What's New with XML Enabled Technology?

This section describes the following new features:

XML Developer's Kits Features Introduced in Oracle9i Release 2 (9.2)

XML Schema Processor for Java
Supports the W3C Schema recommendation. Schema Identity-constraint validation no longer needs external DocumentBuilder.
XSL Stylesheets
Support for threadsafe XSLStylesheet objects.
XSQL Servlet
New Performance Improvement Option for <xsql:include-owa>.

<xsql:set-page-param> now supports xpath="Expr" Attribute.

Simplified inclusion of XML from CLOB and VARCHAR2 Columns.

New <xsql:include-posted-xml> action handler to include posted XML.

Support for the Apache FOP 0.19 release.

Supports Immediately Read Values Set as Cookies.

Supports Setting Multiple Parameter Values with a Single SQL Statement.
Class Generator for Java
Data Binding Feature is added to the DTD Class Generator.

An XML instance document could be given as input to load the instance data to the generated classes.
XDK for Java
XSU support for SAX 2.0 and generating the XML Schema of a SQL Query.

DOM level compression support.

Oracle SOAP APIs added.

SAX2 Extension support in the Java XML Parser.

JAXP 1.1 support is now provided by the XDK for Java.

Oracle TransX Utility aids loading data and text.

XML Schema Processor for Java supports both LAX Mode and STRICT Mode.

XML Compression now supported in the Java XML Parser.
XDK for C
Released on Linux.
XDK for C++
Released on Linux.
XDK for JavaBeans
New XMLDiff Bean.

Internal DTD support is added to the SourceViewer Bean.
OTN
New XDK Live demo is online at:

http://otn.oracle.com/tech/xml/xdk_sample/xdkdemo_faq.html

http://otn.oracle.com/tech/xml/xdk_sample/xdkdemo_xsql.html

New XDK technical Paper for "Building Server-Side XML Schema Validation" is online at http://otn.oracle.com/tech/xml/xdk_sample/xdksample_093001i.html

XML Database Features Introduced in Oracle9i Release 2 (9.2)

XMLType Tables
Datatype XMLType can now be used to create tables of XMLType.
XMLType Constructors
Additional XMLType constructors have been added.
W3C XML Schema Support
Construct an XMLType object based on an XML schema and have it be continuously validated.

Create XML schema-based XMLType tables.

Register annotated XML schema using the DBMS_XMLSCHEMA package, to share storage and type definitions.

Pre-parse incoming XML documents and automatically direct them to default storage tables.

Automatically validate XML documents or instances against W3C XML Schema when the XML documents or instances are added to Oracle XML DB.

Explicitly validate XML documents and instances against XML schema using XMLIsSchemaValid() method on XMLType.

Use datatype -aware extraction of part of an XML document using the extractValue operator.
SQLX Functions and Oracle Extensions
Generating XML from existing relational and object relational tables. This is based on ISO-ANSI Working Draft for XML-Related Specifications (SQL/XML) [ISO/IEC 9075 Part 14 and ANSI] which defines ways in which the database language SQL can be used in conjunction with XML.
W3C XPath Support for Extraction, Condition Checks, and Updates
extract(), existsNode(), and extractValue() support namespace-based operation.

extract(), existsNode(), and extractValue() support the full XPath function set, including axis operators.

updateXML() replaces part of the XMLType DOM by using XPath as a locator.
ToObject Method
ToObject method allows the caller to convert an XMLType object to a PL/SQL object type.
XMLType Views
This release supports XMLType-based views. These enable you to view any data in the database as XML. XMLType views can be XML schema-based or non-XML schema-based.
W3C XSLT Support
XMLTransform() allows database-based transformation of cached or on disk XML documents.
JDBC Support for XMLType
Oracle XML DB allows database clients to bind and define XMLType. JDBC support includes a function-rich XMLType class that allows for native (for thick JDBC) XML functionality support.
C-Based PL/SQL DOM, Parser, and XSLT APIs
This release includes native PL/SQL DOM, Parser, and XSLT APIs integrated in the database code. These PL/SQL APIs are compatible with the Java-based PLSQL APIs shipped as part of XDK for PL/SQL with Oracle9i Release 1 (9.0.1) and higher..
Oracle XML DB: Repository
Viewing the database and its content as a file system containing resources, typically referred to as files and folders.

Access to resources through SQL and Java API, using path names.

Access to resources through built-in native Protocol Servers for FTP, HTTP, and WebDAV.

ACL-based security for Oracle XML DB resources.
Oracle XML DB Resource API (PL/SQL): DBMS_XDB
DBMS_XDB package provides methods to access and manipulate Oracle XML DB resources.
Oracle XML DB Resource API (JNDI)
Locate resources and manage collections. Works only inside the database server on the JServer platform.
Oracle XML DB Resource View API (SQL)
ResourceView is a public XMLType view can be used to perform queries against all resources in a database instance, based on path names.
Oracle XML DB Versioning: DBMS_XDB_VERSION
DBMS_XDB_VERSION package provides methods to version Oracle XML DB resources.
Oracle XML DB ACL Security
Methods that implement ACL-based security have been developed as a part of DBMS_XDB package. They enable the creation of high-performance access control lists for any XMLType object.
Oracle XML DB Protocol Servers
The Protocol Servers provide access to any foldered XMLType row through FTP, HTTP, and WebDAV.
XDBURIType
XDBURIType, a subtype of URIType, represents a path name within Oracle XML DB.
Oracle Enterprise Manager
Oracle Enterprise Manager provides a graphical interface to manage, administer, and configure Oracle XML DB.
Oracle Text Enhancements
Columns of type XMLType can now be indexed natively in Oracle9i database using Oracle Text.

CONTAINS() is a new function for use as ora:contains in an XPath query and as part of the existsNode() function.

CTXXPATH is a new index type for use with existsNode() to speedup the performance of XPath searching.
Oracle Advanced Queuing (AQ) Support
IDAP has been added to facilitate use of AQ over the Internet; the AQ XML servlet can access Oracle9i AQ using HTTP and SOAP.

IDAP defines the XML message structure used in the body of the SOAP request.

XMLType can be used as the AQ payload type directly, instead of having to embed XMLType as an attribute in an Oracle object type.