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Application Developer's Guide (PDF)

Application Developer's Guide — Chapter 1

Developing Applications in MarkLogic Server

This chapter describes application development in MarkLogic Server in general terms, and includes the following sections:

This Application Developer's Guide provides general information about creating applications using MarkLogic Server. For information about developing search application using the powerful XQuery search features of MarkLogic Server, see the Search Developer's Guide.

Overview of MarkLogic Server Application Development

MarkLogic Server provides a platform to build application that store all kinds of data, including content, geospatial data, numeric data, binary data, and so on. Developers build applications using XQuery and/or Server-Side JavaScript to search the content and as a programming language in which to develop the applications. The applications can integrate with other environments via client APIs (Java, Node.js, and REST), via other web services, or via an XCC interface from Java. It is possible to create entire applications using only MarkLogic Server, programmed entirely in XQuery or Server-Side JavaScript.

This Application Developer's Guide focuses primarily on techniques, design patterns, and concepts needed to use XQuery or Server-Side JavaScript to build content and search applications in MarkLogic Server. If you are using the Java Client API, Node.js Client API, or the REST APIs, some of the concepts in this guide might also be helpful, but see the guides about those APIs for more specific guidance. For information about developing applications with the Java Client API, see the Java Application Developer's Guide. For information about developing applications with the REST API, see REST Application Developer's Guide. For information about developing applications with the Node.js Client API, see Node.js Application Developer's Guide.

Skills Needed to Develop MarkLogic Server Applications

The following are skills and experience useful in developing applications with MarkLogic Server. You do not need to have all of these skills to get started, but these are skills that you can build over time as you gain MarkLogic application development experience.

  • Web development skills (xHTML, HTTP, cross-browser issues, CSS, Javascript, and so on), especially if you are developing applications which run on an HTTP App Server.
  • Overall understanding and knowledge of XML.
  • XQuery skills. To get started with XQuery, see the XQuery and XSLT Reference Guide.
  • JavaScript skills. For information about Server-Side JavaScript in MarkLogic, see the JavaScript Reference Guide.
  • Understanding of search engines and full-text queries.
  • Java, if you are using the Java Client API or XCC to develop applications. For details, see the Java Application Developer's Guide or the XCC Developer's Guide.
  • Node.js, if you use the Node.js Client to develop applications. For more details, see the Node.js Application Developer's Guide.
  • General application development techniques, such as solidifying application requirements, source code control, and so on.
  • If you will be deploying large-scale applications, administration on operations techniques such as creating and managing large filesystems, managing multiple machines, network bandwidth issues, and so on.

Where to Find Specific Information

MarkLogic Server includes a full set of documentation, available at http://docs.marklogic.com. This Application Developer's Guide provides concepts and design patterns used in developing MarkLogic Server applications. The following is a list of pointers where you can find technical information:

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