05/21/2007

DataDirect Technologies, a specialist in data connectivity and mainframe integration and an operating company of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS), today released version 3.0 of the DataDirect XQuery® product, an XQuery processor that enables software developers to access and query XML, relational data, SOAP messages, EDI messages, legacy data, or a combination of data sources and provides full update support for relational data.

ebizQ received the following:

Server agnostic and database independent, DataDirect XQuery version 3.0 is an enterprise-grade XQuery processor that supports the W3C XQuery Recommendation of January 2007 and builds upon the technical innovation and proven superiority of its previous versions – delivering fast, reliable and scalable XQuery support. DataDirect XQuery vastly simplifies and enhances the performance of combining and processing different types of data (relational, XML, legacy, EDI, and SOAP messages) in heterogeneous environments and is recommended for Java developers working with data integration, XML-based data exchange, XML-driven Web sites and XML publishing application scenarios.

Success at the National Highway Safety Administration

Systems integrator and computer consulting firm, Core Computer Group found DataDirect XQuery to be a stable, reliable product that demonstrated excellent performance at its most demanding customer engagements. During a project with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Core Computer Group achieved significant performance gains by choosing DataDirect XQuery over the more conventional approach of using custom Java code on top of standard SQL.

“With DataDirect XQuery we were able to reduce code complexity, simplify code maintenance and improve performance and scalability,” said Juan Carlos Alfonso, senior software engineer at Core Computer Group. “What once took 50 Java classes and 150 SQL statements was reduced to just a single Java class and seven XQueries using the DataDirect XQuery product. Moreover, a large extraction from 500MB of XML data intended for SAS analysis took significantly less time compared to using different methods.”

DataDirect Technologies is one of the few companies to successfully complete the W3C XML Query Test Suite, achieving greater than 99 percent compliance and near-perfect results. Through its ongoing work with standards organizations like the W3C’s XQuery Working Group and XQJ Working Group, DataDirect Technologies is a landmark contributor to the development of important emerging industry standards and is uniquely positioned to develop its own products in alignment with them. As such, DataDirect XQuery version 3.0, like its predecessors before, supports the latest XQuery for Java™ API (XQJ), including enhancements in document projection and streaming for improved performance and scalability.

“As the industry’s most well supported, robust commercial XQuery implementation, release 3.0 of DataDirect XQuery offers even greater functionality and efficiencies for building advanced applications and integrating data within service-oriented architectures (SOAs),” said John Goodson, vice president of product operations at DataDirect Technologies. “DataDirect XQuery enables developers to realize one of the key promises of SOA – complete data transparency. All data sources are available through a single standards-based query language.”

Update Relational Databases with XQuery

For XQuery applications that need to insert, update or delete data in relational tables, DataDirect XQuery version 3.0 allows users to update relational data within XQuery. This makes the product well-suited for Extract Transform Load (ETL) data migration and provides XML shredding and transparent relational updates for further ease and efficiency. Moreover, users can generate a graphical query plan to see how the DataDirect XQuery product will execute the desired query. Using this functionality, DataDirect XQuery users can tune for optimum performance.

SOA and Web Services Integration

Web services depend heavily on XML processing and data integration. In SOA, services must efficiently process XML from requests, using a variety of data sources to create a response. A service might use data from the request itself, data stored in relational databases, XML files and Web service calls, combining and restructuring this data to create the response. The service may need to manage XML input or output that is extremely large or complex. DataDirect XQuery version 3.0 seamlessly supports the ability to create SOAP requests, specify endpoints, invoke Web services and consume SOAP responses from the XQuery query without writing additional code. Another enhancement allows an XQuery to be exposed as a Web service for creating data services. This allows DataDirect XQuery to fit easily into any SOA.