It appears that the majority of the class is confused by all the new material we are branching into, and I am a member of this confused segment. Fortunately, the recent posts on XML have helped me to obtain a much greater understanding of XML. Together, Maulin's and Jonathan's blogs help to describe and characterize XML very well. I think that Jonathan's (BIT) blog points out an important distinction that needs to be understood - that XML is a a text markup system rather than a programming language or DMBS. Anyone who is still confused should read these blogs, if they have not already.
However, after reading the blogs on XML, I was still confused as to what XSQL was and how it relates to XML. Therefore, I looked up some websites relating to XSQL. The best link I have found so far is Generating XSQL Server Pages. The article relates all the topics we are currenlty discussing in class, including XML, XSQL, HTML, and SQL. What I gathered from the website is the following:
XSQL is a servlet provided by Oracle, the database management system we have been using in class. The servlet processes SQL queries and outputs the results as XML. Therefore, Oracle XSQL pages are XML datapages with embedded SQL queries. You can build an XSQL page by including an <xsql:query> tag in your XML file at the place where you want the SQL to be exectued. The <xsql:query> element will be replaced by the XML output of your query. The input and output data flows from a client to the servlet and back to the client. For a complete description of the data flow you should read the article.
After all this reading, I am still a little shaky on some of the material, but I definitely have a better overall feeling of all the subject matter. I have a feeling that my understanding and knowledge of the material will grow as I continue carry out more of the class exercises. However, I believe that the blogs everyone has been contributing are essential to the class' understanding of the material. Therefore, anyone with more helpful insight into the material, please feel free to share your wealth of knowledge.