IBM® XQuery Whiteboard for DB2® is a graphical tool that extends the XQuery capabilities in IBM DB2 Version 9.1 for Linux®, UNIX®, and Windows®. A user can enter an XQuery expression and see the result after it has been executed. The XQuery expression can refer to information in the database, in local documents, or in documents located elsewhere.

XQuery Whiteboard extends the range of XQuery expressions supported by DB2 9 by supporting the following:

• user-defined functions
• the fn:doc accessor function, with URIs that
  • provide access to the XML mapping of DB2 tables (table)
  • provide access to XML columns in DB2 tables (column)
  • provide access to local documents (file)
  • provide access to Web resources (HTTP)
• variable declarations in the XQuery prolog
• the xs:dayTimeDuration and xs:yearMonthDuration data types.

XQuery Whiteboard allows a user to save and retrieve XQuery expressions that he has written, and it assists the user in writing XQuery expressions that access DB2 tables, DB2 columns, or local files.

How does it work?

XQuery Whiteboard analyzes and transforms an XQuery expression, producing an SQL statement. XQuery Whiteboard then uses JDBC to pass the SQL statement to DB2, execute the SQL statement, and access the ResultSet. The query result is then formatted and placed in the output area of the application.

Andrew Eisenberg is a member of IBM""s Information Management Standards and Open Software department. He is co-chairman of the World Wide Web Consortium""s (W3C) XML Query Working Group. Mr. Eisenberg recently served as co-Spec Lead of JSR 225, XQuery API for Java™ (XQJ), in the Java Community Process. He has represented IBM on the INCITS Technical Committee H2 on Database during its development of SQL/XML:2003 and on the XML Query Full-Text Task Force.

Mr. Eisenberg represented previous employers on standards and consortia bodies such as OMG and Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC). He has contributed to all versions of the SQL standard, representing a number of companies in INCITS Technical Committee H2 on Database. He is the co-author of Understanding SQL and Java Together, Morgan Kaufmann, 2000.