Business Intelligence (BI) is a broad term relating to applications designed to analyze data for purposes of understanding and acting on the key metrics that drive profitability in an enterprise. Key to analyzing that data is providing fast, easy access to it while delivering it in formats or tools that best fit the needs of the end user. At the core of any business intelligence solution are end user query and reporting tools that provide intuitive access to data supporting a spectrum of end users from executives to "power users," from spreadsheet aficionados to the external Internet consumer. IBM® DB2 Web Query for i offers a set of modernized tools for a more robust, extensible, and productive reporting solution than the popular Query for System i tool (also known as Query/400). IBM DB2 Web Query for i preserves investments in the reports developed with Query/400 by offering a choice of importing definitions into the new technology or continuing to run existing Query/400 reports as-is. But it also offers significant productivity and performance enhancements by leveraging the latest in DB2 for i query optimization technology. This IBM Redbooks® publication provides a broad understanding of the new DB2 Web Query product. It entails a group of self-explanatory tutorials to help you get up to speed quickly. Overall, this book is designed for IT users. You can use Part 2, "Tutorials for DB2 Web Query" on page 161, as stand-alone tutorials for anyone who is developing their own queries.

XML represents a fundamental change in computing. It allows applications to move away from proprietary file and data formats to a world of open data interchange. XML has become ubiquitous not only because of its range of applications, but also because of its ease of use. Although XML solves many problems by providing a standard format for data interchange, some challenges remain. In the real world, applications need reliable services to store, retrieve, and manipulate data. These services have traditionally been offered by DB2 for i5/OS. In this IBM Redbooks publication, we discuss the challenges of representing XML hierarchies in the relational database model. We provide an in-depth explanation of the three most popular approaches to bridge the hierarchy, the relational model dichotomy: Programmatically process the XML documents and map their hierarchy into a relational database. Use database middleware to handle the XML parsing and XML-to-relational database mapping. Use Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Transformation to transform inbound XML documents directly to SQL scripts. We also share best practices and techniques aimed at streamlining the XML and DB2 for i5/OS integration. Please note that the additional material referenced in the text is not available from IBM.