Preface

While a number of books on XML are available, none covers XML support in Oracle JDeveloper. Welcome to Processing XML documents with Oracle JDeveloper 11g, a book that will teach you about using Oracle XML technologies in Oracle JDeveloper. XML is the standard medium of data exchange. Examples of data exchange using XML are web feeds, which include RSS feeds and Atom feeds, and XML messages in web services. Java is the language most commonly used to process XML. Among the IDEs, Oracle JDeveloper has the most XML features. Some of the graphical XML features in JDeveloper are an XML editor to create an XML document, an XML schema editor to model an XML schema, and an XPath explorer to process XPath expressions. JDeveloper also provides built-in support for JAXB compilation. JDeveloper includes an integrated application server—the WebLogic Server—for running XML-based applications. Oracle XML Developer Kit (XDK) provides a set of components, tools, and utilities for developing XML-based applications. The XDK 11g libraries are included with Oracle JDeveloper 11g.

The objective of this book is to discuss XML development in Oracle JDeveloper. We shall use JDeveloper 11g, the latest version of JDeveloper. As developers commonly use an IDE for processing XML and developing XML applications, the book covers all aspects of XML development, which include:

• Creating an XML document

• Validating an XML document with an XML schema

• Transforming an XML document

• Addressing elements/attributes in an XML document using XPath

We shall use the Oracle XDK 11g for Java to develop XML applications. We shall also discuss Oracle XML Publisher and Oracle Berkeley DB XML. By the end of this book, you should know everything there is to know about XML and JDeveloper.

What this book covers

Chapter 1: We discuss creating an XML document using Oracle's XML Developer Kit (XDK) 11g in Oracle JDeveloper. We also discuss parsing an XML document using SAX and DOM Java APIs, which are also included in XDK 11g.

Chapter 2: We create an XML schema in the XML schema editor of Oracle JDeveloper. An XML schema represents the structure of an XML document. Subsequently, we instantiate an XML document from the XML schema.

Chapter 3: We discuss validating an XML document with an XML schema using the built-in feature to validate the schema and the XDK 11g schema validation APIs. We discuss three different APIs for schema validation: the XSDValidator, the SAX parser, and the DOM parser.

Chapter 4: We discuss XPath, which is used to address nodes in an XML document. We use XPath in the XPath Search GUI tool in Oracle JDeveloper 11g. We also use the XPath Java API in XDK 11g.

Chapter 5: We transform an XML document using the Transformation API for XML (TrAX), which is included in XDK 11g. We also discuss the XSLT extension functions.

Chapter 6: We parse and transform XML using the JSTL XML tag library in JDeveloper 11g.

Chapter 7: We load, save, and filter an XML document using the DOM 3.0 Load and Save APIs, which are provided in XDK 11g.

Chapter 8: We construct and validate an XML document using the DOM 3.0 Validation API, which is also included in XDK 11g.

Chapter 9: We discuss another built-in feature of JDeveloper 11g, the JAXB 2.0 compiler. We bind an XML schema to Java classes using the JAXB 2.0 compiler. Subsequently, we unmarshal an XML document and marshal an XML document using the compiled Java classes.

Chapter 10: We compare XML documents using the XMLDiff Java API included in XDK 11g.

Chapter 11: We convert an XML document to a PDF document using the Apache FOP Java API in JDeveloper.

Chapter 12: We create an MS Excel spreadsheet from an XML document in JDeveloper using the Apache POI Java API.

Chapter 13: We store an XML document in Oracle Berkeley DB XML, and subsequently query and update the XML document using both the Berkeley DB XML command shell and the Berkeley DB XML Java API. The Berkeley DB XML API is used in JDeveloper 11g.

Chapter 14: We create PDF reports in JDeveloper 11g using the Oracle XML Publisher Java API. We also merge PDF documents. We also create an XML report from a database table using the Data Engine API.

What you need for this book

The book is based on the Windows Install of Studio Edition of Oracle JDeveloper 11g. Therefore, you need to download and install JDeveloper 11g (jdevstudio11110install.exe) from http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/jdev/htdocs/soft11.html. The Windows Install requires Windows XP, 2003, or 2000. If you have Linux, the book may still be used (though it has not been tested with Linux) with slight modifications with the Linux Install. For example, the directory paths on Linux would be different than those of Windows used in the book. Other than Oracle JDeveloper 11g, you would need chapter-specific software. For example, for Chapter 11 you would need the Apache FOP binary distribution, for Chapter 12 you need to download the Apache POI HSSF API, for Chapter 13 you need to download Oracle Berkeley DB XML, and for Chapter 14 you need to download Oracle Database 10g or 11g and Oracle XML Publisher Enterprise 5.6.2.

Who is this book for?

The target audience of the book is XML application developers who want to learn about Oracle XML technologies and the XML features in Oracle JDeveloper 11g. Those who are already using Oracle XML technologies will learn about using the Oracle XML technologies in Oracle JDeveloper 11g. We won't be discussing the database-based XML technologies XSQL and XML SQL Utility, which were discussed in the book JDBC 4.0 and Oracle JDeveloper for J2EE Development (Packt Publishing). This book is suitable for professional XML developers. It is also suitable for an intermediate-level course in applied XML. The target audience is expected to have prior, albeit beginners', knowledge about XML such as: what an XML document is, what XSLT is, what XPath is, and what an XML schema is.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: "The XSDValidator class is used to validate an XML document that has been built into a DOM tree."

A block of code will be set as follows:

InputStream inputStream=new FileInputStream(new File("catalog.xsd"));
InputSource inputSource=new InputSource(inputStream);
XMLSchema schema = builder.build(inputSource);
xsdValidator.setSchema(schema);

Any command-line input and output is written as follows:

dbxml>createContainer catalog.dbxml

New terms and important words are introduced in a bold-type font. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this: "In the New Gallery window select Categories | General and Items | Generic Application."

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Note

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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