1. A method for automatically merging data contained in a first XML document and data contained in a second XML document, the method comprising: identifying a merge attribute, wherein said merger attribute is an XML attribute that exists in both the first XML document and the second XML document; performing a set of comparisons, each comparison of the set of comparisons comparing an element of a set of elements of the first XML document with an element of a set of elements of the second XML document, wherein the comparison is based on the merge attribute, the merge attribute being contained in each of the elements of the set of elements of the first XML document and the second XML document, wherein a first comparison of the set of comparisons involves comparing the value of the merge attribute of a first element of the set of elements of the first XML document with that of the merge attribute of each element of the set of elements of the second XML document; and determining data from the first XML document and data from the second XML document to be included in a merged XML document, wherein said determining is based on the results of the set of comparisons, including said first comparison; and generating a merged XML document based on the determining, wherein said merged XML document contains only one of said first element and a second element of said XML document if the value of the merge attribute of said first element is equal to the value of the merge attribute of the second element of said second XML document.
1. A method for automatically merging data contained in a first XML document and data contained in a second XML document, the method comprising: identifying a merge attribute, wherein said merger attribute is an XML attribute that exists in both the first XML document and the second XML document; performing a set of comparisons, each comparison of the set of comparisons comparing an element of a set of elements of the first XML document with an element of a set of elements of the second XML document, wherein the comparison is based on the merge attribute, the merge attribute being contained in each of the elements of the set of elements of the first XML document and the second XML document, wherein a first comparison of the set of comparisons involves comparing the value of the merge attribute of a first element of the set of elements of the first XML document with that of the merge attribute of each element of the set of elements of the second XML document; and determining data from the first XML document and data from the second XML document to be included in a merged XML document, wherein said determining is based on the results of the set of comparisons, including said first comparison; and generating a merged XML document based on the determining, wherein said merged XML document contains only one of said first element and a second element of said XML document if the value of the merge attribute of said first element is equal to the value of the merge attribute of the second element of said second XML document. 12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining comprises determining and resolving conflicts and duplicates in the first XML document and the second XML document, and wherein said merge attribute is defined as type xml:id in a schema associated with the first XML document.