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On Thu, 2003-08-21 at 07:05, Chiusano Joseph wrote:
> <Quote>
> just isn't going to be a relational form as there's no way to determine
> a priori what the normalised records are. there's clearly 2 tables, and
> </Quote>
>
> You're assuming that the XML-formatted data will originate from (or
> ultimately be stored in) a relational database, and this is not always
> going to be the case. In fact, you may not know (and should not care)
> what the receipient's system implementation flavor is. That's part of
> the beauty of XML.
>
agreed, particularly if it's documentary. however if you do want to get
it into a relational database at the end of some sequence, ie you're the
recipient, it does matter a lot.
i'm looking at the id= attributes to see if they really help. hopefully
they do.
cheers
rick
> Kind Regards,
> Joe Chiusano
> Booz | Allen | Hamilton
>
> Rick Marshall wrote:
> >
> > <oxymoron>relationally structured data</oxymoron>
> >
> > of course you can represent records, but as soon as you make a tree out
> > of them they're not relational in a database sense
> >
> > eg
> >
> > <customer>
> > <name>COMPANY X</name>
> > <town>SOMEWHERE</town>
> > <order>
> > <part>ABC123</part>
> > <quantity>2</quantity>
> > </order>
> > <order>
> > <part>ABC234</part>
> > <quantity>4</quantity>
> > </order>
> > </customer>
> >
> > just isn't going to be a relational form as there's no way to determine
> > a priori what the normalised records are. there's clearly 2 tables, and
> > you know that "customer" has attributes name and town, and "order" has
> > attributes part and quantity, but it also needs either name or town to
> > complete the relation and it's not obvious which. either or both?
> >
> > so without some semantics you can't represent relational tables with the
> > natural tree structure of xml.
> >
> > on the other hand
> >
> > <customer>
> > <name>COMPANY X</name>
> > <town>SOMEWHERE</town>
> > </customer>
> >
> > <order>
> > <name>COMPANY X</name>
> > <part>ABC123</part>
> > <quantity>2</quantity>
> > </order>
> > <order>
> > <name>COMPANY X</name>
> > <part>ABC234</part>
> > <quantity>4</quantity>
> > </order>
> >
> > is ok, but then from what i've seen on the list most wouldn't think of
> > this single depth as the natural thing to do.
> >
> > my personal preference (and used day to day) is:
> >
> > <table name="customer">
> > <record>
> > <attribute name="name">COMPANY X</attribute>
> > <attribute name="town">SOMEWHERE</attribute>
> > </record>
> > </table>
> > <table name="order">
> > <record>
> > <attribute name="name">COMPANY X</attribute>
> > <attribute name="part">ABC123</attribute>
> > <attribute name="quantity">2</attribute>
> > </record>
> > <record>
> > <attribute name="name">COMPANY X</attribute>
> > <attribute name="part">ABC234</attribute>
> > <attribute name="quantity">4</attribute>
> > </record>
> > </table>
> >
> > and a few minor attribute additions. but again i suspect this is not
> > what most use, but then i'm happy to proved wrong.
> >
> > rick
> >
> > On Wed, 2003-08-20 at 22:52, Chiusano Joseph wrote:
> > > <Quote>
> > > Unless someone can show me how XML or an XML only tool set such as
> > > TeraText supports and fulfills RM,
> > > </Quote>
> > >
> > > Are you asserting that one cannot represent relationally structured data
> > > using XML? If so, can you please elaborate?
> > >
> > > Kind Regards,
> > > Joe Chiusano
> > > Booz | Allen | Hamilton
> >
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