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XML Reference Guide

📄 Contents

  1. XML Reference Guide
  2. Overview
  3. What Is XML?
  4. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  5. Books and e-Books
  6. Official Documentation
  7. Table of Contents
  8. The Document Object Model
  9. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  10. Books and e-Books
  11. Official Documentation
  12. DOM and Java
  13. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  14. Books and e-Books
  15. Implementations
  16. DOM and JavaScript
  17. Using a Repeater
  18. Repeaters and XML
  19. Repeater Resources
  20. DOM and .NET
  21. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  22. Books and e-Books
  23. Documentation and Downloads
  24. DOM and C++
  25. DOM and C++ Resources
  26. DOM and Perl
  27. DOM and Perl Resources
  28. DOM and PHP
  29. DOM and PHP Resources
  30. DOM Level 3
  31. DOM Level 3 Core
  32. DOM Level 3 Load and Save
  33. DOM Level 3 XPath
  34. DOM Level 3 Validation
  35. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  36. Books and e-Books
  37. Documentation and Implementations
  38. The Simple API for XML (SAX)
  39. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  40. Books and e-Books
  41. Official Documentation
  42. SAX and Java
  43. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  44. Books and e-Books
  45. SAX and .NET
  46. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  47. SAX and Perl
  48. SAX and Perl Resources
  49. SAX and PHP
  50. SAX and PHP Resources
  51. Validation
  52. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  53. Books and e-Books
  54. Official Documentation
  55. Document Type Definitions (DTDs)
  56. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  57. Books and e-Books
  58. Official Documentation
  59. XML Schemas
  60. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  61. Books and e-Books
  62. Official Documentation
  63. RELAX NG
  64. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  65. Books and e-Books
  66. Official Documentation
  67. Schematron
  68. Official Documentation and Implementations
  69. Validation in Applications
  70. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  71. Books and e-Books
  72. XSL Transformations (XSLT)
  73. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  74. Books and e-Books
  75. Official Documentation
  76. XSLT in Java
  77. Java in XSLT Resources
  78. XSLT and RSS in .NET
  79. XSLT and RSS in .NET Resources
  80. XSL-FO
  81. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  82. Books and e-Books
  83. Official Documentation
  84. XPath
  85. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  86. Books and e-Books
  87. Official Documentation
  88. XML Base
  89. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  90. Official Documentation
  91. XHTML
  92. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  93. Books and e-Books
  94. Official Documentation
  95. XHTML 2.0
  96. Documentation
  97. Cascading Style Sheets
  98. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  99. Books and e-Books
  100. Official Documentation
  101. XUL
  102. XUL References
  103. XML Events
  104. XML Events Resources
  105. XML Data Binding
  106. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  107. Books and e-Books
  108. Specifications
  109. Implementations
  110. XML and Databases
  111. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  112. Books and e-Books
  113. Online Resources
  114. Official Documentation
  115. SQL Server and FOR XML
  116. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  117. Books and e-Books
  118. Documentation and Implementations
  119. Service Oriented Architecture
  120. Web Services
  121. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  122. Books and e-Books
  123. Official Documentation
  124. Creating a Perl Web Service Client
  125. SOAP::Lite
  126. Amazon Web Services
  127. Creating the Movable Type Plug-in
  128. Perl, Amazon, and Movable Type Resources
  129. Apache Axis2
  130. REST
  131. REST Resources
  132. SOAP
  133. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  134. Books and e-Books
  135. Official Documentation
  136. SOAP and Java
  137. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  138. Books and e-Books
  139. Official Documentation
  140. WSDL
  141. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  142. Books and e-Books
  143. Official Documentation
  144. UDDI
  145. UDDI Resources
  146. XML-RPC
  147. XML-RPC in PHP
  148. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  149. Books and e-Books
  150. Official Documentation
  151. Ajax
  152. Asynchronous Javascript
  153. Client-side XSLT
  154. SAJAX and PHP
  155. Ajax Resources
  156. JSON
  157. Ruby on Rails
  158. Creating Objects
  159. Ruby Basics: Arrays and Other Sundry Bits
  160. Ruby Basics: Iterators and Persistence
  161. Starting on the Rails
  162. Rails and Databases
  163. Rails: Ajax and Partials
  164. Rails Resources
  165. Web Services Security
  166. Web Services Security Resources
  167. SAML
  168. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  169. Books and e-Books
  170. Specification and Implementation
  171. XML Digital Signatures
  172. XML Digital Signatures Resources
  173. XML Key Management Services
  174. Resources for XML Key Management Services
  175. Internationalization
  176. Resources
  177. Grid Computing
  178. Grid Resources
  179. Web Services Resource Framework
  180. Web Services Resource Framework Resources
  181. WS-Addressing
  182. WS-Addressing Resources
  183. WS-Notifications
  184. New Languages: XML in Use
  185. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  186. Books and e-Books
  187. Official Documentation
  188. Google Web Toolkit
  189. GWT Basic Interactivity
  190. Google Sitemaps
  191. Google Sitemaps Resources
  192. Accessibility
  193. Web Accessibility
  194. XML Accessibility
  195. Accessibility Resources
  196. The Semantic Web
  197. Defining a New Ontology
  198. OWL: Web Ontology Language
  199. Semantic Web Resources
  200. Google Base
  201. Microformats
  202. StructuredBlogging
  203. Live Clipboard
  204. WML
  205. XHTML-MP
  206. WML Resources
  207. Google Web Services
  208. Google Web Services API
  209. Google Web Services Resources
  210. The Yahoo! Web Services Interface
  211. Yahoo! Web Services and PHP
  212. Yahoo! Web Services Resources
  213. eBay REST API
  214. WordML
  215. WordML Part 2: Lists
  216. WordML Part 3: Tables
  217. WordML Resources
  218. DocBook
  219. Articles
  220. Books and e-Books
  221. Official Documentation and Implementations
  222. XML Query
  223. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  224. Books and e-Books
  225. Official Documentation
  226. XForms
  227. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  228. Books and e-Books
  229. Official Documentation
  230. Resource Description Framework (RDF)
  231. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  232. Books and e-Books
  233. Official Documentation
  234. Topic Maps
  235. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  236. Books and e-Books
  237. Official Documentation, Implementations, and Other Resources
  238. Rich Site Summary (RSS)
  239. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  240. Books and e-Books
  241. Official Documentation
  242. Simple Sharing Extensions (SSE)
  243. Atom
  244. Podcasting
  245. Podcasting Resources
  246. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
  247. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  248. Books and e-Books
  249. Official Documentation
  250. OPML
  251. OPML Resources
  252. Summary
  253. Projects
  254. JavaScript TimeTracker: JSON and PHP
  255. The Javascript Timetracker
  256. Refactoring to Javascript Objects
  257. Creating the Yahoo! Widget
  258. Web Mashup
  259. Google Maps
  260. Indeed Mashup
  261. Mashup Part 3: Putting It All Together
  262. Additional Resources
  263. Frequently Asked Questions About XML
  264. What's XML, and why should I use it?
  265. What's a well-formed document?
  266. What's the difference between XML and HTML?
  267. What's the difference between HTML and XHTML?
  268. Can I use XML in a browser?
  269. Should I use elements or attributes for my document?
  270. What's a namespace?
  271. Where can I get an XML parser?
  272. What's the difference between a well-formed document and a valid document?
  273. What's a validating parser?
  274. Should I use DOM or SAX for my application?
  275. How can I stop a SAX parser before it has parsed the entire document?
  276. 2005 Predictions
  277. 2006 Predictions
  278. Nick's Book Picks

It is a truism that any significantly large application almost inevitably has a database of some sort behind it, so a large part of working with XML involves working with data that comes from databases. Sometimes this involves complex programming. Sometimes this involves middleware. In the case of Microsoft SQL Server 2000, it sometimes involves carefully crafted SQL SELECT statements.

As you may know, Microsoft has been focusing heavily on XML in its latest products, so it's no surprise that SQL Server 2000 comes "XML ready". In fact, there are several ways to directly access XML data from SQL Server, including SELECT statements, Transact-SQL's OPENXML, and template files. In this reference guide section, I'm going to focus on using SELECT statements with the FOR XML clause.

Before we do anything, I should say a few words about how you can use these SELECT statements. I'm going to use HTTP access as an example, but you can also run these statements directly using SQL Server's Query analyzer. You can also build them into your applicatons.

To get started, make sure that you have the following installed:

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP 3
  • IIS 5.0
  • SQLXML 3.0

Follow the directions in the SQLXML documentation (look for "Creating the nwind Virtual Directory") to set up the environment for running SQL queries over HTTP. For the purpose of this discussion, I'll assume that you're using the obligatory Northwind database.

Once that's done, open the browser and you're ready.

What you've done is to create a virtual directory that runs SQL queries against the database and returns the data to the browser. For example, point your browser to the following URL:

http://yourserver/nwind?sql=SELECT+CustomerID,+ContactName+FROM+Customers+
FOR+XML+RAW&root=ROOT

(I've split it onto two lines just to fit it on the page. It should be one line in the browser.)

Let's take this one piece at a time. The SQL query we're executing is

SELECT CustomerID, ContactName FROM Customers FOR XML RAW

If we were to execute it in Query Analyzer, we'd get the following XML:

<row CustomerID="ALFKI" ContactName="Maria Anders" /> 
<row CustomerID="ANATR" ContactName="Ana Trujillo" /> 
<row CustomerID="ANTON" ContactName="Antonio Moreno" /> 
<row CustomerID="AROUT" ContactName="Thomas Hardy" /> 

The trouble with this result is that because it lacks a root element, it's not a well-formed XML document, so the browser can't render it. By adding

root=ROOT

we turn the result into

<ROOT>
   <row CustomerID="ALFKI" ContactName="Maria Anders" /> 
   <row CustomerID="ANATR" ContactName="Ana Trujillo" /> 
   <row CustomerID="ANTON" ContactName="Antonio Moreno" /> 
   <row CustomerID="AROUT" ContactName="Thomas Hardy" /> 
</ROOT>

The choice of ROOT is completely arbitrary. You can use any element name you want.

Now let's look at the query itself. Because I used FOR XML RAW, the data is returned with each row in the result set encoded as a single row element, with each column specified as an attribute. The advantage of this behavior is that it's completely predictable. The disadvantage is that it's not particularly human-friendly when you start to get more than one result set. Also, FOR XML RAW doesn't support multiple-table queries.

Then there's FOR XML AUTO. Let's stay, for example, that we executed the same query, but as

http://yourserver/nwind?sql=SELECT+CustomerID,+ContactName+FROM+Customers+
FOR+XML+AUTO&root=ROOT

At first glance, the result is very similar:

<ROOT> 
   <Customers CustomerID="ALFKI" ContactName="Maria Anders" /> 
   <Customers CustomerID="ANATR" ContactName="Ana Trujillo" /> 
   <Customers CustomerID="ANTON" ContactName="Antonio Moreno" /> 
   <Customers CustomerID="AROUT" ContactName="Thomas Hardy" /> 
</ROOT>

The major obvious difference is that rows are now identified by the table name, which is certainly an improvement. We can also start using multiple table queries, or joins, as in:

http://yourserver/nwind?sql=SELECT+Customers.CustomerID,OrderID,
OrderDate+FROM+Customers,+Orders+WHERE+Customers.CustomerID=Orders.CustomerID+
Order+by+Customers.CustomerID,OrderID+FOR+XML+AUTO&root=Data

This executes the query

SELECT Customers.CustomerID, OrderID, OrderDate 
    FROM Customers, Orders 
    WHERE Customers.CustomerID = Orders.CustomerID 
    ORDER by Customers.CustomerID, OrderID 
    FOR XML AUTO

which gives us something along the lines of

<Data> 
   <Customers CustomerID="ALFKI"> 
      <Orders OrderID="10643" OrderDate="1997-08-25T00:00:00" /> 
   </Customers> 
   <Customers CustomerID="ANATR"> 
      <Orders OrderID="10308" OrderDate="1996-09-18T00:00:00" /> 
      <Orders OrderID="10625" OrderDate="1997-08-08T00:00:00" /> 
   </Customers> 
</Data>

Notice that the data is grouped based on the join condition.

Here we also see the data as attributes, but you can also tell SQL Server to structure it as elements, with a query of

SELECT Customers.CustomerID, OrderID, OrderDate 
    FROM Customers, Orders 
    WHERE Customers.CustomerID = Orders.CustomerID 
    ORDER by Customers.CustomerID, OrderID 
    FOR XML AUTO, ELEMENTS

giving a result such as

<Data> 
   <Customers> 
      <CustomerID>ALFKI</CustomerID> 
      <Orders> 
         <OrderID>10643</OrderID> 
         <OrderDate>1997-08-25T00:00:00</OrderDate> 
      </Orders> 
   </Customers> 
   <Customers> 
      <CustomerID>ANATR</CustomerID> 
      <Orders> 
         <OrderID>10308</OrderID> 
         <OrderDate>1996-09-18T00:00:00</OrderDate> 
      </Orders> 
      <Orders> 
         <OrderID>10625</OrderID> 
         <OrderDate>1997-08-08T00:00:00</OrderDate> 
      </Orders> 
   </Customers>
</Data>

You can also control the names of the various elements (or attributes) using aliases within the SQL statement, as in

http://yourserver/nwind?sql=SELECT+customer.CustomerID+as+custid,
OrderID+as+oid,OrderDate+as+odate+FROM+Customers+as+customer,+
Orders+as+ord+WHERE+customer.CustomerID=ord.CustomerID+
Order+by+customer.CustomerID,OrderID+FOR+XML+AUTO,ELEMENTS&root=customers

which executes the query

SELECT customer.CustomerID as custid, OrderID as oid, OrderDate as odate 
   FROM Customers as customer, Orders as ord 
   WHERE customer.CustomerID = ord.CustomerID 
   ORDER by customer.CustomerID, OrderID 
   FOR XML AUTO,ELEMENTS

The result is something like

<customers> 
   <customer> 
      <custid>ALFKI</custid> 
      <ord> 
         <oid>10643</oid> 
         <odate>1997-08-25T00:00:00</odate> 
      </ord> 
   </customer> 
   <customer> 
      <custid>ANATR</custid> 
         <ord> 
            <oid>10308</oid> 
            <odate>1996-09-18T00:00:00</odate> 
         </ord> 
         <ord> 
            <oid>10625</oid> 
            <odate>1997-08-08T00:00:00</odate> 
         </ord> 
   </customer>
</customers>

This does give us some degree of control, but we're still at the mercy of the "all-or-nothing" nature of FOR XML AUTO. We've got all attributes, or all elements, and nothing in between. Fortunately, we have one more option.

The FOR XML EXPLICIT clause enables us to directly control the structure of the resulting XML. Joining tables requires you to jump through a few hoops (and UNION statements) but consider, for example, the URL:

http://yourserver/nwind?sql=SELECT+1+as+Tag,+NULL+as+Parent,+
CustomerID+as+[customer!1!custid],+Phone+as+[customer!1!phone],+
CompanyName+as+[customer!1!company!element],+
ContactName+as+[customer!1!name!element],+
ContactTitle+as+[customer!1!title!element]+FROM+Customers+
ORDER+by+[customer!1!custid]+FOR+XML+EXPLICIT&root=customers

and its associated query:

SELECT 1 as Tag, NULL as Parent, 
       CustomerID as [customer!1!custid], 
       Phone as [customer!1!phone], 
       CompanyName as [customer!1!company!element], 
       ContactName as [customer!1!name!element], 
       ContactTitle as [customer!1!title!element] 
   FROM Customers 
   ORDER by [customer!1!custid] 
   FOR XML EXPLICIT

This special format enables you to specify the name of the element for which each element is a child, the level of that element, and whether it's an attribute or element. (There's actually much more you can specify, but we'll keep it at that level for this discussion.)

For example, we've specified that level 1 is a Tag, and the CustomerID column should be represented as the custid attribute of that level 1 tag, which is named customer. Similarly, the CompanyName column is a company element underneath that level 1 customer element. The result looks something like this:

<customers> 
   <customer custid="ALFKI" phone="030-0074321"> 
      <company>Alfreds Futterkiste</company> 
      <name>Maria Anders</name> 
      <title>Sales Representative</title> 
   </customer> 
   <customer custid="ANATR" phone="(5) 555-4729"> 
      <company>Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados</company> 
      <name>Ana Trujillo</name> 
      <title>Owner</title> 
   </customer>
</customers>

This discussion only scratches the surface of what you can do with SQL Server and XML. In future sections, we'll talk about using XSL Transformations, template files, mapping schemas, and even selecting SQL data using XPath.

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Last Update: November 17, 2020