From the database geek.

Update March 29, 2009:  PL/JSON is now available as an open source project (MIT License).  Read the FAQ at http://oracleoss.com

Do you use JSON? Do you use Oracle? How would you like to use JSON in Oracle? How would you like to store it, generate it and read it? I am creating a new JSON data type that will work like XMLType.

I am assuming you are familiar with Oracle (or you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog). If you are not familiar with JSON it is JavaScript Object Notation, a lightweight data-interchange specification. Think of it as a replacement to XML.

I started working on a task for a project and decided that there were some very good properties that I could use to help me teach people PL/SQL and XML. I expanded a bit on the idea and ended up with a scripting language, implemented in XML, that can be passed into a PL/SQL procedure. The script can execute stored procedures, it has looping logic, conditional (CASE) logic, user defined variables, etc.

The nice thing about it is that it’s very easy to read and modify. The XML structure is also very easy to read.

Oracle provides a lot of XML functionality in the database. This entry will cover the different tools Oracle provides and future entries will get into the details of each.

The three primary XML tools that oracle provides are: XML Developers Kit (XDK), XML DB and SQL Extensions for XML (SQLX and XMLType). Below is a definition of each.

XDK

The XDK is a complete XML development toolkit that was introduced for 8i. I think the first version was labeled XDK9i but the toolkit actually was available for 8i. I remember using the beta product.