Preface

The Preface has the following sections:

About this Guide

This manual provides case studies and applications that use Oracle9i's XML-enabled database technology. It describes different ways that XML data can be stored, managed, queried, and exchanged in the database using Oracle XML-enabled technology.

This manual describes several scenarios that are based on actual business applications. The case studies are presented according to their main function, namely, whether they are primarily used for one or both of the following high level tasks:

XML-Based Content and/or Document Management, see Part II, "Managing Content and Documents with XML".
XML Data Exchange in Business--to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Application-to-Application (A2A), or Peer-to-Peer(P2P) applications. See Part III, "XML Data Exchange". A detailed application is described in, Chapter 8, "Online B2B XML Application: Step by Step". This explains how to build an XML B2B data exchange and customized presentation application.

Composed or Decomposed (Generated) XML

In general, XML documents are processed in one of two ways:

As composed XML documents, stored in LOBs
As decomposed XML document fragments, stored in relational tables, with the XML tags mapped to their respective columns in the database tables. The decomposed or fragmented XML documents can then be regenerated into composed XML documents

Oracle XML-Enabled Technology

The main Oracle XML-enabled technology components are the XML Developer Kits (XDKs). These are available in four language implementations:

Java. XDK for Java, XDK for Javabeans, and XML SQL Utility for Java
PL/SQL. XDK for PL/SQL and XML SQL Utility for PL/SQL
C. XDK for C
C++. XDK for C++
See:

Oracle9i Application Developer's Guide - XML

Oracle9i XML Reference

This is the first edition of this manual. A number of helpful chapters, waiting in the wings, did not make it into this edition. If you have, or know of any interesting XML Oracle database case studies that you would like to contribute, or would like to see included here, please inform the author through infodev_us@oracle.com.

Audience

This guide is intended for developers building XML applications on Oracle9i.

Prerequisite Knowledge

An understanding of XML and XSL is helpful but not essential for using this manual. References to good sources for more information are included in Appendix A, "An XML Primer", and in the FAQ section at the end of Chapter 3 in Oracle9i Application Developer's Guide - XML.

Many examples provided here are in either SQL, Java, PL/SQL, C, or C++, hence a working knowledge of one or more of these languages is presumed.

Feature Coverage and Availability

The information in this manual represents a snapshot of information on Oracle XML-enabled technology components. These change rapidly. To view the latest information, refer to Oracle Technology Network (OTN) at: http://otn.oracle.com/tech/xml

How this Manual is Organized

This manual is organized into 3 parts and 9 chapters. It includes an appendix, index and glossary.

PART 1 Introducing Oracle XML-Enabled Technology.
- Chapter 1, "Oracle XML-Enabled Technology" has introductory and basic information about using Oracle9i's XML components, XML support in the database, using XMLType and URI-Reference, XML SQL Utility (XSU), and how to apply Oracle Text to search and retrieve information from XML documents.
- Chapter 2, "Modeling and Design Issues for Oracle XML Applications" introduces you to the various ways that XML can be stored in the database, XML design issues, and loading XML into the database. It also presents some actual business scenarios and describes the XDK and other Oracle XMl enabled components you can consider using.
PART II Managing Content and Documents with XML
- Chapter 3, "Oracle9i AS Wireless Edition and XML" describes Wireless Edition (portal-to-go) components an how they are used to extract content from a web site, convert this to XML, and transform the data for display on any device.
- Chapter 4, "Customizing Presentation with XML and XSQL: Flight Finder" describes how the Flight Finder application generates XML to and from the database and uses XSQL Servlet to process queries and output results as XML. It also discusses how Flight Finder formats the XML data using XSL stylesheets. This application and demo is also available on Oracle Technology Network (OTN).
- Chapter 5, "Customizing Content with XML: Dynamic News Application" describes the Dynamic News application, the three custom servlets used in the application, and how XML SQL Utility (XSU) accesses news content from Oracle9i. The application offers three levels of user customization -- static, semi-dynamic, and dynamic. This chapter also includes some detail on customizing presentations.
- Chapter 6, "Using Oracle9i Internet File System (9iFS) to Build XML Applications" introduces you to the 9iFS and focuses on 9iFS's XML support.
PART III XML Data Exchange
- Chapter 7, "Customizing Discoverer 4i Viewer with XSL" describes how Discoverer4i (9i) can be used to customize web applications to make the best use of your business intelligence, forms, and reports. The chapter includes some detail on using XSL stylesheets to customize your presentation.
- Chapter 8, "Online B2B XML Application: Step by Step" describes in detail one way to build and implement a B2B online catalog XML application using XSQL Servlet and Advanced Queueing (AQ). It includes scripts for transforming the resulting XML messages for different user devices. An extension and simplified version of this application is also available at http://otn.oracle.com/tech/xml
- Chapter 9, "Service Delivery Platform (SDP) and XML" introduces you to the Phone Number Portability application. The chapter summarizes how XML messaging can be used by various telecommunications products and systems and designed in iMessage Studio, Event Manager, and Adapters.

How to Order this Manual

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Downloading Release Notes, Installation Guides, White Papers,...

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How to Access this Manual On-Line

You can find copies of or download this manual from any of the following locations:

On the Document CD that accompanies your Oracle9i software CD
From Oracle Technology Network (OTN) at http://otn.oracle.com/docs/index.htm, under Data Server (or whatever other product you have). For example, select Oracle9i > General Documentation Release 1 (9.0.1) (or whatever other section you need to specify). Select HTML then select HTML or PDF for your particular of interest, such as, "Oracle Documentation Library". Note that you may only be able to locate the prior release manuals at this site.

Conventions

This section describes the conventions used in the text and code examples of this documentation set. It describes:

Conventions in Text

We use various conventions in text to help you more quickly identify special terms. The following table describes those conventions and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
Bold	Bold typeface indicates terms that are defined in the text or terms that appear in a glossary, or both.	When you specify this clause, you create an index-organized table.
Italics	Italic typeface indicates book titles or emphasis.	Oracle9i Concepts Ensure that the recovery catalog and target database do not reside on the same disk.
`UPPERCASE monospace (fixed-width font)`	Uppercase monospace typeface indicates elements supplied by the system. Such elements include parameters, privileges, datatypes, RMAN keywords, SQL keywords, SQL*Plus or utility commands, packages and methods, as well as system-supplied column names, database objects and structures, usernames, and roles.	You can specify this clause only for a `NUMBER` column. You can back up the database by using the `BACKUP` command. Query the `TABLE_NAME` column in the `USER_TABLES` data dictionary view. Use the `DBMS_STATS`.`GENERATE_STATS` procedure.
`lowercase monospace (fixed-width font)`	Lowercase monospace typeface indicates executables, filenames, directory names, and sample user-supplied elements. Such elements include computer and database names, net service names, and connect identifiers, as well as user-supplied database objects and structures, column names, packages and classes, usernames and roles, program units, and parameter values. Note: Some programmatic elements use a mixture of UPPERCASE and lowercase. Enter these elements as shown.	Enter `sqlplus` to open SQL*Plus. The password is specified in the `orapwd` file. Back up the datafiles and control files in the `/disk1/oracle/dbs` directory. The `department_id`, `department_name`, and `location_id` columns are in the `hr.departments` table. Set the `QUERY_REWRITE_ENABLED` initialization parameter to `true.` Connect as `oe` user. The `JRepUtil` class implements these methods.
`lowercase monospace (fixed-width font) italic`	Lowercase monospace italic font represents placeholders or variables.	You can specify the `parallel_clause`. Run `U``old_release``.SQL` where `old_release` refers to the release you installed prior to upgrading.

Conventions in Code Examples

Code examples illustrate SQL, PL/SQL, SQL*Plus, or other command-line statements. They are displayed in a monospaced (fixed-width) font and separated from normal text as shown in this example:

SELECT username FROM dba_users WHERE username = 'MIGRATE';

The following table describes typographic conventions used in code examples and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
[ ]	Brackets enclose one or more optional items. Do not enter the brackets.	`DECIMAL (``digits` `[ ,` `precision` `])`
{ }	Braces enclose two or more items, one of which is required. Do not enter the braces.	`{ENABLE \| DISABLE}`
\|	A vertical bar represents a choice of two or more options within brackets or braces. Enter one of the options. Do not enter the vertical bar.	`{ENABLE \| DISABLE}` `[COMPRESS \| NOCOMPRESS]`
`...`	Horizontal ellipsis points indicate either: That we have omitted parts of the code that are not directly related to the example That you can repeat a portion of the code	`CREATE TABLE ... AS` `subquery``;` `SELECT` `col1``,` `col2``, ... ,` `coln` `FROM employees;`
. . .	Vertical ellipsis points indicate that we have omitted several lines of code not directly related to the example.
Other notation	You must enter symbols other than brackets, braces, vertical bars, and ellipsis points as shown.	`acctbal NUMBER(11,2);` `acct CONSTANT NUMBER(4) := 3;`
`Italics`	Italicized text indicates placeholders or variables for which you must supply particular values.	`CONNECT SYSTEM/``system_password` `DB_NAME =` `database_name`
`UPPERCASE`	Uppercase typeface indicates elements supplied by the system. We show these terms in uppercase in order to distinguish them from terms you define. Unless terms appear in brackets, enter them in the order and with the spelling shown. However, because these terms are not case sensitive, you can enter them in lowercase.	`SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees;` `SELECT * FROM USER_TABLES;` `DROP TABLE hr.employees;`
`lowercase`	Lowercase typeface indicates programmatic elements that you supply. For example, lowercase indicates names of tables, columns, or files. Note: Some programmatic elements use a mixture of UPPERCASE and lowercase. Enter these elements as shown.	`SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees;` `sqlplus hr/hr` `CREATE USER mjones IDENTIFIED BY ty3MU9;`

Documentation Accessibility

Oracle's goal is to make our products, services, and supporting documentation accessible to the disabled community with good usability. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For additional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program web site at

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/.

Reading Code Examples

JAWS, a Windows screen reader, may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, JAWS may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.