[xquery-talk] MonetDB/XQuery 0.8 released

[Torsten Grust]

TITLE:
MonetDB/XQuery 0.8 released

WHAT:
Since XQuery has been proposed as the W3C standard query language for
XML data, both the database research community and industry have been
trying to create systems that efficiently implement XQuery on large
XML databases.  This poses a non-trivial challenge due to the inherent
tree structure of XML data coupled with the iterative and recursive
nature of the XQuery language.

We present "MonetDB/XQuery", an open-source system that provides a
full-fledged implementation of XQuery. MonetDB/XQuery provides
unsurpassed scalability: all queries of the XMark benchmark can be run
in interactive time on XML input documents of up to 11 GB data size
(cf.  http://monetdb-xquery.org/Overview/Benchmark/ & [1]). Few other
systems support this size, let alone in interactive time.

MonetDB/XQuery has been developed in the "Pathfinder" project, a
cooperation between the University of Konstanz (Germany), the
University of Twente (The Netherlands), and the Centrum voor Wiskunde
en Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam (The Netherlands). MonetDB/XQuery
features the Pathfinder XQuery-to-Relational Algebra compiler [2], the
XPath Accelerator XML encoding scheme [3], and the (loop-lifted)
Staircase Join [4,5]. Using the MonetDB open-source RDBMS [6] as its
back-end, MonetDB/XQuery leverages mature relational query
optimization techniques as well as efficient and scalable relational
query processing operators.

AUDIENCE:
MonetDB/XQuery 0.8 is meant as a "technology preview release"; though
fully functional, it does not yet provide conveniences like a
full-fledged graphical user interface. Thus, this first release of
MonetDB/XQuery is of particular interest to researchers, system
developers and students, that are interested in the underlying
technology of leveraging mature relational database technology to
build a fast and scaleable XQuery processor.

FUTURE & ROADMAP:
The MonetDB/XQuery & Pathfinder team is continuing the development of
MonetDB/XQuery. In a second technology preview release (tentatively
scheduled for end of this summer), we plan to add XUpdate support and
extended releational algebra optimization techniques. By end of this
year, we plan to have the full release, including support for standard
applications programming interfaces and end-user front-ends.

May 2005: MonetDB/XQuery 0.8  ("Mercury")
           Developers Release / Technology Preview 1
Sep 2005: MonetDB/XQuery 0.10 ("Venus")
           Students Release / Technology Preview 2
           (incl. XUpdate & Relational Algebra Optimization)
Dec 2005: MonetDB/XQuery 1.10 ("Mars")
           Full Release
           (incl. APIs & end-user front-ends)

LICENSE:
The MonetDB family is covered by the MonetDB Public License
(http://monetdb.cwi.nl/Legal/MonetDBLicense-1.1/).  The Pathfinder
compiler is covered by the Pathfinder Public License
(http://monetdb.cwi.nl/Legal/PathfinderLicense-1.1/).  Both Licenses
are derived from the Mozilla Public License (MPL), giving unrestricted
access to the code base for inclusion in (commercial) products.

REFERENCES:
[1] Pathfinder: Relational XQuery Over Multi-Gigabyte XML Inputs In
     Interactive Time.
     P. A. Boncz, T. Grust, S. Manegold, J. Rittinger, J. Teubner.
     Technical Report INS-E0503, CWI, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
     March 2005.
[2] XQuery on SQL Hosts.
     T. Grust, S. Sakr, and J. Teubner.
     In Proc. of the 30th Conference on Very Large Databases (VLDB),
     pages 252-263, Toronto, Canada, 2004.
[3] Accelerating XPath Location Steps.
     T. Grust.
     In Proc. of the 21st Int'l ACM SIGMOD Conference on
     Management of Data,
     pages 109--120, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, June 2002.
[4] Staircase Join: Teach a Relational DBMS to Watch its (Axis) Steps.
     T. Grust, M. van Keulen, and J. Teubner.
     In Proc. of the 29th Conference on Very Large Databases (VLDB),
     Berlin, Germany, September 2003.
[5] P. A. Boncz, T. Grust, M. van Keulen, S. Manegold,
     J. Rittinger, J. Teubner.
     Loop-lifted Staircase Join: from XPath to XQuery.
     Technical Report INS-E0510, CWI, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
     May 2005.
[6] P. A. Boncz.
     Monet: A Next-Generation DBMS Kernel For Query-Intensive
     Applications.
     Ph.D. Thesis, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam,
     The Netherlands, May 2002.

WHERE:
The MonetDB/XQuery system : http://monetdb-xquery.org/
The Pathfinder technology : http://pathfinder-xquery.org/
The MonetDB homepage      : http://monetdb.cwi.nl/
The MonetDB repository    : http://sf.net/projects/monetdb
The MonetDB mailing lists : 
http://monetdb.cwi.nl/News/MailChannels/index.html

May 30, 2005
The MonetDB/XQuery & Pathfinder Team
(http://pathfinder-xquery.org/?q=research/team)