Retrieving data as xml from sql server

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Retrieving Data as XML from SQL Server
By: Mitchell Harper October 1st, 2001 Reader Rating: 8
All the hype that once surrounded XML is finally starting to die down, and developers are really beginning to harness the power and flexibility of the language. XML is a data descriptive language that uses a set of user-defined tags to describe data in a hierarchicallystructured format.

About the Author
Mitchell Harper
Mitchell is the lead developer for Interspire, who develop re-brandable Internet software and tools to help Web developers increase their

customer base and make more revenue. The release of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 a couple of months ago saw Microsoft jump on the XML Mitchell can be reached via email at band-wagon too - they've included a number of different ways to manipulate data as well-formed XML. [e-mail]. Firstly, there's the SQL XML support. Microsoft's implementation of SQL XML provides a simple View all articles by Mitchell Harper... configuration tools that allows developers to gain remote access to databases using URL based queries over HTTP. For example, we can setup an SQL XML virtual directory on our Web server named "myVirtual". Then, assuming we have the appropriate security permissions, we can use any browser to query our database using a simple URL based query (such as: http://www.myserver.com /myVirtual?SQL=select+*+from+products+for+xml+auto). This then returns our results as an XML based recordset.

Notice the "for xml auto" part of our query above? This determines the way in which SQL Server 2000 shapes our data. There are three shaping methods: 1. "for xml auto": Returns XML elements that are nested, based on which tables are listed in the "from" part of the query, and which fields are listed in the "select" part. 2. "for xml raw": Returns XML elements with the "row" prefix