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RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

Hugh Lynch — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 07:41:00 GMT

I'm a big fan of wheels - I try to keep a bunch on hand so I'll always have one that fits!

What shapes offer is a way to produce precise, potentially complex XML simply and efficiently using store procs and generic invokers. One can create a rich, navigable web UI using shapes, XSL and no other code. The shape tester, using shpList, is a simple example of this.

Shapes also jive nicely with the trend toward background queries from client-side javascript.

Getting your first shape to work requires some non-trivial configuration of the generic components, but once that's done the incremental cost of new shapes is very modest.

-Hugh

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

Tatsu — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 06:24:00 GMT

Maybe I am missing something but this solution sounds a little bit like reinvention of the wheel. I typically bypass the XML in my applications by using typed datasets. Technically, this isn't bypassing XML but I don't think in terms of XML when I am using them. A typed dataset can be serialized to XML using the GetXML method (inherited from the DataSet class). If that isn't pretty enough then an XSL transformation should do the trick. I have used this with UI designers that needed XML data in Flash and they were able to work with the DataSet data without any transformation despite minimal programming experience.

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

Ian Yates — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 06:33:00 GMT

Hi Hugh.

Thank you very much for sharing such a wonderful utility with the community. It is obvious that you have thought a great deal about keeping the output flexible whilst not burdening the developer nor the server. I look forward to trying it out in the coming weeks (I'm absolutely flooded with work at the moment!).

Cheers!!

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

RyanRandall — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 08:00:00 GMT

Hi Hugh,

I'm happy for you to use the FOR XML examples, so long as you give me credit Good luck with future publishings!

All the best,Ryan

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

Hugh Lynch — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 07:55:00 GMT

For those having trouble getting the download, I also posted it at:

http://www.hughlynch.com/shapes/RSSWebShapes.zip

I'm not sure what's up with tech.rssgroup.com; unfortunately, it's one of those awkward "works-for-me" situations. Sorry about the difficulty.

Ryan,

Thanks for the post. The FOR XML examples are excellent and if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to incorporate them into the article. I don't know if/when/where it will be published again, but nonetheless...

The examples make it fairly evident that even at this modest level of complexity, the FOR XML EXPLICIT syntax and construction leave a bit to be desired. On the other hand, the FOR XML AUTO seems simple enough, but provides very little control. Neither is much fun to work with in Query Analyzer and both have the property of burdening the database with work that could easily be farmed out.

I'll continue to monitor this thread for those wishing to give shapes a try.

-Hugh

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

RyanRandall — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 04:45:00 GMT

Good article - thanks Hugh. A shame about the download, but I'm sure you'll get that fixed. In case anyone's not familiar with the FOR XML clause, here's how you can get XML results equivalent to the results in the article. As is so often the case, the method you choose will depend on your requirements, and the method in the article is a very useful one to add to the toolbox.Okay, here we go. Both of these stored procedure calls...exec dbo.XmlAuto_EmployeeActivity 6, '1 Jan 1997', '31 Jan 1997'exec dbo.XmlExplicit_EmployeeActivity 6, '1 Jan 1997', '31 Jan 1997'...give...<Employee EmployeeID="6" LastName="Suyama" FirstName="Michael"> <Customer CustomerID="GOURL" CompanyName="Gourmet Lanchonetes"> <Order OrderID="10423" OrderDate="1997-01-23T00:00:00"> <Item ProductID="31" UnitPrice="10.0000" Quantity="14" Discount="0.0000000e+000"/> <Item ProductID="59" UnitPrice="44.0000" Quantity="20" Discount="0.0000000e+000"/> </Order> </Customer> <Customer CustomerID="LAMAI" CompanyName="La maison d'Asie"> <Order OrderID="10425" OrderDate="1997-01-24T00:00:00"> <Item ProductID="55" UnitPrice="19.2000" Quantity="10" Discount="2.5000000e-001"/> <Item ProductID="76" UnitPrice="14.4000" Quantity="20" Discount="2.5000000e-001"/> </Order> </Customer></Employee>And here's the code for the 2 stored procedures...create procedure dbo.XmlAuto_EmployeeActivity @employeeID int, @startDate smalldatetime, @endDate smalldatetime as

select Employee.EmployeeID, LastName, FirstName, Customer.CustomerID, CompanyName, [Order].OrderID, OrderDate, ProductID, UnitPrice, Quantity, Discountfrom Employees as Employee inner join Orders as [Order] on Employee.EmployeeID = [Order].EmployeeID inner join Customers as Customer on Customer.CustomerID = [Order].CustomerID inner join [Order Details] as Item on Item.OrderID = [Order].OrderIDwhere Employee.EmployeeID = @employeeID and orderDate between @startDate and @endDatefor xml auto---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------create procedure dbo.XmlExplicit_EmployeeActivity @employeeID int, @startDate smalldatetime, @endDate smalldatetime as

--Put relevant orders into a table variabledeclare @tblOrders table (OrderID int primary key)

insert @tblOrdersselect orderID from orders where employeeId = @employeeId and orderDate between @startDate and @endDate

--Headerselect null as 'tag', null as 'parent', -- null as 'Employee!1!EmployeeID', null as 'Employee!1!LastName', null as 'Employee!1!FirstName', --Employee null as 'Customer!2!CustomerID', null as 'Customer!2!CompanyName', --Customer null as 'Order!3!OrderID', null as 'Order!3!OrderDate', --Order null as 'Item!4!ProductID', null as 'Item!4!UnitPrice', null as 'Item!4!Quantity', null as 'Item!4!Discount' --Itemwhere 0 = 1

union

--Employeeselect 1, null, /**/ EmployeeID, LastName, FirstName, /**/ null, null, /**/ null, null, /**/ null, null, null, null from Employees where employeeID = @employeeId

union

--Customerselect 2, 1, /**/ @employeeId, null, null, /**/ CustomerID, CompanyName, /**/ null, null, /**/ null, null, null, null from Customers where customerID in (select customerID from orders where orderID in (select orderID from @tblOrders))

union

--Orderselect 3, 2, /**/ @employeeId, null, null, /**/ CustomerID, null, /**/ OrderID, OrderDate, /**/ null, null, null, null from orders where orderID in (select orderID from orders where orderID in (select orderID from @tblOrders))

union

--Itemselect 4, 3, /**/ @employeeId, null, null, /**/ CustomerID, null, /**/ d.OrderID, null, /**/ ProductID, UnitPrice, Quantity, Discount from [Order Details] d inner join Orders o on o.orderID = d.orderID where d.orderID in (select orderID from @tblOrders)

order by 'Employee!1!EmployeeID', 'Customer!2!CustomerID', 'Order!3!OrderID', 'Item!4!ProductID'

for xml explicit---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Regards,Ryan

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

hawryluk — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 02:28:00 GMT

I'm still getting timeouts, is this a browser address?

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

Paul -244830 — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 01:48:00 GMT

Great, I got the attachments! Thanks.

This is a great solution to the problem. Many solutions include offloading the XML creation to SQL server, which just adds more stress to a single point of failure for most websites and applications. Also, it makes the SQL server output higher by adding XML tags and such at the SQL end. I dont like adding anything to SQL server I dont have to.

The one drawback (and it is a big one) is that you do not supply the source for the DLL. This is actually something which could be added to a good opensource project. If I dare use this DLL in a project for production, I have no guarantee that it will work in future versions of .net and if there is a bug in the library, I have no way to fix it myself or ask someone else to fix it. If this were open sourced or even made available for purchase from a company that would be around a while, that would be great and I would start using it immediately.

Paul Perrick

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

hawryluk — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 01:47:00 GMT

What is this site? I get timeouts as well.

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

Bert De Haes — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 23:51:00 GMT

I couldn't get it either ...

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

Undebtedly — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 23:30:00 GMT

I couldn't get it either.

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

philcart — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 19:27:00 GMT

Anyone had any success at getting to the tech.rssgroup.com website?

I've tried from my work computer and home computer and just get connection timeout errors.

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

Hugh Lynch — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 08:05:00 GMT

please find the download at:

http://tech.rssgroup.com/shapes/RSSWebShapes.zip

and a sample site at

http://tech.rssgroup.com/shapes

thanks for the interest! let me know if you have any installation troubles or further questions.

cheers,

Hugh

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

Todd Miller — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 06:52:00 GMT

I to would like to test this code and wish there was a link to download the files. I could use this I believe.

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

philcart — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 06:26:00 GMT

After just resorting to VBScript to create an XML file, I too would love to see the download.

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

Bob Monahon — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 06:22:00 GMT

I agree - the article was great.

One link does work: http://tech.rssgroup.com/shapes/

Re: "The accompanying download includes the binary and configuration files necessary to experiment with shapes on your own." There's no download available with the article -- did you (or the folks at SQLServerCentral) forget to include it?

Regards, BobM

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

hawryluk — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 01:44:00 GMT

Loved the article, but none of the links work, and no download to try it.

Jason Hawryluk

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

Paul -244830 — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 01:30:00 GMT

Perfect timing on this article too. I am about to implement some AJAX code and was looking for the right solution for generating the XML output from SQL.

The article is well written except I could not find a download link for the samples and the link at the bottom of the article to a Shape testing server is http://localhost/

Thanks for the article.

RE: Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

Bert De Haes — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 01:00:00 GMT

Great article.

I would really like to see how this is implemented, but could not find the download ?

Simplify the Creation of XML from SQL Server Data

Hugh Lynch — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 12:35:00 GMT

Comments posted to this topic are about the content posted at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/hlynch/simplifythecreationofxmlfromsqlserverdata.asp

Here is the download:

http://tech.rssgroup.com/shapes/RSSWebShapes.zip

and at

http://www.hughlynch.com/shapes/RSSWebShapes.zip