Download XML

Lecture #6
XML
November 2nd, 2000
Administration
•
•
•
•
•
•
Thanks for the mid-term comments
Comment on the book & readings
Project #2
Project #1
Homework #4
Homework #5
Outline
• XML:
–
–
–
–
Introduction
Syntax, DTDs,
Politics,
Exporting relational data to XML.
• Querying XML:
– Xpath, XML-QL, Quilt, XSLT
• XML data management:
– Storing XML in relational databases.
What is XML ?
From HTML to XML
HTML describes the presentation: easy for humans
HTML
<h1> Bibliography </h1>
<p> <i> Foundations of Databases </i>
Abiteboul, Hull, Vianu
<br> Addison Wesley, 1995
<p> <i> Data on the Web </i>
Abiteboul, Buneman, Suciu
<br> Morgan Kaufmann, 1999
HTML is hard for applications
XML
<bibliography>
<book> <title> Foundations… </title>
<author> Abiteboul </author>
<author> Hull </author>
<author> Vianu </author>
<publisher> Addison Wesley </publisher>
<year> 1995 </year>
</book>
…
</bibliography>
XML describes the content: easy for applications
XML
• eXtensible Markup Language
• Roots: comes from SGML (very nasty
language).
• After the roots: a format for sharing data
• Emerging format for data exchange on the
Web and between applications
XML Applications
• Sharing data between different components of an
application.
• Format for storing all data in Office 2000.
• EDI: electronic data exchange:
–
–
–
–
Transactions between banks
Producers and suppliers sharing product data (auctions)
Extranets: building relationships between companies
Scientists sharing data about experiments.
XML Syntax
• Very simple:
<db>
<book>
<title>Complete Guide to DB2</title>
<author>Chamberlin</author>
</book>
<book>
<title>Transaction Processing</title>
<author>Bernstein</author>
<author>Newcomer</author>
</book>
<publisher>
<name>Morgan Kaufman</name>
<state>CA</state>
</publisher>
</db>
XML Terminology
• tags: book, title, author, …
• start tag: <book>, end tag: </book>
• start tags must correspond to end tags, and
conversely
XML Terminology
• an element: everything between tags
– example element:
<title>Complete Guide to DB2</title>
– example element:
<book> <title> Complete Guide to DB2 </title>
<author>Chamberlin</author>
</book>
• elements may be nested
• empty element: <red></red> abbreviated <red/>
• an XML document has a unique root element
well formed XML document: if it has matching tags
The XML Tree
db
book
title
author
book
title
author
publisher
author
name
“Complete
“Morgan
“Transaction
“Chamberlin”
Guide
“Bernstein” “Newcomer” Kaufman”
Processing”
to DB2”
Tags on nodes
Data values on leaves
state
“CA”
More XML Syntax: Attributes
<book price = “55” currency = “USD”>
<title> Complete Guide to DB2 </title>
<author> Chamberlin </author>
<year> 1998 </year>
</book>
price, currency are called attributes
Replacing Attributes with
Elements
<book>
<title> Complete Guide to DB2 </title>
<author> Chamberlin </author>
<year> 1998 </year>
<price> 55 </price>
<currency> USD </currency>
</book>
attributes are alternative ways (worse ) to represent data
XML References
 ID’s and IDREFs are used to reference objects.
<db>
<book ID="b1" pub="mkp">
<title>Complete Guide to DB2</title>
<author>Chamberlin</author>
</book>
<book ID="b2" pub="mkp">
<title>Transaction Processing</title>
<author>Bernstein</author>
<author>Newcomer</author>
</book>
<publisher ID="mkp">
<name>Morgan Kaufman</name>
<state>CA</state>
</publisher>
</db>
“Types” (or “Schemas”) for
XML
• Document Type Definition – DTD
• Define a grammar for the XML document,
but we use it as substitute for types/schemas
• Will be replaced by XML-Schema (will
extend DTDs)
An Example DTD
<!DOCTYPE db [
<!ELEMENT db ((book|publisher)*)>
<!ELEMENT book (title,author*,year?)>
<!ELEMENT title
(#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT author (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT year (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT publisher (name, state)>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT state (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST book pub IDREF #IMPLIED>
]>
• PCDATA means Parsed Character Data (a
mouthful for string)
DTDs as Grammars
db
book
title
author
year
publisher
name
state
::= (book|publisher)*
::= (title,author*,year?)
::= string
::= string
::= string
::= (name, state)
::= string
::= string
• A DTD is a EBNF (Extended BNF) grammar
• An XML tree is precisely a derivation tree
XML Documents that have a DTD and conform to it are called valid
More on DTDs as Grammars
<!DOCTYPE paper [
<!ELEMENT paper (section*)>
<!ELEMENT section ((title,section*) | text)>
<!ELEMENT title
(#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT text
(#PCDATA)>
]>
<paper> <section> <text> </text> </section>
<section> <title> </title> <section> … </section>
<section> … </section>
</section>
</paper>
XML documents can be nested arbitrarily deep
XML for Representing Data
XML:
persons
nam e
row
phone
name
John
3634
Sue
6343
D ic k
6363
persons
“John”
row
row
phone name phone
3634 “Sue”
name
6343 “Dick”
phone
6363
<persons>
<row> <name>John</name>
<phone> 3634</phone></row>
<row> <name>Sue</name>
<phone> 6343</phone>
<row> <name>Dick</name>
<phone> 6363</phone></row>
</persons>
XML vs Data Models
• XML is self-describing
• Schema elements become part of the data
– Reational schema: persons(name,phone)
– In XML <persons>, <name>, <phone> are part
of the data, and are repeated many times
• Consequence: XML is much more flexible
• XML = semi-structured data
Semi-structured Data Explained
• Missing attributes:
– <person> <name> John</name>
<phone>1234</phone>
</person>
– <person><name>Joe</name></person>
• Repeated attributes
– <person> <name> Mary</name>
<phone>2345</phone>
<phone>3456</phone>
</person>
no phone !
S-S Data Further Explained
• Attributes with different types in different objects
– <person> <name> <first> John </first>
<last> Smith </last>
</name>
<phone>1234</phone>
</person>
• Nested collections
• Heterogeneous collections:
– <db> contains both <book>s and <publisher>s
XML Data v.s. E/R, ODL,
Relational
• Q: is XML better or worse ?
• A: serves different purposes
– E/R, ODL, Relational models:
• For centralized processing, when we control the data
– XML:
• Data sharing between different systems
• we do not have control over the entire data
• E.g. on the Web
• Do NOT use XML to model your data ! Use E/R,
ODL, or relational instead.
Why Do People Like XML so
much?
• It’s easy to learn.
• It’s human readable. No need for proprietary
formats anymore.
• Lots of tools out there for basis manipulations,
editing, validation, simple querying.
• It’s very flexible:
– Data is self-describing
– Can add attributes easily
– Data can be irregular
• Note: (common fallacy) without common DTD’s
data sharing is not solved!
Why are we DB’ers interested?
• It’s data, stupid. That’s us.
• Proof by Altavista:
– database+XML -- 40,000 pages.
• Database issues:
– How are we going to model XML? (trees).
– How are we going to query XML? (XML-QL,Quilt)
– How are we going to store XML (in a relational
database? object-oriented?)
– How are we going to process XML efficiently? (uh…
well..., um..., ah..., get some good grad students!)
Exporting Relational Data to
XML
Data Sharing with XML: Easy 
Data source
(e.g. relational
Database)
XML
Application
Web
Exporting Relational Data to
XML
product
makes
• Product(pid, name, weight)
• Company(cid, name, address)
• Makes(pid, cid, price)
company
Export data grouped by
companies
<db><company> <name> GizmoWorks </name>
<address> Tacoma </address>
<product> <name> gizmo </name>
<price> 19.99 </price>
</product>
<product> …</product>
…
</company>
<company> <name> Bang </name>
<address> Kirkland </address>
<product> <name> gizmo </name> <price> 22.99 </price>
</product>
…
</company>
…
</db>
Redundant representation of products
The DTD
<!ELEMENT db (company*)>
<!ELEMENT company (name, address, product*)>
<!ELEMENT product (name,price)>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT address (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT price (#PCDATA)>
Export Data by Products
<db> <product> <name> Gizmo </name>
<manufacturer>
<name> GizmoWorks </name>
<price> 19.99 </price>
<address> Tacoma </address>
</manufacturer>
<manufacturer>
<name> Bang </name>
<price> 22.99 </price>
<address> Kirkland </address>
</manufacturer>
…
</product>
<product> <name> OneClick </name> …
</db>
Redundant representation of companies
Which One Do We Choose ?
• The structure of the XML data is
determined by agreement, with our partners,
or dictated by committees
– Many XML dialects (called applications)
• XML Data is often nested, irregular, etc
• No normal forms for XML 
Querying XML
• At first, there was XQL (XPath): weak,
impoverished.
• Then, Dbers noticed that XML is a variant
on semi-structured data: invented XML-QL.
• A lot of people got excited – formed a
committee.
• Committee is still working:
– Inside scoop: Quilt – the best of XML-QL,
SQL and Xpath.
Running Example
<bib>
<book> <publisher> Addison-Wesley </publisher>
<author> Serge Abiteboul </author>
<author> <first-name> Rick </first-name>
<last-name> Hull </last-name>
<author> Victor Vianu </author>
<title> Foundations of Databases </title>
<year> 1995 </year>
</book>
<book price=“55”>
<publisher> Freeman </publisher>
<author> Jeffrey D. Ullman </author>
<title> Principles of Database and Knowledge Base Systems
</title>
<year> 1998 </year>
</book>
</bib>
XPath Introduction
• Syntax for XML document navigation and node
selection
• A recommendation of the W3C (i.e., a standard)
• Building block for other W3C standards:
–
–
–
XSL Transformations (XSLT)
XML Link (XLink)
XML Pointer (XPointer)
XPath Traversal
/bib/book/year
Result: <year> 1995 </year>
<year> 1998 </year>
/bib/paper/year
Result: empty
(there were no papers)
XPath Unbounded Traversal
//author
Result:<author> Serge Abiteboul </author>
<author> <first-name> Rick </first-name>
<last-name> Hull </last-name>
</author>
<author> Victor Vianu </author>
<author> Jeffrey D. Ullman </author>
/bib//first-name
Result: <first-name> Rick </first-name>
XPath Text Selection
/bib/book/author/text()
Result:
Serge Abiteboul
Jeffrey D. Ullman
Rick Hull doesn’t appear because he has firstname, lastname
XPath Wild Star
//author/*
Result: <first-name> Rick </first-name>
<last-name> Hull </last-name>
* Matches any element
XPath Attribute Navigation
/bib/book/@price
Result: “55”
@price means that price is has to be an
attribute
XPath Existential Constraint
/bib/book/author[firstname]
Result: <author> <first-name> Rick </first-name>
<last-name> Hull </last-name>
</author>
XPath Existentials
/bib/book[@price < “60”]
/bib/book[author/@age < “25”]
/bib/book[author/text()]
XPath Expressions Summary
bib
matches a bib element
*
matches any element
/
matches the root element
/bib
matches a bib element under root
bib/paper
matches a paper in bib
bib//paper
matches a paper in bib, at any depth
//paper
matches a paper at any depth
paper|book
matches a paper or a book
@price
matches a price attribute
bib/book/@price
matches price attribute in book, in bib
bib/book/[@price<“55”]/author/lastname matches…
XML-QL Hello World
• Matching data using elements patterns.
WHERE <book>
<publisher><name>Addison-Wesley</></>
<title> $t </>
<author> $a </>
</book> IN “www.a.b.c/bib.xml”
CONSTRUCT $a
XML-QL Element-As
• Matching data using elements patterns.
WHERE <book>
<publisher><name>Addison-Wesley</></>
<title> $t </>
<author> $a </>
</book> ELEMENT-AS $e
IN “www.a.b.c/bib.xml”
CONSTRUCT $e
Constructing XML Data
WHERE <book>
<publisher><name>Addison-Wesley</></>
<title> $t </>
<author> $a </>
</> IN “www.a.b.c/bib.xml
CONSTRUCT <result>
<author> $a </>
<title> $t</>
</>
Grouping with Nested Queries
WHERE <book>
<title> $t </>,
<publisher><name>Addison-Wesley</></>
</> CONTENT_AS $p IN “www.a.b.c/bib.xml”
CONSTRUCT <result>
<titre> $t </>
WHERE <author> $a </> IN $p
CONSTRUCT <auteur> $a</>
</>
Joining Elements by Value
WHERE <article> <author>
<firstname> $f </> <lastname> $l </>
</> </> ELEMENT_AS $e IN “www.a.b.c/bib.xml”
<book year=$y> <author>
<firstname> $f </> <lastname> $l </>
</> </> IN “www.a.b.c/bib.xml” , y > 1995
CONSTRUCT $e
Find all articles whose writers also published a book
after 1995.
Tag Variables
WHERE <article> <author>
<firstname> $f </> <lastname> $l </>
</> </> ELEMENT_AS $e IN “www.a.b.c/bib.xml”
<$t year=$y> <author>
<firstname> $f </> <lastname> $l </>
</> </> IN “www.a.b.c/bib.xml” , y > 1995
CONSTRUCT $e
Find all articles whose writers have done something
after 1995.
Regular Path Expressions
WHERE
<part*>
<name>$r</>
<brand>Ford</> </>
IN "www.a.b.c/bib.xml"
CONSTRUCT
<result>$r</>
Find all parts whose brand is Ford, no matter what level
they are in the hierarchy.
Regular Path Expressions
WHERE
<part+.(subpart|component.piece)>$r</>
IN "www.a.b.c/parts.xml"
CONSTRUCT
<result> $r </>
XML Data Integration
Query can access more than one XML document.
WHERE <person>
<name></> ELEMENT_AS $n
<ssn> $ssn </>
</> IN “www.a.b.c/data.xml”
<taxpayer>
<ssn> $ssn </>
<income></> ELEMENT_AS $I
</> IN “www.irs.gov/taxpayers.xml”
CONSTRUCT <result> $n $I </>
Quilt: Hello World
List all titles of books published by Morgan
Kaufmann in 1998:
FOR
$b IN document(“bib.xml”)/book
WHERE $b/publisher = “Morgan Kaufmann”
AND $b/year = “1998”
RETURN $b/title
Quilt: Creating XML Output
• Find all names with a firstname and
lastname; group them in a <name>
FOR
$a IN document(“bib.xml”)//author,
$f IN $a/firstName,
$l IN $a/lastName
RETURN <name> <fn> $f </fn>
<ln> $l </ln>
</name>
Quilt: Joins
• Retrieve the titles of the books written by Laing before
1967, together with their reviews.
FOR $b in document(“bib.xml”)//book[@year<1967],
$r in document(“reviews.xml”)//review
WHERE $b/authors/lastname=“Laing” and $b/@ISBN=$r/@ISBN
RETURN
<resultBook ISBN=$b/@ISBN>
<title> $b/title/text() </title>,
$r
</resultBook>
Quilt: FLWR Expressions
• Retrieve the titles of the books written by Laing before 1967
together with their reviews.
FOR $b in document(“input.xml”)//book[@year<1967]
LET $R = document(“input.xml”)//review[@isbn=$b/@isbn]
WHERE $b/authors/lastname=“Laing”
RETURN
<resultBook ISBN=$b/@ISBN>
<resultTitle> $t </resultTitle>
<bookReviews> $R </bookReviews>
</resultBook>
Quilt: another example
• List all authors that published both in 1998 and
1999
FOR
$a IN distinct(document(“bib.xml”)/book/author,
WHERE contains(document(“bib.xml”)/book[year=1998]/author, $a)
AND contains(document(“bib.xml”)/book[year=1999]/author, $a)
RETURN $a
XSL
•
•
•
•
A.k.a XSLT
A recommendation of the W3C (standard)
Initial goal: translate XML to HTML
Became: translate XML to XML
– HTML is just a special case
• Interesting politics
Query Processing For XML
• Approach 1: store XML in a relational database.
Translate an XML-QL/Quilt query into a set of
SQL queries.
– Leverage 20 years of research & development.
• Approach 2: store XML in an object-oriented
database system.
– OO model is closest to XML, but systems do not
perform well and are not well accepted.
• Approach 3: build a native XML query processing
engine.
– Still in the research phase; see Zack next week.
Relational Approach
• Step 1: given a DTD, create a relational
schema.
• Step 2: map the XML document into tuples
in the relational database.
• Step 3: given a query Q in XML-QL/Quilt,
translate it to a set of queries P over the
relational database.
• Step 4: translate the tuples returned from the
relational database into XML elements.
Which Relational Schema?
• The key question! Affects performance.
• No magic solution.
• Some options:
– The EDGE table: put everything in one table
– The Attribute tables: create a table for every tag
name.
– The inlining method: inline as much data into
the tables.
An Example DTD
<!DOCTYPE db [
<!ELEMENT db ((book|publisher)*)>
<!ELEMENT book (title,author*,year?)>
<!ELEMENT title
(#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT author (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT year (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT publisher (name, state)>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT state (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST book pub IDREF #IMPLIED>
]>
• PCDATA means Parsed Character Data (a
mouthful for string)
The Edge Approach
sourceID
- Don’t
tag
destID
need a DTD.
- Very simple to implement.
destValue
The Attribute Approach
Book
rootID
Publisher
bookId
Title
bookID
pubID
PubName
title
pubID
pubName
PubState
Author
bookID
rootID
author
pubID
state
The In-lining Approach
Book
bookID
title
pubName
pubState
BookAuthor
bookID
author
Publisher
sourceID
tag
destID
destValue
Let the Querying Begin!
• Matching data using elements patterns.
WHERE <book>
<author> Bernstein </author>
<title> $t </title>
</book> IN “www.a.b.c/bib.xml”
CONSTRUCT
<bernsteinBook> $t </bernsteinBook>
The Edge Approach
SELECT e3.destValue
FROM
E as e1, E as e2, E as e3
WHERE
e1.tag = “book” and
e1.destID=e2.sourceID and
e2.tag=“title” and
e1.destID=e3.sourceID and
e3.tag=“author” and
e2.author=“Bernstein”
The Attribute Approach
SELECT Title.title
FROM
Book, Title, Author
WHERE
Book.bookID = Author.bookID and
Book.bookID = Title.bookID and
Author.author = “Bernstein”
The In-lining Approach
SELECT Book.title
FROM
Book, BookAuthor
WHERE
Book.bookID =BookAuthor.bookID and
BookAuthor.author = “Bernstein”
Reconstructing XML Elements
• Matching data using elements patterns.
WHERE <book>
<author> Bernstein </author>
<title> $t </title>
</book> ELEMENT-AS $e
IN “www.a.b.c/bib.xml”
CONSTRUCT
$e
Open Questions
• Native query processing for XML
• To order or not to order?
• Combining IR-style keyword queries with
DB-style structured queries
• Updates
• Automatic selection of a relational schema
• How should we extend relational engines to
better support XML storage and querying?