Database Solutions for Storing and Retrieving XML Documents

IBM’s DB2 Relational Database with the XML Extender

XML Extender Features

• XML document retrieval and generation from SQL queries

• XML document storage

• data management functions

XML document retrieval

• Query syntax adheres to W3C standards Extensive Stylesheet Language Transformation(XSLI) and XML Path Language(Xpath)

• entire documents can be retrieved

• XML elements can be dynamically extracted

XML document generation

• XML Extender provides stored procedures to generate XML documents from existing data stored in DB2 tables

XML document storage

• DB2’s XML Extender Serves as a Repository for XML documents and their document type definitions (DTDs)

• an entire document can be stored as an XML user-defined column

• the document can be decomposed into multiple tables and columns

XML column option

• Document stored as user-defined type column

• three XML user-defined types(UDTs): XMLCLOB, XMLVARCHAR and XMLfile

• user-defined functions provided for insert, select and update operations

UDTs

• XMLCLOB and XMLVARCHAR store an XML document as a CLOB and a VARCHAR respectively in DB2

• XMLFile stores an XML document as a file on a local file system

XML collection

• An XML collection is a set of relational tables that contain data mapped to an XML document

• Data access definition(DAD) is used to define the mapping of document type definitions(DTD) to relational tables and columns

• stored procedures for select, insert, update

XML column vs XML collection

• XML column provides a simple way to manage XML documents and provides fast searching and indexing capabilities

• ideal for static data not frequently updated

• better performance since no need to compose the document from DB2 data

• XML collection provides a better mapping for an XML document which consists of multiple collections

• XML collection also supports existing DB2 data by providing a mechanism to generate an XML document for data interchange

Provides Data Management Functions

• Data integrity

• security

• recoverability

• manageability

Invoking DB2 XML Extender

• You can invoke DB2 XML Extender in a data access JavaBean through through WebSphere or in a Net.Data macro

• It can be used with DB2 or any ODBC-compliant database

Other Database Solutions

• MicroSoft SQL Server

• Oracle’s Oracle8i database

Conclusion

• IBM DB2 XML Extender and DB2 Universal Net.Data provide an end-to-end solution for storing and retrieving XML documents for business-to-business and business-to-consumer (with a browser) processing.