If Kimbro Staken's announcement of the 1.0 beta release of the Java-based dbXML Core XML database is any indication, a production release may be just around the corner for this open-source native XML database server, which is being developed by the dbXML project under sponsorship by the dbXML Group L.L.C.

The dbXML server, which provides a Java implementation^[1] of the XML:DB XML database API for development of client applications, is designed to manage collections of large numbers of small XML documents and to provide the ability to perform XPath queries on them. It's intended to be "highly configurable, openly extensible, and easily embedded into existing applications".

In addition to Staken, committers for the project include Tom Bradford and Jay Kalafus. The dbXML.org site also provides a list of other contributors, many of whom are active on the dbxml-core-devel and dbxml-core-general mailing lists. The project is completely open, so other interested developers are encouraged to join.

Source code for the release is provided in the release packages. Development source is available through anonymous CVS:

CVSROOT=:pserver:anoncvs@cvs.dbxml.com:/home/cvs
cvs login (password is anoncvs)
cvs co dbXML-Core

Full documentation is available online, including user and developer guides, as well as generated Javadoc API documentation.