You can update repository items with the <update-item> tag. The <update-item> tag encloses one or more <set-property> tags that specify the properties and values being set. Each <update-item> tag must include an item-descriptor attribute to specify the name of the item descriptor of the repository item being removed. You can also use the skip-update attribute to set properties in the item, but avoid the update item call until the transaction is committed.

For example, the following element changes the value of the dependents property of the user with id of 1:

<update-item item-descriptor="user" id="1" skip-update="true">
    <set-property name="dependents" value="1414,1732"/>
</update-item>

You can use the add or remove attributes to add or remove values from multi-item properties without overwriting the whole property value. For example, to add another value to the dependents property:

<update-item item-descriptor="user" id="1" skip-update="true">
    <set-property name="dependents" value="1799" add="true"/>
</update-item>