xqr

🛠️ XQR - XPath Query & Replace

Powerful CLI tool for editing SVG, HTML, and XML files using XPath and CSS selectors. Edit your structured documents directly from the command line or through a web interface.

🎯 What is XQR?

XQR (XPath Query & Replace) is a universal file editor that treats SVG, HTML, and XML as structured data containers. Use familiar XPath expressions and CSS selectors to query, modify, and manipulate content without specialized applications.

Perfect for:

• Data Engineers - batch processing XML/SVG files
• DevOps - configuration management and automation
• Web Developers - HTML content manipulation
• Designers - SVG batch editing and metadata management

🚀 Features

• Multiple File Formats: SVG, HTML, XML support with automatic format detection
• XPath Queries: Full XPath 1.0 support for precise element selection
• CSS Selectors: CSS selector support for HTML files
• Multiple Interfaces: CLI commands, interactive shell, and web server
• State Persistence: Remembers the last loaded file between commands
• REST API: Programmatic access via HTTP endpoints
• Batch Processing: Automate edits across multiple files
• Backup System: Automatic backup creation before modifications

📦 Installation

Using Poetry (Recommended)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/veridock/xqr.git
cd xqr

# Install with Poetry
poetry install

# Activate the environment
poetry shell

Using pip

pip install xqr

🎯 Quick Start

1. Create Example Files

xqr examples

2. Basic Usage - Standard Commands

# Load and query a file
xqr load example.svg
xqr query "//text[@id='text1']"

# Update content
xqr set "//text[@id='text1']" "New Content"
xqr save

# The file remains loaded between commands
xqr query "//text[@id='text2']"  # Works without reloading

# To load a different file
xqr load other_file.xml

3. Concise File/XPath Operations

For quick operations, you can directly specify the file and XPath in one command:

# Read element content
xqr example.svg//text[@id='text1']

# Update element content
xqr example.svg//text[@id='text1'] "New Value"

# Delete element content (set to empty string)
xqr example.svg//text[@id='text1'] ""

# Read from XML/HTML files
xqr config.xml//setting[@name='timeout']
xqr index.html//title "New Page Title"

# This syntax is especially useful for one-off operations and scripts.

4. Interactive Shell

xqr shell
📝 > load example.html
📝 > query //title
📝 > set //title "Updated Title"
📝 > save
📝 > exit

# The shell maintains state between commands automatically

5. Web Interface

xqr server --port 8080
# Open http://localhost:8080 in your browser

# The web interface shares the same state as the CLI
# Any file loaded in the web interface will be available to the CLI and vice versa

🔄 State Persistence

XQR maintains state between commands, making it easy to work with files across multiple operations:

# Load a file (state is saved to ~/.local/state/xqr/state.json)
xqr load example.svg

# The file remains loaded for subsequent commands
xqr query "//title"
xqr set "//version" "2.0"
xqr save

# The state persists even if you close the terminal
# Next time you run xqr, it will remember the last loaded file
xqr query "//title"  # Still works with the last loaded file

# To clear the state or load a different file
xqr load different_file.html

State Management

• State is stored in ~/.local/state/xqr/state.json
• The state includes the path to the last loaded file
• If the file is moved or deleted, XQR will prompt you to load a new file

📖 Usage Examples

SVG Files - Update Charts & Graphics

# Update chart title
xqr set "//text[@id='title']" "Q4 Sales Results"

# Change visualization colors
xqr set "//rect[@id='bar1']" "blue" --type attribute --attr fill

# Update metadata for better organization
xqr set "//metadata/description" "Updated quarterly sales chart"

# Batch update multiple SVG files
for file in charts/*.svg; do
    xqr load "$file"
    xqr set "//metadata/updated" "$(date)"
    xqr save
done

HTML Files - Content Management

# Update page titles across multiple pages
xqr set "//title" "New Site Title"

# Change meta descriptions for SEO
xqr set "//meta[@name='description']" "Updated SEO description" --type attribute --attr content

# Update navigation links
xqr set "//nav//a[@href='/old-page']" "/new-page" --type attribute --attr href

# CSS selector support in shell mode
xqr shell
📝 > load index.html
📝 > query #main-heading
📝 > set #main-heading "Welcome to Our New Site"

XML Data Files - Configuration & Data

# Update configuration values
xqr set "//config/timeout" "60" --type attribute --attr value

# Modify data records
xqr set "//record[@id='1']/email" "[e-mail]"

# Update version information
xqr set "//metadata/version" "2.0"

# Batch configuration updates
find /etc/configs -name "*.xml" -exec xqr load {} \; \
    -exec xqr set "//config/debug" "false" \; \
    -exec xqr save {} \;

🔧 Advanced Features

Batch Processing Scripts

#!/bin/bash
# Update copyright year across all HTML files
for file in **/*.html; do
    echo "Processing $file..."
    xqr load "$file"
    xqr set "//span[@class='copyright-year']" "2025"
    xqr save
done

# Update SVG chart data
#!/bin/bash
# Replace old data with new values
for chart in reports/*.svg; do
    xqr load "$chart"
    xqr set "//metadata/data-source" "Q1-2025-data.json"
    xqr set "//text[@class='last-updated']" "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d')"
    xqr save
done

REST API Integration

# Start server
xqr server --port 8080

# Load file via API
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/load \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"file_path": "dashboard.svg"}'

# Query elements
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/query \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "//text[@class=\"metric-value\"]", "type": "xpath"}'

# Update values
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/update \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"xpath": "//text[@class=\"revenue\"]", "type": "text", "value": "$1.2M"}'

# Save changes
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/save \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"output_path": "updated_dashboard.svg"}'

XPath Examples

# Find elements by ID
//element[@id='myid']

# Find elements by attribute value
//rect[@fill='red']

# Find elements containing specific text
//text[contains(., 'Revenue')]

# Find elements by position
//record[position()=1]

# Find parent elements with specific children
//record[email='[e-mail]']

# Complex queries with multiple conditions
//svg//text[@font-size='16' and contains(@class, 'title')]

CSS Selector Examples (HTML only)

# By ID
#main-title

# By class
.navigation-item

# By attribute
input[type='text']

# Descendant selectors
div.content p

# Pseudo-selectors
li:first-child

# Complex selectors
nav.primary ul.menu li a[href^="/products"]

🏗️ Project Structure

xqr/
├── pyproject.toml          # Poetry configuration
├── README.md              # This file
├── Makefile               # Development automation
├── xqr/                   # Main package
│   ├── __init__.py        # Package initialization
│   ├── core.py           # Core FileEditor class
│   ├── cli.py            # Command-line interface
│   ├── server.py         # HTTP server
│   └── examples.py       # Example file generator
└── tests/                # Test suite
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── test_core.py
    ├── test_cli.py
    └── test_server.py

🧪 Development

Setting up Development Environment

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/veridock/xqr.git
cd xqr

# Install with development dependencies
poetry install

# Create example files and run tests
make dev-setup

# Run full development cycle
make dev

Available Make Commands

make help           # Show all available commands
make install        # Install package
make test           # Run test suite
make test-cov       # Run tests with coverage
make format         # Format code with black
make lint           # Run linting
make examples       # Create example files
make demo-svg       # Run SVG demo
make run-server     # Start web server
make run-shell      # Start interactive shell

Running Tests

# Run all tests
poetry run pytest

# Run with coverage
poetry run pytest --cov=xqr --cov-report=html

# Run specific test file
poetry run pytest tests/test_core.py -v

📋 Requirements

• Python: 3.8+
• lxml: For XPath support (automatically installed)
• beautifulsoup4: For CSS selector support (automatically installed)

🎯 Use Cases

DevOps & Configuration Management

# Update configuration across multiple environments
for env in dev staging prod; do
    xqr load "config-${env}.xml"
    xqr set "//database/host" "db-${env}.company.com"
    xqr set "//cache/ttl" "3600"
    xqr save
done

Content Management

# Update copyright notices across all HTML files
find . -name "*.html" -exec xqr load {} \; \
    -exec xqr set "//footer//span[@class='year']" "2025" \; \
    -exec xqr save {} \;

Data Processing

# Extract and transform data from XML files
xqr shell << EOF
load sales-data.xml
list //record[sales>10000]
set //record[sales>10000]/status "high-performer"
save processed-sales.xml
exit
EOF

SVG Automation

# Update chart data and metadata
xqr load quarterly-chart.svg
xqr set "//text[@class='chart-title']" "Q1 2025 Results"
xqr set "//metadata/generated" "$(date)"
xqr setattr "//rect[@class='revenue-bar']" height "250"
xqr save

🤝 Contributing

• Fork the repository
• Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/xpath-improvements)
• Make your changes
• Add tests for new functionality
• Run the test suite (make test)
• Format your code (make format)
• Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add XPath improvements')
• Push to the branch (git push origin feature/xpath-improvements)
• Open a Pull Request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🔗 Links

• Homepage: https://github.com/veridock/xqr
• Documentation: https://github.com/veridock/xqr#readme
• Issues: https://github.com/veridock/xqr/issues
• PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/xqr/

🌟 Why XQR?

Traditional approaches require different tools for each format:

• SVG files → Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator, manual editing
• HTML files → Web browsers, text editors, sed/awk scripts
• XML files → XML editors, custom parsers, XSLT

XQR provides a unified interface using standard web technologies:

• XPath - W3C standard for XML/HTML navigation
• CSS Selectors - Familiar syntax for web developers
• Command Line - Scriptable and automation-friendly
• REST API - Integration with existing workflows

Perfect for:

• CI/CD pipelines - automated content updates
• Content management - bulk HTML modifications
• Data processing - XML transformation workflows
• Design automation - SVG batch processing
• Configuration management - XML config updates

Real-world Examples

E-commerce: Update product prices across thousands of XML files

find products/ -name "*.xml" -exec xqr set "//price[@currency='USD']" "$(calc_new_price {})" \;

Documentation: Update version numbers in all HTML docs

xqr set "//meta[@name='version']" "v2.1.0" --type attribute --attr content

Analytics: Update dashboard charts with new data

xqr set "//svg//text[@class='metric']" "$REVENUE_METRIC"

XQR - Making structured data editing simple, fast, and scriptable.