Abstract: A compact binary encoding technique for information that is logically hierarchically structured, such as XML data, maintains all of the features of XML data in a useable form, such as the hierarchical structure underlying the data. Hence, data encoded in this format can undergo XML-based processing on-the-fly as it is being received or fetched, as if the data was being processed linearly in its textual character-based format. Processing of data encoded in this format can begin without having to wait for and decode the entire data set. The overhead due to XML tags is significantly minimized. The encoded data can be processed more efficiently because the data is pre-parsed. Values may be stored in their native type formats and, therefore, processing of the encoded data avoids costly type conversions. Further, any available structural constraint information can be effectively exploited.

Abstract: Techniques for implementing a scalable DOM and a pluggable DOM are provided. A scalable DOM implementation manages a DOM tree in memory to free unreferenced nodes, avoid generating nodes unnecessarily, and avoid storing multiple versions of the same data on disk. A pluggable DOM implementation includes an abstract interface that is defined between the API layer and the data layer of a DOM implementation. An implementation of the abstract interface is defined for each data source that is plugged in to the pluggable DOM implementation and that stores XML data in a different format.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for enabling an object associated with an XML node class to be used for both a document object model (DOM) application programming interface (API) that supports an in-memory representation of XML nodes and a DOM API that supports a database-backed representation of XML nodes are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for creating an object that represents an XML node in a Java space includes determining whether the object is to represent a pure node. An object of a first class is created to represent a database-backed node when the object is not determined to represent the pure node, and the object of the first class is created to represent a pure node when the object is determined to represent the pure node. The object includes the same set of fields whether the object represents a pure node or a database-backed node.

Abstract: Techniques for implementing a scalable DOM and a pluggable DOM are provided. A scalable DOM implementation manages a DOM tree in memory to free unreferenced nodes, avoid generating nodes unnecessarily, and avoid storing multiple versions of the same data on disk. A pluggable DOM implementation includes an abstract interface that is defined between the API layer and the data layer of a DOM implementation. An implementation of the abstract interface is defined for each data source that is plugged in to the pluggable DOM implementation and that stores XML data in a different format.

Abstract: Techniques for implementing a schema-aware mid-tier binary XML are provided. Token vocabularies are stored in a repository that is accessible to mid-tier applications from separate database systems. The token vocabularies are thus shared among the mid-tier applications of each database system. The repository may be part of a file system or database that is separate from any of the database systems, or the repository may be part of one of the database systems.

Abstract: An XML processing model enables applications that use an XML stream to perform metadata-based or other processing of data during a data validation operation while preserving a streaming processing model. For example, while an XML node is being validated, requests can be received regarding the status of the validation and any processing that may be required with the node in order to conform it to requirements of an external application. A validator exposes public APIs that allow such validation-time requests from an event handler that is associated with an external application and that is registered with the XML stream. Messages that identify schema annotation definitions are provided to an external application to direct the type of processing to be performed on nodes at application runtime. Thus, applications can process a node according to the annotation definition concurrently with validation of the given node by the validator.

Abstract: Techniques for implementing a scalable DOM and a pluggable DOM are provided. A scalable DOM implementation manages a DOM tree in memory to free unreferenced nodes, avoid generating nodes unnecessarily, and avoid storing multiple versions of the same data on disk. A pluggable DOM implementation includes an abstract interface that is defined between the API layer and the data layer of a DOM implementation. An implementation of the abstract interface is defined for each data source that is plugged in to the pluggable DOM implementation and that stores XML data in a different format.

Abstract: Techniques for implementing a schema-aware mid-tier binary XML are provided. Token vocabularies are stored in a repository that is accessible to mid-tier applications from separate database systems. The token vocabularies are thus shared among the mid-tier applications of each database system. The repository may be part of a file system or database that is separate from any of the database systems, or the repository may be part of one of the database systems.

Abstract: Techniques for implementing a scalable DOM and a pluggable DOM are provided. A scalable DOM implementation manages a DOM tree in memory to free unreferenced nodes, avoid generating nodes unnecessarily, and avoid storing multiple versions of the same data on disk. A pluggable DOM implementation includes an abstract interface that is defined between the API layer and the data layer of a DOM implementation. An implementation of the abstract interface is defined for each data source that is plugged in to the pluggable DOM implementation and that stores XML data in a different format.

Abstract: Described herein are approaches that allow an XML entity to be accessed in a way that requires less memory. These approaches involve dynamically generating and maintaining an in-memory representation of only a portion of an XML tree. The in-memory representation of an XML tree is herein referred to as a node tree. The node tree contains data from the XML tree, and is generated by extracting data from a compressed form of an XML entity. In addition, the node tree contains information about the location of specific elements within the compressed XML entity. The approaches described herein allow an XML tree to be accessed without having to generate an in-memory representation of the whole XML tree, thus reducing the amount of memory needed to access the data in the XML tree.

Abstract: A compact binary encoding technique for information that is logically hierarchically structured, such as XML data, maintains all of the features of XML data in a useable form, such as the hierarchical structure underlying the data. Hence, data encoded in this format can undergo XML-based processing on-the-fly as it is being received or fetched, as if the data was being processed linearly in its textual character-based format. Processing of data encoded in this format can begin without having to wait for and decode the entire data set. The overhead due to XML tags is significantly minimized. The encoded data can be processed more efficiently because the data is pre-parsed. Values may be stored in their native type formats and, therefore, processing of the encoded data avoids costly type conversions. Further, any available structural constraint information can be effectively exploited.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for enabling an object associated with an XML node class to be used for both a document object model (DOM) application programming interface (API) that supports an in-memory representation of XML nodes and a DOM API that supports a database-backed representation of XML nodes are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for creating an object that represents an XML node in a Java space includes determining whether the object is to represent a pure node. An object of a first class is created to represent a database-backed node when the object is not determined to represent the pure node, and the object of the first class is created to represent a pure node when the object is determined to represent the pure node. The object includes the same set of fields whether the object represents a pure node or a database-backed node.

Abstract: An XML processing model enables applications that use an XML stream to perform metadata-based or other processing of data during a data validation operation while preserving a streaming processing model. For example, while an XML node is being validated, requests can be received regarding the status of the validation and any processing that may be required with the node in order to conform it to requirements of an external application. A validator exposes public APIs that allow such validation-time requests from an event handler that is associated with an external application and that is registered with the XML stream. Messages that identify schema annotation definitions are provided to an external application to direct the type of processing to be performed on nodes at application runtime. Thus, applications can process a node according to the annotation definition concurrently with validation of the given node by the validator.