Description
During the last 12 months XML database technology has matured greatly. Third-party tool support to update and distribute data stored in XML databases has grown at an impressive rate as well. Most importantly, XML databases are just now beginning to yield returns for many early adopters who have implemented this technology within their companies. This session will introduce XQuery which has emerged as the standard mechanism to query large volumes of XML data. Analogous to how SQL allows users to retrieve data from relational databases, an XQuery expression returns a set of XML nodes matching its criteria. Emphasis will be placed on learning by discussing a predefined set of instructional examples. Additionally, this session will explore the current state of XML database technology and identify promising areas for its applications. After discussing the pros and cons of adopting an XML database strategy as opposed to a more tradition means of storing XML data, a comparison of the leading database products will be presented.
Audience
The primary audience for this class is application developers, database administrators or system architects seeking to understand to fundamentals of XML databases and XQuery. This is an advanced class so a solid understanding of XML concepts is a prerequisite.