An XML index template is a list of possible tags that exist in a given type of document.

Using the ArcSDE API, users can create an index manually, or based on an ArcSDE analysis of some sample documents, or based on a set of templates. An XML index template is a list of possible tags that exist in a given type of document.

In a typical usage scenario, the application may display the contents of a template to a user. The user then checks which tags they are interested in. Only those tags of interest are indexed, and the resulting modifications are stored as an index definition for the given XML column. Note that only the indexed tags are searchable.

Thus, the purpose of XML index templates is to allow an application to present a user with a list of installed templates. When creating an XML column, the user can select an existing template as a base for specifying their column’s index.

For example, if a column’s contents will follow the FGDC metadata schema, the FGDC index template is presented to the user. The user can then choose which metadata location paths are of interest, and should therefore be indexed. The user may also add new location paths to the list if there are non-FGDC location paths specific to this column before saving the index definition for the column. The template gives the user a starting point to create a custom list of location paths for the column.

Both index templates and definitions may contain a list of tags that are not to be indexed (e.g., base 64 encoded data), in addition to the tags that are to be indexed.