Hi John,

The database that Fedora uses is essentially a cache and only holds some 
of the data that is needed for fast access. The XML files hold the 
official copy of all of the info and are completely recoverable in case 
of disaster as long as you have backed up your file system properly.

The whole point of Fedora is to make it as possible as we can to sustain 
all of the information for as long as possible with no dependence on the 
software. If you have all of the files from a repository, you have 
everything you need to understand the data completely, without the 
Fedora software. And when you recover from a disaster, again as long as 
you can reload your file system, you can run the included re-builder 
utility to completely rebuild the running instance of the respository.

Actually, Fedora has multiple options for how content files are handled. 
In Fedora objects, datastreams (which can be seen as files; they can be 
arbitrary datastreams actually) can be either "managed" or "external". 
When you create the object you have to give a URL for where to find the 
data. If the datastream is managed, Fedora gets the file and makes its 
own copy; for external the file is left where it is and Fedora stores 
the URL to be used for all access to the data. In both cases, the actual 
address of the file is hidden from the user.

If you haven't already found is the Fedora Digital Object Model page is 
a good place to start. See 
http://fedora-commons.org/confluence/display/FCR30/Fedora+Digital+Object+Model.
_______________________________________________
Thornton Staples
   Director of Community Strategy and the Fedora Project,
   DuraSpace, Inc.
[email protected]           (202) 684-6952
skype: thorny.staples         www.duraspace.org

John Wilkinson wrote:
> Hi,
> I wish to make a repository of video files.
> Can I ask some very basic questions, to get my head around what Fedora 
> is about?
> 
> If Fedora uses a database to hols the data about a video file, then what 
> is the point of the XML?
> 
> Is Fedora able to upload my video file? (that's probably a stupid 
> question) I think I would need to build something in order to upload a 
> file, is that correct?
> 
> Sorry if all this is too basic.
> 
> Regards,
> John.
> 
> 
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