Re: [xml-dev] XML Database Decision Tree?

[Tom Bradford <bradford@dbxmlgroup.com>]

"Magick, Brian" wrote:
> what I'm getting at.  I appreciate the information some vendors have
> thrown at me, but to be honest, our database decision is already made, I
> just want a community discussion on when to use an XML database.

My opinion on when to use Native XML Databases is the same as my opinion
on when to optimize.  Don't... unless you have to.

None of the XML Database solutions on the market are very mature, and
their robustness is questionable.  For many situations, you can get by
with a relational database, especially if the majority of the
applications drawing from that database may not need to manipulate or
view the data as XML.  If that is the situation, XML Middleware, or the
mapping facilities that many RDBMSes are providing directly these days
should suffice.

*BUT*, there are many applications that manage and utilize XML
exclusively, and the number of these applications is growing rapidly. 
In those cases, a Native XML Database is probably your best choice. 
It's much easier to maintain collections of XML documents using a native
XML DB than to map those documents into a relational database, or even
to store them as blobs.

So the decision has to be weighed using available choices, requirements,
and a certain amount of clairvoyance regarding what you *may* do with
your applications in the future.

--Tom