Joe Lennon

One of the most useful and versatile technologies available in IBM DB2 is its native support for XML data through the pureXML feature. PureXML allows you to store, retrieve, and manipulate XML data alongside and in the same manner as relational data. This enables you to develop applications that harness the advantages of both relational databases and XML data. Such applications can be particularly useful when you have a large amount of XML data that you need to leverage without having to first convert it into a relational structure.

This tutorial gives you step-by-step instructions on how to use PHP to create a Support Knowledge Base system that stores its data using a combination of traditional DB2 relational columns and pureXML columns. The application uses the power of SQL/XML to map XML data as a relational column. This allows you to use PHP to retrieve the data as though it were stored in a relational manner.

Creating applications that use a hybrid of relational data and XML data is easy thanks to the pureXML® feature of IBM® DB2® database servers. In this tutorial, you use PHP to create a Web application that connects to an IBM DB2 Express-C database and stores some of its data in traditional relational database columns, and some of it in native XML columns. You also learn how to use SQL/XML queries to retrieve, insert, update, and delete data from this database. Beyond the hands-on, project-based training, the tutorial equips you with the skills and conceptual knowledge you need to develop your own hybrid applications.

Read the article at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/tutorials/dm-0911db2purexmlphp/