Microsoft SQL Server XML Technology Preview

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Updated January 17, 2000

Microsoft® is tightly integrating XML into the SQL Server™ relational database management system (RDBMS) to help developers build the next generation of Web and Enterprise applications. To start off this process, Microsoft has released a technology preview that provides XML integration with and direct URL access to SQL Server 7.0. This allows queries to be sent directly to SQL Server 7.0 via a URL with the results returned as XML formatted documents. The next version of SQL Server, code named “Shiloh,” will be fully XML-enabled and will include a superset of the features available in the technology preview for SQL Server 7.0. SQL Server “Shiloh” will be available in mid-2000. This Microsoft SQL Server XML Technology Preview demonstrates XML capabilities using SQL Server and Internet Information Server (IIS). It is an IIS ISAPI extension that provides HTTP access to SQL Server and XML data formatting and updating capabilities.

With the appropriate configuration, it will allow URL queries like:

http://IISServer/northwind?sql=SELECT+*+FROM+Customers+FOR+XML+AUTO

or allow you to store "canned" queries (including stored procedure calls) on your IIS server that can be executed with optional parameters from the URL or posted from an HTML form.

The layout of the XML returned can be specified  in many ways (including a useful Auto mode) and includes the ability to include schema information either in document type definition (DTD) or XML-Data formats.

Support and Updates

This technology preview is an early look at future Microsoft technologies and is therefore not supported through existing Microsoft Product Support offerings. Members of the SQL Server development team will monitor the Microsoft Newsgroup, microsoft.public.sqlserver.xml, and may answer questions posted here.

Please check this site on an ongoing basis as we plan to update the SQL Server XML Technology Preview in the coming weeks.

Installation Instructions

Download Microsoft SQL Server XML Technology Preview (Updated December 20, 1999)

Note: IIS must be present on the target machine. This will copy the ISAPI dynamic-link library (DLL) and create a menu entry XML Technology Preview for SQL Server that includes links to the documentation, samples, and online locations for support and updates.

After the program is installed, you will need to configure IIS using the provided regxmlss utility menu option (called Registration Tool). Assuming you have a SQL Server installed with the sample database Northwind, a useful starting point is to use the regxmlss defaults and provide a SQL Server userid and password and to turn the URL query option on. Note that the SQL Server does not need to be on the same machine for this configuration to work. You can then use a browser on that machine to try your first query, for example:  

href=/old?u=http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%2FNorthwind%3Fsql%3Dselect%2Bfirstname%2Clastname%2Bfrom%2Bemployees%2Bfor%2Bxml%2Bauto&y=1999

With this running successfully, you'll be able to try the more advanced samples and examples from the documentation.

One special point to note: the virtual root name you choose (for example, Northwind) can be used only for accessing your SQL data. Any other Web files (such as .htm or .asp files) will not be accessible from this virtual root. This space is reserved for so-called template files that contain "canned" queries.

This preview has been tested on Window s NT® 4.0 and IIS 4.0, as well as on Windows® 2000 and IIS 5.0 with SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 6.5 Service Pack 5. Any other combinations are unlikely to work consistently, if at all. In particular, Windows 98 and Personal Web Server will not work.