TNTBase: Versioned Storage for XML

Version control systems like CVS and Subversion have transformed collaboration workflows in software engineering and made possible the globally distributed project teams we know from the Open Source phenomenon. On the other hand, XML is coming of age as a basis for document formats, and even though XML as a text-based format is amenable to version control in principle, the fact that version control systems work on files makes difficult the integration of fragment access techniques like XPath, XQuery that are currently revolutionizing XML workflows. In this paper we present the TNTBase system, an open-source versioned XML database obtained by integrating Berkeley DB XML into the Subversion Server. The system is intended as a basis for collaborative editing and sharing XML-based documents. It integrates versioning and fragment access needed for fine-granular document content management.