9.6 PLSXML Utilities and Demos

Steve Muench, Oracle Corporation's "XML evangelist," has developed a very interesting set of PL/SQL packages called the PLSXML utilities and demos. While they are still experimental, they can give you a clear idea of the power of generating XML inside the database. Additionally, there are several examples of how to use JavaScript and XML to create rich interfaces. The PLSXML packages are:

DBXML

Uses dynamic SQL to automatically create XML documents from a SQL query. Based on the same technology as WebDB, DBXML reduces the package we developed earlier to a single procedure call.

DBDOM

A PL/SQL implementation of the Document Object Model (DOM, the model used to create document trees) API that allows you to create, parse, and search XML documents.

DBXSL

Generates formatting instructions called XSL stylesheets that control how the browser renders an XML document.

You can download the PLSXML and its full documentation (it's excellent) from:

http://www.oracle.com/xml/plsxml/index.html

In the next section, we'll look at a product that takes full advantage of XML.