S

SAXON:

A program allowing execution of XQuery queries. Saxon software can be downloaded at the following URL : http://saxon. sourceforge .net.

Saxon:

See SAXON .

Scalability:

Used to describe and define how much data volume and processing or throughput an architecture, application, or database, or all three, can manage before being overwhelmed. A scalable architecture is one that will either not react badly to, or will be easily adaptable to an exponential increase in size over a short period of time. An architecture that is not scalable will likely be rendered useless in a production scenario in a very short period of time.

Schema:

A schematic or logical structure applied to data stored in a database. Essentially , a schema is defined as the set of tables in a single database model for a relational database.

Script:

A script is a sequence of commands written in a scripting language (see Scripting Language ).

Scripting Language:

A scripting language is similar to a programming language but is usually simpler syntactically (fewer commands). The result is usually less capability. A programming language is compiled and a scripting language is interpreted (see Interpreter ).

SDK:

See Software Development Kit .

Secondary Index:

See Alternate Index .

SELECT Command:

A query is executed using a SELECT command. A SELECT command contains all the fields to be retrieved when reading tables in a relational database.

Self Describing:

1) A term often applied to XML in that an XML document includes data, metadata, and relationships between elements within the XML document. And these three things do not require definition of DTDs or XSDs. 2) Self describing implies that something describes its own structure. XML documents are self describing because they contain data in the form of text values. That data is then described by XML elements, attributes, and the hierarchical relationships between all elements in the XML document (the metadata).

Sequence:

See Auto Counter .

Server Side Scripting Language:

Scripting language running on a server, not directly accessible by end users. Used for serving up web pages based on dynamic content (see ASP ).

Sibling:

See Sibling Node .

Sibling Node:

A sibling is a node in the same collection, which has the same parent node.

Simple Data Type:

See Data Type .

Simple Object Access Protocol:

Protocol (a standard) used for passing universally understandable XML messages over the Internet.

Simple XLink:

Simple XLink types establishes a connection between two resources.

Single Line Entry:

In a relational database, an SLE form essentially adds a single object, usually a single row to a single table.

SLE:

See Single Line Entry .

SOAP:

See Simple Object Access Protocol .

Software:

Describes the architectural part of a computer system that is programmed or scripted. For example, the Windows operating system is software. Oracle Database is also software. Any XML documents stored on a computer are software. XML is a gray area because depending on how XML is used, that XML data can be either data or scripting. Technically, data and metadata are not software but just data. However, XML is executed as an interpretation by a browser and in that respect is software .

Software Development Kit:

A suite of programs used for application development.

Sorted Query:

See ORDER BY Clause .

Specialized Class:

A specialization of a class is an inherited, specific type of a class. Specializations often substitute for what are usually called types in a relational database.

SQL:

See Structured Query Language .

SQL/XML:

The SQL Standard for XML is a standard created and supported by INCITS.

Static Data:

Data that does not change significantly over a long period of time, if ever.

Stored Function:

A stored function is precisely the same as a stored procedure except that it returns a single value. See Stored Procedure .

Stored Procedure:

A stored procedure, also sometimes called a database procedure, is a chunk of code stored within and executed from within a database, typically on data stored in a database but not always.

String Data Type:

A simple data type containing a sequence of alphanumeric characters .

Structured Query Language:

SQL is a non-procedural (or scripting) language. A non-procedural language does not allow dependencies between successive commands. SQL is an abbreviation for Structured Query Language, the language used to access data in a relational database. Generally, for any relational database other than Microsoft SQL Server, SQL is pronounced ess-queue-ell and not sequel. The term sequel or seekwl was chosen by Microsoft because ess-queue-ll Server probably sounded a little odd.

Subquery:

A special type of SQL query, which is called by another query, possibly passing values between calling query and subquery, helping to determine results for the calling query.

Substitution:

A process of taking one thing, such as a chunk of code, of a chunk of XML data (and XML fragment) and replacing the chunk with another.

Surf:

See Browser .

Surfer:

See Browser .

Surrogate Key:

Used as a replacement or substitute for a descriptive primary key, allowing for better control, better structure, less storage space, more efficient indexing, and absolute surety of uniqueness. Surrogate keys are usually integers, and usually automatically generated using auto counters or sequences.

Syntax:

Any language has rules governing what words are valid, and to a certain extent the sequences in which those valid words are allowed to occur. For instance, the English language syntax dictates that the word an always precedes a common noun beginning with a vowel (an apple). When the common noun begins with a consonant then the word a is used (a dog). The same rules of syntax apply to programming and scripting languages. For example, <a tag> is a valid opening element in XML, but a tag without the <> characters is not a valid XML element.