Professional XML Databases [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

~ Kevin Williams (Editor), Michael Brundage (Author), Patrick Dengler (Author), Jeff Gabriel (Author), Andy Hoskinson (Author), Michael Kay (Author), Thomas Maxwell (Author), Marcelo Ochoa (Author), Johnny Papa (Author), Mohan Vanmane (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In addition to being a tutorial for learning how to use XML as an effective way to represent and transmit data across the Web, Professional XML Databases also covers how to work with XML in the current generation of Microsoft tools, like Internet Explorer and SQL Server 2000. For any developer or manager who works with databases on the Windows platform, this book shows how you can delve into XML today for real projects.

With endorsements from virtually every major vendor (including Microsoft), XML looks to be a compelling standard for sharing corporate data between organizations. Professional XML Databases examines how to integrate XML into your organization's database infrastructure. Early sections concentrate on the rules and strategies for designing effective XML documents (DTDs) that mimic traditional tables (including links between tables). By providing almost a dozen rules on how to do this correctly, the book assures that you'll learn not only the basics of XML syntax but also the correct way to create DTDs that are efficient, easy to maintain, and readable across your business. (Further sections reverse this process and show you how to create database tables based on XML.)

Subsequent sections cover many of the standards and APIs in today's XML, from XML Schemas, the XML W3C Document Object Model (DOM), and the Simple API for XML (SAX), to related standards like XSLT, XPath, and XPointer. A number of books cover these APIs, but this one provides a unique focus by examining Microsoft tools and their support for XML. This means there is coverage of Microsoft ADO (and ADO+, now called ADO.NET) for querying databases and packaging the results as XML. Sections on SQL Server 2000 highlight ways to use XML in this product, both as results and through XML views.

Closing sections explore options for working with XML for data warehousing and transmitting data efficiently across organizations. Sections on Java and the DB Prism (an open-source XML framework) help give this book a perspective that extends beyond the Microsoft platform.

For any database developer or designer who needs to architect XML documents in order to share data in real projects, this advanced treatise on the right way to define and use XML will prove highly valuable. For anyone who uses SQL Server 2000, this book also points the way toward using XML standards in actual shipping products on the Microsoft platform. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Hints for effective XML document design (including XML for text and XML for databases)
• Designing XML for existing database tables
• Creating database tables from XML
• Standards guidelines for XML used within (and between) organizations
• XML Schemas
• The XML W3C Document Object Model (DOM)
• Using the Simple API for XML (SAX)
• XSLT
• XPath used with style sheets and templates
• Resource linking with XLink
• Overview of additional emerging XML-based standards (including XBase, XInclude, XHTML, and XForms)
• The XML Query language
• Converting between flat file databases and XML
• Introduction to Microsoft ADO, ADO+ (ADO.NET), and XML
• Storing and retrieving XML in SQL Server 2000 (including OPENXML and XML views)
• Tutorial for JDBC programming
• JDBC used with XML
• Data warehousing
• Data transmission with XML
• The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
• Marshalling and presentation with XML (including a WML example for generating wireless content)
• Sample case studies for SQL Server 2000 showing XML techniques
• DB Prism (an open-source dynamic XML framework)
• XML and database primers
• References for XML datatypes and SAX

Product Description

: In this book, we look at how to integrate XML into your current relational data source strategies. With the increasing amount of data stored in relational databases, and the importance of XML as a format for marking up data - whether it be for storage, display, interchange, or processing - you need to have command of four key skills: understanding how to structure, process, access, and store your data.

By introducing guidelines for how to model your XML documents in relational databases and how to model relational database information as XML, we will establish structures that enable quick and efficient access, and make our data more flexible. We then look at the developer's XML toolbox, discussing associated technologies and strategies that will help us in describing, processing, and manipulating data. We also discuss common techniques for data access, data warehousing, transmission, and marshalling and presentation, giving working examples in every chapter.

Whether you are using XML for storage, as an interchange format, or for display, this book looks at some of the key issues you should be aware of when structuring, processing, accessing, and storing your documents.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1005 pages
• Publisher: Wrox Press; 1 edition (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861003587
• ISBN-13: 978-1861003584
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.2 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,323,134 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, February 18, 2001

By	ad_crumenam "ad_crumenam" (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

If you want to exploit SQL's support for XML, this is THE BOOK to buy. The book does NOT come with a CD, but the code samples can be downloaded from Wrox's site in a zip file. This book is not for the XML or SQL novice, but if you have a rudimentary education in either (as I do, I only started using SQL Server 2000 a couple of weeks ago) then you should be able to follow it.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new and complete XML approach for DBA, January 3, 2001

By	Maxime Bombardier (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

Finally, a book that covers a different XML approach. This book earns its "Database" title right. Indeed, it has to go some XML basics but this book is hugely focused in bringing a practical Database end for XML instead of only explaining XML.

This book covers some SQL Server 2000 XML capabilities for both input and output; it will go over a series of step on HOW to bring a current database into a XML document with DTD; and in reverse, how to take an XML document and create a relational database with it; it goes over data transmission and marshalling; in short, it goes over many many things that DBA will have to go through.

(** at the moment of this review, January 2001, the Amazon Table of Content is definitely wrong (about some PERL book or something) **)

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book available on XML and Databases, January 16, 2001

By A Customer

This is the best book currently available on XML and databases. I especially like that it contains many practical examples. If you're using SQL Server 2000, the chapters on SQL XML are excellent. Even if you're not using that particular database, I think you will find this book a valuable resource.