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Before you start
Discover what you need to get the most from this tutorial.
Ajax is an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript + XML. XQuery is a technology used to query Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents. Together, these technologies provide a powerful means of creating rich Web applications that facilitate client-side dynamic content derived from XML document queries—an excellent solution for applications that require data access against an XML document as opposed to a relational database. And, because XML is quickly becoming the generally accepted means of information interchange (especially when platform independence is required), the necessity of querying against XML to present information in a Web application is growing in popularity. A Web application implementation that uses Ajax together with XQuery can enable complex queries against data stored in an XML format and cleanly present the information to the user.
This tutorial explains how to create a Web application—called FishinHole.com—that uses these two powerful technologies together. The Web application uses Java™ enterprise technology with the popular Spring framework. You also use DataDirect's XQuery application programming interface (API), or XQJ, for XQuery purposes. Finally, you deploy the application to an Apache Tomcat server. You can then access the application with a standard Web browser and see the benefits of using XQuery with Ajax.
In this tutorial, you first learn a bit about XQuery—what it is and how it works. Next, you learn about Ajax and its place in Web applications. The requirements for the sample Web application are established, and the tutorial guides you through the process of creating a "basic" Web application using Spring. You also create a basic Web application that does not use Ajax and XQuery, which will enable you to see how things work without XQuery and Ajax so that you can understand the advantages of using these technologies together. Finally, you're guided through the process of modifying the Web application to use Ajax and XQuery.
To use this tutorial, you should have a basic understanding of Web application development and deployment as well as a basic understanding of the Java programming language, XML, HTML, and the JavaScript language. Ideally, you should also understand Tomcat server administration.
To run the examples in this tutorial, you need a platform that can support the Apache Tomcat application server. The tutorial assumes that the server will run on a Microsoft® Windows® platform, but UNIX®-savvy users will certainly be able to make the appropriate adjustments to enable implementation on that platform, as well.
You also need the Spring framework, as that is the tool that you use to implement the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern in the Web application. This framework is also used for dependency injection.
Finally, you must have the XQJ library. This is the API that the application uses to actually perform the XQuery processing.
Table of contents
Next steps from IBM
Create rich Internet applications using WebSphere Portal Express Web 2.0 technologies.
- Try: WebSphere Portal Express
- Article: Get started using Ajax and WebSphere Portal Express
- Tutorial: Quickly build a an Ajax-enabled WebSphere Portal Express Web application
- Demo: Architecture, design, and construction using the IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform: AJAX
- Buy: WebSphere Portal Express
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