The document view is designed to be more human-readable than the system view, though it achieves this at the expense of completeness.
In level 1 the document view is used as the format for the virtual XML stream against which an XPath query is run (see 6.6 Searching Repository Content). As well, in level 1, export to document view format is supported (see 6.5 Exporting Repository Content). In level 2, document view also allows for the import of arbitrary XML (see 7.3.2 Import from Document View).
The document view mapping in fact consists of a family of related mappings whose precise features vary according to the context in which it is used (export, import or XPath query) and which optional features are supported by the particular implementation in question.
The next section describes the general structure of the document view mapping and then moves on to explain the special cases, context-related differences and optional features. With respect to context-related differences, the description below addresses XPath and export. A discussion of document view in the context of import can be found in the above-mentioned section 7.3.2 Import from Document View.