SQLXML

551 of 577 | Michael Rys Comments on Infoworld article "Databases flex their XML" - In a post entitled My comments on the Infoworld article "Databases flex their XML" Michael Rys writes Sean McCown wrote this analysis (PDF version) in Apr 2004. In the article, he compares the XML capabilities of the 4 major relational database systems (comparing publicly available versions) both in terms of functionality, ease, flexibility and speed, and adds a sidebar on Yukon. Before I start giving my comments on the article, let me disclose that I talked to Sean during his research for the article and answered his questions on SQL Server 2000 and Yukon. Thus, some of the comments below are just my attempts to make Sean`s translation of my answer......

552 of 577 | Objects vs. XML in WinFS Land - The ongoing conversation between Jeremy Mazner and Jon Udell about the capabilities of WinFS deepen this morning with Jeremy`s post Did I misunderstand Udell`s argument against WinFS which was followed up by Jon`s post When a journalist blogs. In his post Jon asks We have standard query languages (XPath, XQuery), and standard ways of writing schemas (XSD, Relax), and applications (Office 2003) that with herculean effort have been adapted to work with these query and schema languages, and free-text search further enhancing all this goodness. Strategically, why not build directly on top of these foundations Tactically, why do I want to write code like ......

553 of 577 | An Introduction to the XQuery (and XPath 2.0) Type System: The Impact on XQuery and XPath - In the first two installments of the posting series on the XQuery Type System, we looked at the general concepts and terminology and at the XQuery types. In this posting, we will discuss the impact of the type system on the XQuery/XPath language (the Sequence Type production and the type-based operations), and the reasons for dynamic and static typing and how they relate. In the last part of the series, we will finally see how XQuery in SQL Server 2005 will implement the type system and how I think we should evolve our type implementation and behaviour over time. Impact of the type system on XQuery/XPath XQuery and XPath 2.0 provide several type related expressions: Type assertions (XQuery......

554 of 577 | Posts related to XQuery and its Type System - The following postings are discussing aspects of XQuery and its Type System: Discussion of the problems of the syntax and semantics of the XQuery SequenceType in the Nov 2003 XQuery Last Call document. Series on the XQuery and XPath 2.0 Type System An Introduction to the XQuery (and XPath 2.0) Type System: The general concepts An Introduction to the XQuery (and XPath 2.0) Type System: The XQuery types An Introduction to the XQuery (and XPath 2.0) Type System: The Impact on XQuery and XPath More will follow which I will add to this post, so please check back frequently....

555 of 577 | My comments on the Infoworld article "Databases flex their XML" - Sean McCown wrote this analysis (PDF version) in Apr 2004. In the article, he compares the XML capabilities of the 4 major relational database systems (comparing publicly available versions) both in terms of functionality, ease, flexibility and speed, and adds a sidebar on Yukon. Before I start giving my comments on the article, let me disclose that I talked to Sean during his research for the article and answered his questions on SQL Server 2000 and Yukon. Thus, some of the comments below are just my attempts to make Sean`s translation of my answers clearer, because I was not answering his questions clear enough :-). First, let me point out that this is one of the best comparative articles......

556 of 577 | TechEd Presentations are now online - I may be stealing Christa`s thunder, but the SQL Server TechEd 2004 PowerPoint presentations are now available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/sql/teched/. In particular you now can find the slides and demos for my two presentations at: DAT 319: The XML Data Type: Presentation, Demos, Kent`s synopsis with my comments DAT 327: Inside XQuery: Presentation, Demos, Kent`s synopsis  This Blog Hosted On: http://www.SqlJunkies.com/...

557 of 577 | TechEd 2004: DAT327 XQuery Demos posted - I posted the T-SQL XQuery demo. I will add the .Net Framework Xquery demo later. Also, Kent has written up a synopsis of the presentation. This time, I have no further comments :-). Thanks to all who showed up for the last presentation on a Friday afternoon. And congrats to the two winners of the XQuery books. There were lots of questions and though competition.This Blog Hosted On: http://www.SqlJunkies.com/...

558 of 577 | TechEd 2004: Feedback on DAT319 - I have received some feedback on my XML datatype presentation. Before I respond to the feedback, let me thank all who attended (even the person that used the room for an after-lunch or after-party nap :-)). The best question was judged and the book was given to Jon. Kent (btw, thanks for all the good session summaries, please accept my corrections as a service to the community and not as criticism) wrote the following points where I would like to comment: For XML RAW("x") generates X instead of ROW as element name Note: this is case-sensitive. For XML RAW, XSINIL will generate an XSI:NIL attribute for elements that would map for null results It is actually FOR XML RAW, ELEMENTS XSINIL FOR ......

559 of 577 | Obligatory cheesy conference post - It seems that most members of the the blogging community succumb to posting a “Yesterday at the -Insert Name- Conference...”, so who am I to rock the boat. Yesterday at TechEd 2004, Mark gave his talk on “XML Today and Tommorrow”...basically a rundown on how people use our bits in the current version of the .NET Framework and some of the improvements we`re making in Whidbey.  Unfortunately I wasn`t able to make it because I was meeting with some customers, but from feedback I got from talking with several customers afterwards, it went quite well.  Rumor is there was applause when he demoed some of the XQuery functionality we`re introducing.  That`s good for my XQuery talk on Friday. In the ......

560 of 577 | Obligatory cheesy conference post - It seems that most members of the the blogging community succumb to posting a “Yesterday at the -Insert Name- Conference...”, so who am I to rock the boat. Yesterday at TechEd 2004, Mark gave his talk on “XML Today and Tommorrow”...basically a rundown on how people use our bits in the current version of the .NET Framework and some of the improvements we`re making in Whidbey.  Unfortunately I wasn`t able to make it because I was meeting with some customers, but from feedback I got from talking with several customers afterwards, it went quite well.  Rumor is there was applause when he demoed some of the XQuery functionality we`re introducing.  That`s good for my XQuery talk on Friday. In the ......

561 of 577 | TechEd 2004: Impressions, prizes and talks - We have now passed the half-time of TechEd 2004 in San Diego. I have been busy in the SQL Server Cabana helping people (mainly XML, but also T-SQL, architectural advise etc.), giving an interview to Ken North for Dr. Dobb`s Journal (I will forward the link once it gets put online), going out to dinners, preparing my presentations etc. The conference seems to be getting good reviews from the participants, despite the occasional hick-up with the misprinted program (more on that below) and intermittent wireless issues (although it is much better than it was at PDC). The cabanas get good traffic, except at 7:30am (I had duty at 7:30 on Monday and the first people showed up at 8:50). I was psyc......

562 of 577 | An Introduction to the XQuery (and XPath 2.0) Type System: The XQuery types - In the first installment of the posting series on the XQuery Type System, we looked at the general concepts and terminology. In this posting, we will look at the XQuery type system a bit more closer to see which types exist and how they fit into the different categories of types. In upcoming postings, we will discuss the impact of the type system on the XQuery language (the Sequence Type production and the type-based operations), the reasons for dynamic and static typing, and finally, how XQuery in SQL Server 2005 will implement the type system and how I think we should evolve our type implementation and behaviour over time. As always, please feel free to ask questions or comments by replyi......

563 of 577 | Whitepaper on XML support in SQL Server 2005 (aka Yukon) posted on MSDN XML DevCenter - The MSDN XML dev center just posted a whitepaper on the XML support in SQL Server 2005 that describes not only the server-side functionality (such as the XML datatype) but also the relevant .Net Framework support and the mid-tier SQLXML component. Check it out!This Blog Hosted On: http://www.SqlJunkies.com/...

564 of 577 | An Introduction to the XQuery (and XPath 2.0) Type System: The general concepts - One of the most controversial, and in my opinion most often misunderstood aspect of XQuery 1.0/XPath 2.0 is their relationship to types. Many people seem to understand that the type system is based on the W3C XML Schema language (which is true) and then conclude that it is complex (which is only partially true). Also, too many people mix up the notions of weak, strong, static, and dynamic typing. In this and some following posts, I would like to bring some order into the confusion and explain how the type system in XQuery and XPath 2.0 works. First we will introduce a whole bunch of terms and talk about the general concepts. In subsequent posts I will look at the actual XQuery types and som......

565 of 577 | Promises, promises - So much for for blogging more regularly.  But if there was ever a reason to start up again, Mark`s recent post on XSLT 2.0 and Dare`s response are as good a reason as you can get.  As the XML Query (XPath, XSLT, XQuery, anything else) Program Manager for the .NET Framework, it`s time for me to chime in. First, we`re not abandoning XSLT 1.0.  Far from it, we`ve completely rewritten our XSLT implementation from scratch in Whidbey (XsltCommand) in order to solve the major performance issues we had with the current implementation.  Our original intention was to meet MSXML 4.0`s incredible performance.  I believe we`ll surpass this goal by the time we release. XSLT 1.0 will still be a (the?) cor......

566 of 577 | Promises, promises - So much for for blogging more regularly.  But if there was ever a reason to start up again, Mark`s recent post on XSLT 2.0 and Dare`s response are as good a reason as you can get.  As the XML Query (XPath, XSLT, XQuery, anything else) Program Manager for the .NET Framework, it`s time for me to chime in. First, we`re not abandoning XSLT 1.0.  Far from it, we`ve completely rewritten our XSLT implementation from scratch in Whidbey (XsltCommand) in order to solve the major performance issues we had with the current implementation.  Our original intention was to meet MSXML 4.0`s incredible performance.  I believe we`ll surpass this goal by the time we release. XSLT 1.0 will still be a (the) core......

567 of 577 | XQuery 1.0, XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0: The blogging continues - Boy oh boy! Mark Fussell sure earns the dinstinction of having posted one of the most controversial blog entries in a while on the topic of XQuery and XSLT. As the Microsoft representative to the W3C XQuery Working Group and the Program Manager for the SQL Server Engine support of XQuery, let me join the fray. Some good comments have been made in return to Mark`s post, although some seem to have misunderstood Mark`s point and some seem to clearly go off the deep-end. We are not killing XSLT 2.0 for some evil purpose, we just chose to not implement it for now. If enough other implementations will be done (I know Mike Kay is busy working on one), it will survive if it provides benefits. Bot......

568 of 577 | XML Schema evolution in SQL Server 2005 (Yukon) - Klaus has asked an important question: How do we evolve XML Schemas in SQL Server 2005? As he correctly points out, the namespace based approach of Beta1 made this very difficult. The XML Schema collections introduced in SQL Server 2005 Beta2 improves support for these types of scenarios tremendeously. There are a couple of ways on how schemata may evolve. Let`s look at some of them (please let me know if you have a scenario that I do not cover): Evolution by giving the schema a new version in the target namespaceThis is the least problematic assuming that the old data preserves its old namespace and schema. You either define a new schema collection and add a new column referring to the ne......

569 of 577 | Putting XML support in SQL Server 2000 into perspective - Many articles I have recently read start out with saying how clumsy the XML support in SQL Server 2000 is. While this is somewhat true if you want to store XML natively, we need to be fair: The reason for that is that SQL Server 2000`s design goals were to take the first step in a series of steps to XML-enable SQL Server. SQL Server 2000 focused on enabling relational to XML publishing and on providing shredding of relational data in XML form back into tables. In doing so, SQL Server 2000 addressed the main XML use case of relational database users in the 1999 to about the years 2001/2 which was to publish their existing relational data as XML and to consume structured data published as XM......

570 of 577 | Some comments on Kiss the Middle-tier Goodbye with SQL Server Yukon - In March, Klaus Aschenbrenner published an article on SQL Server 2005`s XML support titled “Kiss the Middle-tier Goodbye with SQL Server Yukon” (not that I would recommend that :-)). It is a pretty good, general overview of the Beta1 functionality. Since I started to comment on such articles, let me add some comments and clarifications to this article. I will leave out nitpicks on missing parens in the code and typos, and point out some differences introduced in Beta2. This article, as many others, has the potential of introducing some of the previously mentioned confusions. Here are some additional, technical comments: XML Schema management has changed in Beta2. Instead of registering a s......

571 of 577 | Essential XQuery - The XML Query Language - XQuery or XML Query Language is a W3C specification designed to provide a flexible and standardized way of searching through (semi-structured) data that is either physically stored as XML or virtualized as XML (such as XML Views over relational data). To give you an analogy, SQL is used to query relational data, XQuery is a standard language for querying XML data. This article is an introduction to XQuery language (based on November 2003 working draft)....

572 of 577 | XML in SQL Server 2000 and SQLXML - Microsoft SQL Server 2000 first introduced native support for XML and HTTP. Since then, to keep up with XML, Web services and .NET advancements, Microsoft has made available add-ons to SQL Server 2000 in the form of SQLXML Web releases. This article begins with explaining the built-in XML and HTTP support in SQL Server 2000 and then it describes the features available in the recent SQLXML Web release (version 3.0, service pack 2)....

573 of 577 | New XML Features in .NET Version 2 - Version 1.1 of the .NET framework supports todays mainstream XML technologies including DTDs, XML Schema, XSLT, XPath, SOAP 1.1, DOM Level 2, and XML namespaces. While version 2 of the framework continues to support these technologies (and newer versions where appropriate), it also contains integrated support for SQLXML functionality, simplifies mapping relational data to XML, and provides an execution and compilation environment for a new type of query language called XQuery. The downloadable code available below contains several different demonstrations of using new version 2 features such as XQuery, XML mapping and Views, as well as new classes such as XPathDocument2, XQueryProcessor, ......

574 of 577 | Ack! Looks like the spiders have almost taken over - Cobwebs everywhere in here, anyone would think I haven't had time to post much! Well, I'm still alive and busy as ever, deadlines coming out of my ears right now. In that mythical thing called "spare time" I'm currently exploring the features of the Flash Player 6 on the Pocket PC, with the use of the Flash Remoting tools (the developer stuff, not the expensive server), I was able to bind the results of a SQLXML template to a listbox with only a couple of lines of code, unfortunately on my iPAQ 3850 it was slow as a dog trying to scroll a list of the Northwind Customers table (only 91 records). These performance issues are disturbing, but it's probably just the overhead of using the ni......

575 of 577 | Ack! Looks like the spiders have almost taken over - Cobwebs everywhere in here, anyone would think I haven't had time to post much! Well, I'm still alive and busy as ever, deadlines coming out of my ears right now. In that mythical thing called "spare time" I'm currently exploring the features of the Flash Player 6 on the Pocket PC, with the use of the Flash Remoting tools (the developer stuff, not the expensive server), I was able to bind the results of a SQLXML template to a listbox with only a couple of lines of code, unfortunately on my iPAQ 3850 it was slow as a dog trying to scroll a list of the Northwind Customers table (only 91 records). These performance issues are disturbing, but it's probably just the overhead of using the ni......

576 of 577 | Patient Monitoring System - One project I've been working on recently involves the following: .NET application that listens to a legacy hospital system spitting out lab results SQLXML templates that enable extracting and updating a database of patients and results using a common XML format .NET Windows Application that hosts a Flash ActiveX object Flash movie that displays Patients, Lab Results and Test Results The Flash app was the main area I worked on, to achieve my results I had to create my own classes, and extend some internal classes. I create an Event Broadcaster, a base Collection, a Debug/Trace object, and did some custom extensions to the internal XML/XMLNode objects to add ......

577 of 577 | Patient Monitoring System - One project I've been working on recently involves the following: .NET application that listens to a legacy hospital system spitting out lab results SQLXML templates that enable extracting and updating a database of patients and results using a common XML format .NET Windows Application that hosts a Flash ActiveX object Flash movie that displays Patients, Lab Results and Test Results The Flash app was the main area I worked on, to achieve my results I had to create my own classes, and extend some internal classes. I create an Event Broadcaster, a base Collection, a Debug/Trace object, and did some custom extensions to the internal XML/XMLNode objects to add ......