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Getting Started with DB2 XML Extender for iSeries

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IBM's eServer Business Solution Test (BST) team designs, implements, evaluates, and deploys customer-like scenarios. The team consists of iSeries developers in the Rochester laboratory who design scenarios that demonstrate how iSeries technology can be used to build e-business solutions. Although the team is restricted to a test laboratory environment, great effort is made to reflect reality.

Recently, the BST team created an application called Travel Flights Cruises (TFC), which simulates several fictitious companies in a B2B relationship, including a cruise line, a cruise Web site, a travel agency, and a bank. The travel agency and bank used DB2 XML Extender for iSeries to compose, decompose, and archive Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents. The following provides an overview of the DB2 XML Extender for iSeries product and examples of how TFC utilized it.

DB2 XML Extender Overview

XML is extensible in that the language is a metalanguage that allows you to create your own language, depending on the needs of your enterprise. You use XML to capture not only the data for your particular application, but also the data structure. Although it is not the only data interchange format, XML has emerged as the accepted standard. By adhering to this standard, applications can share data without first transforming it using proprietary formats.

DB2 XML Extender helps you integrate the power of IBM's DB2 Universal Database for iSeries (DB2 UDB) with the flexibility of XML. It provides the ability to generate XML documents from existing data, insert rows into tables from XML documents, and store and access XML documents. XML Extender provides new data types, functions, and stored procedures to manage your XML data in DB2 relational databases.

To view IBM's document on DB2 UDB XML Extender Administration and Programming, click here.

XML Document Examples
XML documents were used by the cruise line and the travel agency to handle the processing of buying and booking cruises. These XML documents contain the itinerary or passenger information and allow integration between the cruise line and the travel agency. The following XML documents were used:

  • Itinerary--The cruise line provides the travel agency with detailed itinerary information about cruises they have purchased. The travel agency decomposes this XML document into DB2 database tables. The data within these tables is used by other applications to book cruises for specific customers.
  • Passenger--The travel agency provides the cruise line with detailed passenger information for the cruises they have booked for specific customers. This XML document is composed based on the information in DB2 database tables.

Decomposition Example (Itinerary)

Let's take a look at the XML Extender pieces of the itinerary application that allows the travel agency to receive the itinerary XML document from the cruise line. The itinerary XML document contains all of the itinerary information for the cruises that were ordered by the travel agency, based on an order number. The itinerary XML document is decomposed by the travel agency into several DB2 database tables. The travel agency uses an XML collection for storage of the XML data and a custom-designed document type definition (DTD) for the itinerary XML document since there were no suitable industry standard DTDs available at the time the application was developed.

Database Details
The XML document is decomposed into five DB2 tables:

  • cruise_info
  • rooms
  • port_of_calls_temp
  • activities_temp
  • day_temp


The cruise_info table contains cruise information that is received from the cruise line, as shown in the following table:

Key
Field Name
Alias Name
Data Type
Length
VarLen Alloc
Digits, DecPos
Description
P
BOOKING#
BOOKING_NBR
VARCHAR
20
10
Booking number

CRUISECO
CRUISE_CO
VARCHAR
40
20
Cruise line name

ORDER#
ORDER_NBR
VARCHAR
20
10
Order number

PRODID
PRODUCT_ID
VARCHAR
20
10
Product ID

CRUISEID
CRUISE_ID
VARCHAR
20
10
Cruise ID

CRUISEDESC
CRUISE_DESC
VARCHAR
30
10
Cruise description (7 Day...)

ROOMDESC
ROOM_DESC
VARCHAR
30
10
Room description (std ,ocean, ...)

COSTSING
COST_SINGLE
PACKED

7,2
Cost to the agency for single occupancy

COSTDOUB
COST_DOUBLE
PACKED

7,2
Cost to the agency for double occupancy

COSTADD
COST_ADDITIONAL
PACKED

2,2
Cost for each additional person over two

CUSTCOST
CUST_COST
PACKED

2,2
Cost to the customer with commission added (percentage)

DUR
DURATION
INT


Duration of cruise

DEPTDATE
DEPARTURE_DATE
DATE


Departure date of cruise


The rooms table shown below contains the room numbers that were bought from the cruise line. It is used to track the rooms that are sold to the travel agency customers.

Key
Field Name
Alias Name
Data Type
Length
VarLen Alloc
Digits, DecPos
Description
P,F
BOOKING#
BOOKING_NBR
VARCHAR
20
10
Booking number
P
ROOMNBR
ROOM_NBR
VARCHAR
10
6
Room number

STATUS
BOOKED_STATUS
CHAR
1
Y
Room status (O=open, B=booked, D=cruise has sailed)

PDCRUISE
PD_CRUISE_LINE
CHAR
1
Y
Paid cruise line status (U=unpaid, P=paid)


Within the Document Access Definition (DAD) file, no option exists to specify that only unique records should be inserted into the database tables. Within the XML document, for each cruise, there is a corresponding set of ports of call and activities listed. When the XML document is decomposed, the appropriate data is inserted into the port_of_calls and activities tables. The travel agency wanted to ensure that only one set of ports of call and activities is inserted in those tables for each cruise to avoid having the tables populated with duplicate records.

To accomplish this, two temporary tables (port_of_calls_temp and activities_temp were used for the decomposition. Two INSERT triggers (Enter_Port_Of_Calls and Enter_Activities) were added to those tables to insert the new row into the port_of_calls and activities tables if they did not already exist. Two more triggers (Remove_Port_Of_Calls and Remove_Activities) were used to delete the data from the temporary files.

The port_of_calls_temp table is a temporary table used for decomposing the XML document. The actual data is stored in the port_of_calls table. The port_of_calls table contains the same type of information, as shown in the following table:

Key
Field Name
Alias Name
Data Type
Length
VarLen Alloc
Digits, DecPos
Description

CRUISECO
CRUISE_CO
VARCHAR
40
20
Name of cruise line
CRUISEID
CRUISE_ID
VARCHAR
20
10
Cruise ID

DAYNBR
DAY_NUMBER
INT
Day number (e.g., 1, 2, 3, ...)

PORT
PORT_OF_CALL
VARCHAR
30
10
Name of port

ARRTIME
ARRIVE_TIME
TIME

Y
Time of arrival at port

DEPTTIME
DEPART_TIME
TIME

Y
Time of departure from port


The activities_temp table is a temporary table used for decomposing the XML document. The actual data is stored in the activities table. The activities table contains the same type of information:

Key
Field Name
Alias Name
Data type
Length
VarLen Alloc
Digits, DecPos
Description
CRUISECO
CRUISE_CO
VARCHAR
40
20
Name of cruise line
CRUISEID
CRUISE_ID
VARCHAR
20
10
Cruise ID

DAYNBR
DAY_NUMBER
INT
Day number (e.g., 1, 2, 3, ...)

ACTTIME
ACTIVITY_TIME
TIME
Y
Time of activity

DESC
DESCRIPTION
VARCHAR
100
20
Description of activity


The day_temp table contains the day number for the activities and ports of call, as shown in the following table:

Key
Field Name
Alias Name
Data type
Length
VarLen Alloc
Digits, DecPos
Description

DAYNBR
DAY_NUMBER
INT

Day number


DTD
The DTD document used within this example is shown in Figure 1.






BookingNumber*, CruiseID, CruiseDescription, RoomDescription, 
DepartureDate, ReturnDate, Duration, SinglePrice, DoublePrice, 
ExtraOccupantPrice, Schedule, NumberOfRooms, Rooms)>






















   location CDATA #REQUIRED
   arrive CDATA #IMPLIED
   depart CDATA #IMPLIED
>





Figure 1: This is the sample XML code for the DTD.

XML Document
An example of what the XML document looks like is shown in Figure 2:



 "/javateam/shoreline/dtd/itinerary.dtd">



   
      123463
      Cruise Company
      9899
      105
      00011
      5-Day Caribbean
      Oceanview
      10/12/2000
      10/15/2000>
      4
      399
      199
      199
      
         
            
            Fireworks off starboard side
 of ship
         
         ...
         
            
         
      
      5
      
         
         ...
         
      
   
   
      123463
      Cruise Company
      9899
      106
         ...
      
         ...
      
         ...
   

Figure 2: Here's the sample XML document.

DTD Mapping Scheme
The following table illustrates how the structure of the XML document relates to the DB2 tables that are used for the decomposition. This is helpful in the creation of the DAD file because it shows how the two structures compare.

Element
Attribute
Value
Table(s)
Column
Itinerary Information



CruiseProduct



OrderNumber
123463
cruise_info
order_nbr
Company
Cruise Company
cruise_info
activities_temp
port_of_calls_temp
cruise_co
cruise_co
cruise_co
ProductID
9899
cruise_info
product_id
BookingNumber
105
cruise_info
rooms
booking_nbr
booking_nbr
CruiseID
00011
cruise_info
activities_temp
port_of_calls_temp
cruise_id
cruise_id
cruise_id
CruiseDescription
5-day Caribbean
cruise_info
cruise_description
RoomDescription
Oceanview
cruise_info
room_desc
DepartureDate
10/12/2000
cruise_info
departure_date
ReturnDate
10/15/2000

Duration
4
cruise_info
duration
SinglePrice
399
cruise_info
cost_single
DoublePrice
199
cruise_info
cost_double
ExtraOccupantCost
199
cruise_info
cost_additional
Schedule



Day
dayNumber
1
day_temp
activities_temp
port_of_calls_temp
day_number
day_number
day_number
Port
location
Miami, Florida
port_of_calls_temp
port_of_call

arrive
port_of_calls_temp
arrive_time

depart
5:00 PM
port_of_calls_temp
depart_time
Activity
Fireworks off starboard side of ship
activities_temp
description

time
11:00 PM
activities_temp
activity_time
NumberOfRooms
5

Rooms



Room
roomNumber
111
rooms
room_nbr
Room
roomNumber
...
rooms
room_nbr
Room
roomNumber
115
rooms
room_nbr


DAD
Figure 4 shows the DAD document used within this example. This DAD
file for an XML collection uses RDB_node mapping.





/javateam/shoreline/dtd/itinerary.dtd
YES


?xml version="1.0"?
!DOCTYPE ItineraryInformation SYSTEM
"/javateam/shoreline/dtd/itinerary.dtd"



   
      
      
      
cruise_id"/>
      
cruise_id"/>
      
      
        shoreline.cruise_info.booking_nbr = 
        shoreline.rooms.booking_nbr and 
        shoreline.cruise_info.cruise_co = 
        shoreline.port_of_calls_temp.cruise_co and
        shoreline.cruise_info.cruise_id = 
        shoreline.port_of_calls_temp.cruise_id and
        shoreline.cruise_info.cruise_co =
        shoreline.activities_temp.cruise_co and
        shoreline.cruise_info.cruise_id =
        shoreline.activities_temp.cruise_id and
        shoreline.day_temp.day_number =
        shoreline.port_of_calls_temp.day_number and
        shoreline.day_temp.day_number = 
        shoreline.activities_temp.day_number
      
   
   
      
         
            
               
               
            
         
      
      
         
            
               
               
            
         
      
      
         
            
               
               
            
         
      
      
         
            
               
               
            
         
      
      
         
            
               
               
            
         
      
      
         
            
               
               
            
         
      
      
         
            
               
               
            
         
      
      
         
            
               
               
            
         
      
      
         
            
               
               
            
         
      
      
         
            
               
               
            
         
      
      
         
            
               
               
            
         
      
      
         
            
               
               
            
         
      
      
         
            
               
                  
                  
               
            
         
            
               
                  
                  
               
            
            
               
                  
                  
               
            
            
               
                  
                  
               
            
          
         
            
               
                  
                  
               
            
            
               
                  
                  
               
            
          
          
       
      
         
            
               
                  
                  
               
            
          
       
    
 


Figure 4: This is the DAD document used within this example.

XML Enablement Commands
The following lists the commands that must be run to decompose the Itinerary.xml document into the DB2 database tables:

1. When using the DTD to validate XML data in the XML collection (VALIDATION set to YES in the DAD file), the following SQL statement must be issued to store the Itinerary.dtd in the DTD repository table:

INSERT INTO DB2XML.DTD_REF VALUES('/javateam/shoreline/dtd/itinerary.dtd', DB2XML.XMLCLOBFROMFILE('/javateam/shoreline/dtd/itinerary.dtd'), 0, 'author_name', 'creator_name', NULL)

2. Since the dxxInsertXML() stored procedure is used to decompose the document, enable the XML collection using the following command:

CALL PGM(QDBXM/QZXMADM) PARM (ENABLE_COLLECTION db_name SHORELINE.CRUISE_INFO '/javateam/shoreline/dad/itinerary.dad')

Java Source
Figure 5 is the Java code snippet that decomposes the itinerary XML document into the database tables with the defined DAD.

...
// Read the XML file
String = null;
byte buf[] = new byte[5000];
try
{
   FileInputStream in = new
     FileInputStream("/javateam/shoreline/xml/TestItinerary.xml");
   in.read(buf, 0, 5000);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
   System.out.println("Error: " + e.toString());
}
xmlItinerary = new String(buf, 0);
// Call the stored procedure
cs = con.prepareCall("CALL db2xml.dxxInsertXML(?, ?, ?, ?)");

// Register the input parameters
cs.setString(1, "SHORELINE.CRUISE_INFO");
cs.setObject(2, xmlItinerary);
cs.registerOutParameter(3, Types.INTEGER);
cs.registerOutParameter(4, Types.VARCHAR);

// Run the stored procedure
cs.execute();
...

Figure 5: This Java code decomposes the itinerary XML document into the database tables with the defined DAD.

Composition Example (Passengers)

This section describes the XML Extender pieces of the passenger application that allows the travel agency to send a passenger XML document to the cruise line. The passenger XML document contains all the passenger information for the booked rooms that have been reserved by customers of the travel agency. The passenger XML document is composed from two DB2 database tables by using SQL mapping.

The travel agency uses an XML collection for storage of the XML data and a custom designed DTD for the passenger XML document since there were no suitable industry standard DTDs available at the time the application was developed.

Database Details
The XML document is composed of data from two existing DB2 tables. The two DB2 tables are cruise_info and passengers. The xml_passenger table is used to store the XML document. The cruise_info table contains cruise information that is received from the cruise line. The layout of the cuise_info table is shown in the previous decomposition example.

The passengers table contains passenger information for a specific room on a cruise. The layout of the passengers table is shown below:

Key
Field Name
Alias Name
Data type
Length
VarLen Alloc
Allow null
Description
F
BOOKING#
BOOKING_NBR
VARCHAR
20
10
Booking number
F
ROOMNBR
ROOM_NBR
VARCHAR
10
6
Room number

NAME1
NAME_1
VARCHAR
50
30
Passenger 1 name

ADDR1
ADDRESS_1
VARCHAR
40
20
Passenger 1 address

CITY1
CITY_1
VARCHAR
15
10
Passenger 1 city

STATE1
STATE_1
CHAR
2

Passenger 1 state

ZIP1
ZIP_1
CHAR
9

Passenger 1 zip

COUNTRY1
COUNTRY_1
CHAR
15

Passenger 1 country

PHONENBR1
PHONE_NBR_1
CHAR
14

Passenger 1 phone number

DOB1
DATE_OF_BIRTH_1
DATE


Passenger 1 date of birth

PROCIND
PROCESSED_INDICATOR
CHAR
1

Indicates if passengers list has been sent to cruise company (N=not sent, P = sent)


The xml_passenger table is used to store the XML document content. This table is used for composing the passenger XML document. The layout of the xml_passenger table is shown below:

Key
Field Name
Alias Name
Data Type
Description

VALID00001
VALID_DOCUMENT
INT
Valid document indicator

XML_D00001
XML_DOCUMENT
XMLCLOB
Passengers XML document


DTD
Figure 6 shows the DTD document used within this example.




















   name CDATA #REQUIRED
   address CDATA #REQUIRED
>

Figure 6: This is the DTD document used in the example.

XML Document
Figure 7 is an example of what the XML document looks like.



   "/javateam/shoreline/dtd/passengerUpdate.dtd">

   
   
      
         
            address="123 Main St, City, State 11111"/>
      
      
         
            address="234 Main St, City, State 33333"/>
      
   
   
      
         
            address="987 Main St, City, State 55555"/>
      
   

Figure 7: Here's an example of the XML document.

DTD Mapping Scheme
The following table illustrates how the structure of the XML document relates to the DB2 tables that are used for the composition. This was helpful in the creation of the DAD file because it shows how the two structures compare.

Element
Attribute
Value
Table
Column
Passenger Update
agency
Shoreline Travel

Confirmation
sendConfirm
No

Cruise
cruiseID
1
cruise_info
cruise_id
Room
roomNumber
1
passengers
room_nbr
Passenger1
name
Jane Doe
passengers
name1

address
123 Main Street, City, State, 11111
passengers
address1 + state1 + zip1


DAD
The code in Figure 9 shows the DAD document used within this example. This DAD file uses SQL mapping.




/JavaTeam/Shoreline/dtd/passengerUpdate.dtd
NO



   SELECT 'Shoreline Travel' AS AGENCY_NAME, 'No' AS SEND_CONFIRM,
   CRUISE_ID, SHORELINE.PASSENGERS.BOOKING_NBR as BOOK, 
   ROOM_NBR, NAME_1, (ADDRESS_1 CONCAT ', ' CONCAT CITY_1 CONCAT ', 
   ' CONCAT STATE_1 CONCAT ' ' CONCAT ZIP_1) AS COMPLETE_ADDRESS_1, 
   FROM SHORELINE.CRUISE_INFO, SHORELINE.PASSENGERS WHERE 
   CRUISE_CO = 'Cruise Company' AND PROCESSED_INDICATOR = 'N' AND 
   SHORELINE.CRUISE_INFO.BOOKING_NBR =  
   SHORELINE.PASSENGERS.BOOKING_NBR ORDER BY AGENCY_NAME, 
   CRUISE_ID, BOOK, ROOM_NBR


?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?
!DOCTYPE PassengerUpdate SYSTEM
"/JavaTeam/Shoreline/dtd/passengerUpdate.dtd"

   
      
         
      
   
      
         
      
   
   
      
         
      
      
         
           
         
         
            
               
            
            
               
            
         
      
    



Figure 9: This is the DAD document used in this example.

XML Enablement Commands
This following lists the commands that must be run to compose the Passenger.xml document from the DB2 database tables:

1. The following SQL statement must be issued to store the passengerUpdate.dtd in the DTD repository table:

INSERT INTO DB2XML.DTD_REF VALUES('/javateam/shoreline/dtd/passengerUpdate.dtd', DB2XML.XMLCLOBFROMFILE('/JavaTeam/Shoreline/dtd/passengerUpdate.dtd'), 0, 'author_name', 'creator_name', NULL)

2. Since the dxxRetrieveXML() stored procedure is used to compose the document, enable the XML collection using the following command:

CALL PGM(QDBXM/QZXMADM) PARM(ENABLE_COLLECTION db_name SHORELINE.XML_PASSENGER '/javateam/shoreline/dad/passengers.dad')

Java Source
The Java code snippet in Figure 10 composes the passenger XML document from the database tables with the defined DAD.

...
// Remove old records from file by deleting records from XML_PASSENGER
stmt.executeUpdate("DELETE FROM SHORELINE.XML_PASSENGER");

// Call the stored procedure
cs = con.prepareCall("CALL 
     db2xml.dxxRetrieveXML(?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)");

// Register the input parameters
cs.setString(1, "SHORELINE.XML_PASSENGER");
cs.setString(2, "SHORELINE.XML_PASSENGER");
cs.setString(3, "xml_document");
cs.setString(4, "valid_document");
cs.setInt(5, 0);
cs.setString(6, "NO_OVERRIDE");
cs.setInt(7, 500);
cs.registerOutParameter(8, Types.INTEGER);
cs.registerOutParameter(9, Types.INTEGER);
cs.registerOutParameter(10, Types.VARCHAR);

// Run the stored procedure
cs.execute();

if (!(cs.getInt(9) == 0))
   throw new Exception("Error creating XML document -- error code: " +
                       cs.getInt(9));

// Create the XML document -- /javateam/shoreline/passengers.xml
stmt.executeQuery("SELECT DB2XML.CONTENT(XML_DOCUMENT,

 '/JAVATEAM/SHORELINE/passengers.xml') FROM SHORELINE.XML_PASSENGER");
...

XML: The Key to Easy Data Exchange

XML is the standard for data interchange for B2B e-commerce solutions. With DB2 XML Extender, it is easy to leverage your business information in DB2 databases to engage in B2B solutions using XML to interchange data.

Author's Note: This article includes excerpts from various IBM Web sites. The authors of this article collected the information from these Web sites and organized it in an easy-to-follow format.

Marie Wilson is a Staff Software Engineer on the BST team located at the Rochester, Minnesota, laboratory. She has over 15 years of experience in the software testing field. Her areas of expertise include WebSphere and Java. Marie can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Sue Schmidt is a Staff Software Engineer on the BST team located at the Rochester, Minnesota, laboratory. She has over six years of experience in the software testing field. Her areas of expertise include WebSphere and Java. Sue can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing. Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.

  • LANSAWhen it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed. Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn: