“No cuddly toys this year, man”. This message from a mail Doug send a short…
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The biggest problem the APEX application has, regarding XML DB interaction, is that it doesn’t understand / support (yet) typical XML DB structures like the datatype / operator “XMLType”. To make APEX capable to support these structures some coding has to be done transforming an XMLtype value into other datatypes like CLOB or a varchar2.
In the XFILES application this is supported via the package “XFILES_APEX_SERVICES”. This package contains, among others, a function called “LISTDIRECTORY” which shows the content of files and (underneath) directories in a (root) directory.
For example, via WebDAV access, Oracle XML DB Repository content can be made visible while using Windows Explorer, of the following /home directory.
Click on the picture to enlarge
The actual content seen here (or via HTTP, FTP) is a representation of an XMLType table in the database called XDB$RESOURCE.
Its free. Its cool. You need them for the APEX XFILES demo application. As far a as I know now, you need two supporting PL/SQL packages to make the APEX XFILES application work:
The origins of those PL/SQL packages, etc, are supporting code used by the XMLDB Development team themselves. More info, demo’s or scripts can be found on the OTN XMLDB website. The XMLDB Development team started to split the scripts up for use in specific areas. The old xdbutility zip package had most of them still combined. Now the xdbutilities.zip package with PL/SQL scripts and packages (aka. the “Oracle XML DB Ease of Use Tools for Structured Storage“) its specific usage is pinpointed on manipulating and managing XML Schemas which are used for XMLType-based storage (I saw that 99% of them reflect, are usable with XMLType tables Object Relational storage only). In the now, for the first time, available document it states: