Latest news on Xquery standards: XQuery is gaining popularity. It has been used for many web applications around the world since its release. It is replacing proprietary middleware languages, in particular those for disclosing (XML) databases. The core standard is designed for querying of large collections of XML only, but several additional standards are in progress to get more functionality. Other additions add to the strength and maturity of XQuery as a programming language itself. Learn more? Read the presentation by Geert Josten, one of our Senior Content Engineers, presented last week at XML Holland in the Hardcore XML track.

1. Geert Josten
Hardcore XML track
XML Holland
XQuery Novelties
11 november 2010

2. 2
Agenda
 OriginalScope
 ExtendingScope
 NewestExtensions
 BeyondScope
 Summary
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

3. 3
about XQuery
“XQuery is replacing proprietary middleware
languages and Web Application
development languages.”
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

4. 4
About XQuery
“XQueryis replacingproprietarymiddleware
languagesand WebApplication
developmentlanguages.”
 Observation,glue
 More and more XQuery applications
 Beyond originalscope
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

5. 5
Original scope
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

6. 6
Origin
 1999,XPath and XSLTnot enough
 Query languagesappliedto XML
 SQL, OQL, Lorel, ..  XML-QL, XQL
 Merged into Quilt
 XQuery WD in 2001
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery
XQuery
XQuery
XQuery
XQuery

7. 7
Origin
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

8. 8
Extending scope
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

9. 9
Database features
 Efficientstorageand extraction XQuery 1.0
 Searching
 Transactional updating
 Data integrity,Triggers
 Simultaneousaccess
 Security,Crash-recovery
 Optionally:Versioning
 ...
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

10. 10
XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0
 First extension,2004
 W3C Candidate Recommendation
 Searchwithinspecificnodes
 Advanced ‘contains’ expressions
 Options
• stemming, wildcards, thesaurus, ...
 Relevance ranking
 Lot of implementations,few compliant
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

11. 11
XQuery Update Facility 1.0
 Introducedin 2006
 W3C Candidate Recommendation
 Updatingof individualnodes:
 insert, delete, replace, rename, and transform
 No return values!
 Variousimplementations,partlycompliant
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

12. 12
Newest extensions
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

13. 13
XQuery Data Definition Facility
 Presented at XMLPrague 2010
 28msec and ETH Zürich
 Static declaration:
 collections, indexes and constraints
 Functions:
 Updating collections
 Probing indexes
 One implementation?
 Zorba / Sausalito
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

14. 14
Update (PUL) compositions
 Presented at XMLPrague 2010
 ETH Zürich and Oracle
 Storage cheap
 Keep all changes
 Consolidated changes aka composition
 Versions integral part of tree
 No implementations?
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

15. 15
Beyond scope
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

16. 16
XQuery Scripting Extension 1.0 (SX)
 W3C Working Draft since 2008
 Procedural constructs
 While, variable assignment, exit, ..
 Breaks functional approach
 Also allows multiple, incremental updates
 Update *and* return results
 Very useful for application logic
 Few implementations yet
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

17. 17
XQuery 1.1
 W3C Working Draft since 2008
 Lots of ‘small’improvements
 Improved FLWOR
 Try/Catch
 Output declarations
 Dynamic function invocation
 Mature language, design patterns
 Not many implementations yet
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

18. 18
XRX and NoSQL
 NoSQL:
 Use non-relational database
 Open source or open standard (like XQuery)
 XRX:
 Xforms + Rest + Xquery
 Innovative two-tier architecture
 XForms front-end, XQuery back-end,
REST api
 Breaking long-lasting traditions
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

19. 19
Summary
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

20. 20
Database features revisited
 Featurescovered:
 Extraction, Searching, Updating, Data constraints,
Versioning
 Functional in nature
 Uncovered:
 Storage, Security, Triggers, Crash-recovery..
 Mostly technical, necessary?
 More lacking?
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

21. 21
Just remember
XQuery is not just for querying XML!
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

22. 22
Questions?
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23. 23
Further reading
 W3C:
 http://www.w3.org/XML/Query/
 http://www.w3.org/standards/techs/xquery
 XMLPrague:
 http://www.xmlprague.cz/2010/index.html
 http://www.zorba-
xquery.com/downloads/xmlprague/papers/pulcomposition.pdf
 http://download.28msec.com/sausalito/technical_reading/xqddf.pdf
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery

24. 24
Timeline
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25. 25
XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0 example
for $b in /books/book
where $b/title
containstext "improving“ftand "usability“
ordereddistanceat most 2 wordsat start
return
$b
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery
Contains expression
Combined search
Advanced search criterium

26. 26
XQuery Data Definition Facility example
declare collection users as element()*;
declare automaticallymaintainedindexusers-by-id
on nodesxqddf:collection( xs:QName(“users"))
by @id as xs:string;
xqddf:insert-nodes(
xs:QName(“users"),<user id=“geert”/> );
xqddf:probe-index-point(
xs:QName(“users-by-id"),“geert” );
11 november 2010 Hardcore XML - XQuery