Web Development with XML Workshop Day 4
(Sorry I’m a bit late getting this out!) The focus of day 4 of the XML workshop was XQuery. Yet another topic I don’t have much experience with and have been slightly intimidated by up until this point. Patrick Yott showed us that each XQuery is typically based on the FLWOR module:
- For
- Let
- Where
- Order
- Return
Using this basic model is a very easy to construct simple XQueries.
Other interesting XQuery tricks.
- You can get distinct values using fn:distinct-values
- You can create your own functions. (Use the local namespace for these functions. This namespace already exists in XQuery.)
Most of this day was hands on stuff that involved XQuery and eXist. I really MUST get eXist permenantly installed on a test server here. Although truthfully that isn’t likely to happen until sometime AFTER the madness of ALA. Honestly, I came away from the workshop thinking “Wow, I understand enough of this to actually DO something productive.” This is always a good feeling because I can go back to the resources I was looking at before and they make much more sense now. Also getting contact who I can ask questions about XML-related stuff is always a plus. I’m sure I’ll need them in the not so distance future as UH embarks on more digital library efforts and real Web Services.