[PHP-DB] RE: XML

[Ed Carp]

 I am looking at a project using XML to import and export data into MySql
 directly or using php. The datasets are quite large (40-50 million records)

XML is a metadata technology - you wrap data in XML.  You don't use XML to import or 
export data.  You don't store XML in a
database, you store data.

When you fetch the data from the database, you wrap it in XML and send it on its way.  
Does that make it simpler?

sql,mysql


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[PHP-DB] RE: XML

[Ed Carp]

 On the other hand, proclaimed native XML databases (eg, Software AG's
 Tamino, Ixiasoft's TEXTML) store the XML-wrapped data in the database...no
 need to wrap and unwrap the metadata, document/data structure from the data.

Isn't that more than a bit stupid?  Databases are for storing data, not metadata.  Ask 
Monty why he doesn't store data natively as
XML.  Short answer: it's stupid, unless all you ever want to see from your database is 
XML-wrapped data and never want to see it any
other way.

The whole world isn't XML, nor should it be.  40+ years of working with data tells us 
that you ALWAYS want to store data in its
simplest form.

sql,db,mysql


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[PHP-DB] RE: XML

[Ed Carp]

 Not sure there is much more metadata in an XML database than in a data
 database.

In a standard database, the data and metadata are stored separately, not so with XML.  
When the next new latest and greatest thing
comes along, you'll have to strip all that metadata out of your data.  It also makes 
for bigger databases, and a lot more wasted
space, like comparing normalized and unnormailzed tables.


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