As you've seen from the previous section, data can be exposed from a common source as both XML and relational, and there are a variety of ways in which this can be done. Figure 7.14 shows the interaction between the classes, showing how data can be accessed with different APIs. The advantage of this sort of flexibility is that developers can work with the API they are familiar with rather than having to learn new APIs. Figure 7.14. Access to and conversion of relational data as XML |