This article provides a roadmap to understand the integration of Extensible Markup Language with ADO.NET.

To assist you with learning a Microsoft product or technology, roadmap articles provide links to useful information, including online documentation, Microsoft Knowledge Base articles, and white papers.

Overview

Often programmers must integrate XML with relational data. The Microsoft .NET Framework recognizes this need and can integrate ADO.NET with XML at multiple levels. Two key classes facilitate this integration: the DataSet class and the XmlDataDocument class. These classes provide two different views on that same data: hierarchical view and relational view.

DataSet can be populated from a relational backend or XML backend. This provides a relational view on the data. After DataSet is populated, regardless of the choice of backend, you can extract XML data from it.

XmlDataDocument provides a bridge between hierarchical and relational views. It binds with a DataSet to provide an XML view on the same data. As a result, all XML services [such as Extensible Stylesheets Language Transformations (XSLT) and XML Path Language (XPath)] are available on relational data.

You can save or load the structure of a DataSet as XML schema. In addition, you can use XML schemas to make typed DataSet classes. As the name implies, a typed DataSet is strongly typed and can access tables and columns by name instead of collection-based methods.

For more specific information about XML and the DataSet class, refer to the "XML and the DataSet" topics in the Visual Studio .NET Online Help documentation.

For an overview of ADO.NET integration with XML, refer to the following MSDN Magazine article:

Architecture

For architectural (or internal) information about XmlDataDocument and DataSet integration, refer to the following Microsoft Web site:

Quickstart Tutorials

For ADO.NET and XML Quickstart tutorials, refer to the following Microsoft Web sites:

Walkthroughs

Walkthroughs provide short tutorials and hands-on instructions that walk you through typical application development scenarios. To access the walkthroughs on this topic, refer to the Visual Studio .NET Online Help documentation:

1. In Visual Studio .NET, on the Help menu, click Contents.
2. Click to expand the following nodes:
   • Visual Studio .NET
   • Visual Basic and Visual C#
   • Accessing Data
   • XML Schemas and Data
   • XML Walkthroughs

You can also use the Search feature on Help menu, and use the Walkthrough and XML keywords to search for walkthroughs.

Microsoft Knowledge Base How To articles

Microsoft Knowledge Base How To articles provide step-by-step instructions to accomplish a specific task. You can also perform the following search at the Microsoft Help and Support Web site :

• In the Search Product list, select More Products, click Others, and then select .NET Framework.
• In the Using list, click Boolean (text contains AND/OR).
• In the For text box, type the following Boolean query (or type a subset of the following Boolean query): kbXML AND (DataSet OR XmlDataDocument or SQL or ADO).

Troubleshooting

If you encounter problems and need answers to your questions, consult the MSDN newsgroups. The MSDN newsgroups are the best place to obtain answers to your questions. In the MSDN newsgroups, you can share your experiences with your peers or search the Microsoft Knowledge Base for articles about specific issues: NOTE: If you already subscribed to the microsoft.public.dotnet.xml newsgroup, you can access the newsgroup from the following URL: You can also post questions on this topic to following ADO.NET newsgroup: NOTE: If you already subscribed to the microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.adonet newsgroup, you can access the newsgroup from the following URL:

For more information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information and other Microsoft Roadmap articles, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: