Native XML Database

When you develop XML applications, you want good tools to design and debug XML artifacts such as XML documents, XML schemas, XQuery queries, SQL/XML statements, XSL style sheets, and other things. On occasions I have seen people use plain text editors such as vi or Notepad for this, but that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I confess: when I write XQuery or SQL/XML I often use a simple text editor too, because it’s quick and simple. But, if I need to edit an XML Schema or XML document I certainly want a tool that’s XML-aware.

There are varies XML tools that work well with DB2 pureXML. For example, the IBM Data Studio IDE includes features for editing XML Schemas or documents and for designing XML queries. Third party tools that integrate well with DB2 pureXML include Altova XMLSpy, Stylus Studio, and <oXygen/>.

For example, XMLSpy’s integration with DB2 pureXML includes the following capabilities:

• Edit, debug, and profile XQuery statements against XML data in DB2 databases. Query results are then available for further manipulation in XMLSpy
• Visualize the database structure and query DB2 tables using SQL, SQL/XML, and XQuery
• Read XML data from DB2, edit it, and store it back in DB2 with optional schema validation
• Manage XML Schemas in DB2’s XML Schema Repository. For example, you can design new schemas in XMLSpy and register them in DB2, or read existing XML Schemas from DB2, edit them, and save them back into DB2
• Transform XML data for use in other applications
• and more…

If you want to learn more about using XMLSpy with DB2 pureXML, I recommend the following resources:

Website: Altova Tools for DB2 pureXML:
http://www.altova.com/xmlspy/db2-xml-editor.html
http://www.altova.com/solutions/ibm-db2-tools.html
http://www.altova.com/IBM-AltovaPartnership_120506.html

White Paper: Integration of Altova Tools with IBM DB2 pureXML:
http://www.altova.com/whitepapers/ibm.pdf

Tutorial: Using the Altova Tools with IBM DB2 pureXML:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/long/dm-0712kogan/