David Turner (Microsoft): SQL Server 2000 and XfA
December 11, 2000
Microsoft's David Turner drew a distinction between structured data,
semi-structured data (e.g., a Purchase Order [PO], which are
structured mainly at the line item level) and unstructured data
(e.g., text documents).
He mentioned some new capabilities in SQL Server 2000's support for
XML, such as a SQL
extension called FORXML, XML Views (XPath to query), and OpenXML
(technical implementation of a relational view of XML), specifying
row/column selectors using XPath, and something called Updategrams
and Bulk Load. Readers interested in these topics can search for them
on MSDN.
In the March 2000 issue of MSDN Magazine, the article SQL
Server 2000: New XML Features Streamline Web-centric App
Development discusses the use of SQL XML:
"With XML support in SQL Server 2000, you can query SQL
over HTTP with a URL, bring the data down to the browser, and
manipulate it on the client machine. By adding Internet Explorer 5.0
to the mix and using XSL to convert the XML to HTML, you can lighten
the load on your database server. "
Turner announced something called XfA. The XML for Analysis
(XfA) beta specification is available from Microsoft's Universal Data Access page. A
beta SDK will be released in early 2001, with the final spec and SDK
in mid 2001, according to Turner. The UDA web site describes XfA
as:
"The XML for Analysis specification advances the OLE DB
standard by allowing standardized, universal data access to
analytical data sources (OLAP and Data Mining) residing over the web.
The specification is built upon open standards and is independent of
platform, language or technology. XML for Analysis is built upon
HTTP, XML and SOAP Internet standards and is specifically optimized
for web services interaction."
XTM (XML Topic Maps) and Topic Maps for Portals
What Happened at XML 2000?
Mark Colan (IBM): SOAP + UDDI + WSDL = Web Services
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