1. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon, that, in response to execution by a processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to perform actions to apply a data manipulation primitive on an XML document, the actions comprising: identifying an operation in an application that provides logic to modify data in the XML document using a data manipulation primitive; evaluating an expression in the application into an XBind referencing a set of data in the XML document affected by the data manipulation primitive, wherein the XBind has a URL and a base path, and wherein the set of data is less than the entire XML document; and calling a document object to implement the data manipulation primitive as specified in the operation, wherein the document object is a runtime representation of the XML document, wherein the data manipulation primitive is implemented by the document object at runtime as the application is executing, and wherein implementing the data manipulation primitive as specified in the operation includes: causing a transaction to be generated, wherein the transaction includes an XML fragment comprising information representing implementation of a relative change to the XML document and information representing reversal of the relative change to the XML document.