> My particular interest is related to some work I'm currently
> engaged in. The basics are we receive XML messages from an
> external trading partner and process those messages,
> enriching and routing to a number of internal subscriber
> applications. One of these applications is MI and the deal
> here is that they want the data to been put into a relational
> database so that they can create a number of interfaces
> 'files' which are sent to still more applications.
>
> Whilst I would like to consider a pure XML database or even
> use some of the XML features that are increasingly prevalent
> in mainstream DB vendor products, clearly putting data into a
> 'staging' database is one thing, but the capabilities and
> competances of the applications and application programmers
> who want to retrieve it is a key factor. So, for the
> immediate term I might be stuck (if thats fair - probably
> not) with relational.
If the XML is just a CSV file, then by all means shove it into a table in a
relational database.
If it's anything more complicated, don't even think about shredding it by
hand: it will be a nightmare. Especially if you have doubts about the
intellectual capabilities of the programmers who are going to have to deal
with it.
Regards,
Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
http://twitter.com/michaelhkay
