Sams Teach Yourself XML in 24 Hours

Hour 10. Using the XML Data Source Object

One of the semi-cruelties that instructors are allowed to get away with is to first demonstrate the hard way to do something and then the easy way. The justification is that struggling enhances the learning process. That's also my excuse here.

In the previous hour, you read an XML database by using the properties that allow for the movement from node to node. That was the hard part. Now, the Data Source Object, or DSO, will be used to read an XML database. As you'll see, it's a much easier way to extract and process the data.

In this hour, you'll learn the following:

• The basic principles of the Data Source Object (DSO)

• How to use the DSO to extract and display the data in a multilevel database