README.md

Learn XQuery: A list of great articles, blog posts, and books for learning XQuery

Let's show the world how to learn XQuery. Pull requests welcome. Quality over comprehensiveness - just the best, most helpful resources, please. Talk about #learnxquery on Twitter.

Also, check out these resources powered by XQuery, repositories with XQuery on GitHub, and questions about XQuery on Stack Overflow.

Gentle introductions

• W3Schools XQuery. Limited to XQuery 1.0, but a quick overview.
• XQuery Wikibook Beginning Examples. Perhaps the best developed portion of the XQuery Wikibook site (see remarks below).

In depth introductions

Some people can learn languages by reading online tutorials. Some people like to dive into a book, or have one on their shelf for reference.

• XQuery: Search across a variety of XML Data, Priscilla Walmsley, O'Reilly 2007. The standard text for XQuery 1.0. Also introduces functx. Doesn't cover the topic of building applications with XQuery; this is out of scope.
• eXist: A NoSQL Document Database and Application Platform, Erik Siegel and Adam Retter, 2014. If Walmsley limits herself to the language, Siegel and Retter coherently introduce approaches to building applications with one popular XQuery-based platform, eXist. Example code for the book is on GitHub.

The specs

• 1.0 (W3C Recommendation): XQuery 1.0, Data Model, Functions and Operators, Serialization, Update Facility.
• 3.0 (W3C Recommendation): XQuery 3.0, Data Model, Functions and Operators, Serialization, Update Facility
• 3.1 (W3C Candidate Recommendation): XQuery 3.1, Data Model, Functions and Operators, Serialization, Update Facility (no 3.1 version yet; see the 3.0 version).

Latest developments in XQuery

• New in XQuery 3.1: Maps and arrays, Jesse Alama, 2015. A core new set of features in XQuery 3.1.
• A preview of XQuery 3.1's JSON support in eXist, Joe Wicentowski, 2015. Shows how XQuery 3.1 improves JSON handling.

More tutorials and thought pieces

• XQuery Wikibook: An introduction to XQuery and a cookbook for various applications. Fairly eXist-centric and many pages out of date, but very useful still.
• XQuery, the Server Language, Kurt Cagle, 2007. Explains that XQuery is much more than a language for querying XML.
• XQuery and Lazy Enrichment, Matt Turner, 2007. Demonstrates a simple but powerful technique for enriching text with links to Wikipedia. Easily applied to any XQuery implementation.
• MarkLogic Server and Office 2007, Pete Aven, 2007-09. The last in a series (see the links to the other articles at the bottom) on how to open, manipulate, and create Microsoft Office documents using XQuery. Easily applied to any XQuery implementation.
• XQuery Novelties Revisited, Geert Josten, 2011. Situates XQuery among the various XML and non-XML standards. Provides a little history on the development of XQuery.
• XQuery: It's not just for queries!, Jesse Alama, 2015. Emphasizes wide utility of XQuery.

Documentation from XQuery implementations about their use of XQuery

In depth articles on conformance to / divergence from the spec, and links to key articles and documentation:

• XQuery in BaseX. See also all BaseX documentation.
• XQuery in eXist-db. See also eXist XQuery Features Demo, XQuery Function Documentation, Getting Started with Web Application Development in eXist and all eXist documentation
• XQuery in MarkLogic. See also Application Developer's Guide and all MarkLogic documentation

Mailing lists, forums

• XQuery-Talk: a mailing list best for general XQuery questions and discussion. Subscribe. Archives.
• Stack Overflow has many active users who answer XQuery questions.
• Implementation mailing lists:
  • BaseX-talk: Subscribe. Archives.
  • eXist-open: Subscribe. Archives.
  • MarkLogic-developer: Subscribe. Archives.