Building Oracle XML Applications

Chapter 3. Combining XML and Oracle

In this chapter, we’ll get a taste for what the rest of the book is about: making XML a lot more interesting by combining it with the power of your Oracle database. We explore a scenario of a growing company that needs to integrate and share information for a frequently asked questions “knowledge bank” and put the information to use in a variety of formats.

Don’t worry if we move quickly through a lot of the details here. You’ll learn how to do everything we cover in this rapid-fire walkthrough—and much, much more—in the numerous examples throughout the rest of the book. This chapter is meant as a preview. So buckle yourself in—the ride is about to start.

Hosting the XML FAQ System on Oracle

Recall the frequently asked questions document from Chapter 2:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE FAQ-List SYSTEM "FAQ-List.dtd">
<FAQ-List>
  <FAQ Submitter="[e-mail]">
    <Question>Is it easy to get started with XML?</Question>
    <Answer>Yes!</Answer>
  </FAQ>
  <FAQ Submitter="[e-mail]" Level="Advanced">
    <Question>Are we going to play Stonehenge?</Question>
    <Answer>But of course</Answer>
  </FAQ>
</FAQ-List>

Let’s assume that we’re working at a small Internet startup company. We start out with a single, small XML file using the FAQ-List.dtd vocabulary similar to the one described earlier. In the beginning, only a single person is in charge of editing the FAQ file; the number of questions is small, and the number of products we sell is tiny, too. Then, ...