Tools maker DataDirect Technologies, 52 percent of 550 XML developers surveyed have already started working with XML Query (XQuery) 1.0, a proposal for a query language that lets users extract information from an XML file. This data could then be shuttled, exchanged or stored as Web services (define), an increasingly popular form of distributed computing connecting software across disparate networks. Developers may also use XQuery to query vast data stores of XML. For example, Kim said NASA recently tabbed systems integrator DynCorp to develop statistical analysis software for various types of aircraft data.

XQuery is important because it builds on XML, which describes the content of structured data, relational databases and object repositories. The spec uses XML to express queries across all these kinds of data, regardless of whether it is stored in XML or viewed as XML via middleware. XML is pervasive as a popular way of expressing information and data, and yet there is still no standard way of manipulating, querying, accessing and transforming XML.