A full day seminar presented by Ronald Bourret. This workshop is being coordinated by Dr. Marc Haines, Assistant Professor in the MIS area at the School of Business Administration, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.

Overview

This seminar provides a technical survey of the world of XML and databases. It describes the differences between XML-enabled and native XML databases, explains what native XML databases are and when to use them, introduces participants to SQL/XML and XQuery, and discusses how modern relational databases combine relational and XML data.

Topics

Topics This is a survey course that discusses how to use XML and databases together. Participants will learn: The difference between XML-enabled and native XML databases How to map relational schemas to XML schemas and vice versa Basic SQL/XML and XQuery What native XML databases are and when to use them How modern relational databases combine relational and XML data Introduction - We start by examining whether XML is a database, some reasons to use XML with a database, and the difference between XML-enabled storage and native XML storage. We also survey XML query languages and look at the state of the XML/database product market. XML-Enabled Databases - XML-enabled databases are existing databases that have been retro-fitted to work with XML. We first review application architectures and use cases, then describe four common ways construct XML from relational data: The table-based mapping maps individual tables to tabular structures within XML documents. It is used in a wide variety of commercial and home-grown products. The object-relational mapping constructs a tree of objects from linked tables, then serializes these as XML. It is used by databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, and DB2 and is the basis for XML data binding. SQL/XML is a set of standard extensions to SQL for constructing XML from relational data. XQuery is a standard query language for XML documents. It can be used to query virtual documents constructed over relational data. Native XML Databases - Native XML databases are the new kid on the database block. We look at their technical definition, some real-world use cases, sample application code, and common features. Many native XML databases support XQuery, which we describe through a series of examples. Topics include the XQuery data model, path expressions, element constructors, FLWOR statements, and functions and operators.

About the speaker

Ronald Bourret is a consultant, writer, and researcher, specializing in how XML and databases work together. He has worked in the software industry since 1982, including five years as a contractor at Microsoft, where he co-wrote the ODBC and OLE-DB manuals, and two years at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany, where he did research on XML and databases. His XML work includes software for transferring data between XML documents and relational databases, several widely read papers on XML and databases, and the XML Namespaces FAQ. He is also a frequent speaker at commercial and academic conferences, as well as user’s groups and corporations.

Who should Attend?

Developers and software architects who want a technical introduction to the world of XML and databases. The seminar may also be suitable for less technical people (managers, technical writers, corporate document managers, etc.) who want to use XML and are willing to be exposed to technical details.

Coordinator

Dr. Marc Haines, Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the School of Business Administration, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, will coordinate this workshop.