMLPrague2006/wolfgangs_talk.pdf">slides</a>).</p>
            
            <table cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5">
                <tr>
                    <th style="background-color: #C5DAFF" align="left" colspan="2">1.0</th>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td align="left" colspan="2">
                        Based on the old indexing core. Incorporates all the latest code
                        in all other areas. The old indexing scheme will become obsolete though.
                        Use this version if you already have a working application running
                        in production and want to be on the safe side.
                    </td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>
                        <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/exist/eXist-1.0.1-build4312.jar">eXist-1.0.1.jar</a>
                    </td>
                    <td> Installer based on IzPack. Includes source. Run with <tt>java -jar eXist-1.0.1.jar</tt></td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>
                        <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/exist/exist-1.0.1.war">exist-1.0.1.war</a>
                    </td>
                    <td>Web application archive, ready to be installed into an existing
                        servlet-engine like Tomcat or Jetty. </td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <th style="background-color: #C5DAFF" align="left" colspan="2">1.1-newcore</th>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td align="left" colspan="2">
                        Based on the new indexing core. Represents a major technological switch with respect
                        to the index system. All other areas (including most of the query engine) are identical
                        to the 1.0 release. If you know eXist and had problems with too large/too complex documents
                        or slow updates, try this version. If you are a new user and willing to help us testing, 
                        you may also want to download the 1.1 release as it has less limitations.
                    </td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>
                        <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/exist/eXist-1.1.1-newcore-build4311.jar">eXist-1.1.1-newcore.jar</a>
                    </td>
                    <td> Installer based on IzPack. Includes source. Run with <tt>java -jar eXist-1.1.1-newcore.jar</tt></td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>
                        <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/exist/exist-1.1.1-newcore.war">exist-1.1.1-newcore.war</a>
                    </td>
                    <td>Web application archive, ready to be installed into an existing
                        servlet-engine like Tomcat or Jetty. </td>
                </tr>
            </table>
            
            <p>For <a href="http://wiki.exist-db.org/space/ThirdPartyTools">other software</a> packages to be used 
            with eXist, check the links on the Wiki.</p>
        </section>
        <section title="Community Support" id="mailing">
            <p>The primary medium for asking questions, getting help or posting bug reports or fixes
                is the project mailing list. To subscribe/unsubscribe visit the mailing lists page
                on sourceforge.</p>

            <p>
                <link href="http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=17691">
                    http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=17691 </link>
            </p>

            <p> The <b>list archive</b> can be found on the same page. However, most people find
                    <b>Gmane</b> more convenient:</p>

            <p>
                <link href="http://news.gmane.org/thread.php?group=gmane.text.xml.exist">
                    http://news.gmane.org/thread.php?group=gmane.text.xml.exist</link> or, via NNTP, 
                <link href="news://news.gmane.org/gmane.text.xml.exist">
                    news://news.gmane.org/gmane.text.xml.exist</link>
            </p>

            <p>The project also has an <b>IRC channel</b>
                <link href="http://irc.exist-db.org">#existdb</link> at <link
                    href="irc://irc.freenode.net/existdb">irc.freenode.net</link>. The channel is
                open for general discussions on eXist and related subjects. </p>

        </section>
    </body>
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