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On Fri, 18 Oct 2002, Elizabeth Hinson wrote:
> Hello XML experts,
>
>
>
> I'm involved in a project to develop a medical database for clinical
> images. We are considering Filemaker 6.0 (which is for the
> non-professional, much like Access, but has the ability to export and
> import XML). I understand all the big guys too handle XML. But someone
> told me that XML itself CAN be used as a database. Then I heard about
> "Native XML Databases" or NXDs. But reading further I got confused.
> There seem to be 2 camps: those in favor of traditional databases with
> XML support, and the pure XML folks.
>
> What would you recommend? Which is better (for medical data)?
>
>
>
> Native XML database
>
> or
>
> XML-enabled relational database?
>
>
>
> Thanks a lot!
>
>
>
> Elizabeth
>
> (An XML newbie)
>
>
Hello Elizabeth.
You didn't mention what you wanted to do with the XML. If you are
considering Filemaker already and it meets your needs, stick with it.
I am working with a number of others on a forthcoming book:
"XML Data Management: Native XML and XML-Enabled Database Systems"
http://www.aw.com/catalog/academic/product/1,4096,0201844524,00.html
Another book to look at is:
"Designing XML Databases" by Mark Graves
http://vig.prenhall.com/catalog/academic/product/1,4096,0130889016,00.html
The focus of Mark's book is using existing Relational technology and he
covers several approaches to managing XML. Nice gentle read IMHO.
If performance is an issue, I have a list of XML benchmarks that I
maintain:
http://www.btinternet.com/~webdatabases/html/benchmarks.html
Scroll down to near the bottom of the page.
I've also helped with a couple of workshops where we've had good papers
published covering issues of storage, performance, etc. Proceedings will
be published soon. Some web pages:
"EDBT 2002 Workshop on XML-Based Data Management"
http://www.btinternet.com/~webdatabases/edbt02/index.html
"VLDB 2002 Workshop on Efficiency and Effectiveness of XML Tools, and
Techniques"
http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~ebh/eextt2002/
"Web Databases 2002"
http://www.btinternet.com/~webdatabases/webdb02/index.html
You can try your hand at an Open Source NXD, such as Xindice from Apache.
I recently published an article on dW:
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-xindice.html
Far better to try for yourself, rather than just reading about it IMHO.
HTH
--
Akmal B. Chaudhri
Zone Editor, Special Projects (Eclipse, Grid, Web Services)
IBM developerWorks - http://www.ibm.com/developerWorks/
WebDatabases ------- http://www.btinternet.com/~webdatabases/
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