An Overview of XML and Databases

1. XML and Databases
Presentation
By:
Oluwasegun Adedugbe and Pavan Kurma
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Technology,
Staffordshire University,
Stafford, ST18 0AD

2. XML Overview

XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language

Widely used on the World Wide Web as a means of
communication between different types of web
components

It is a W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standard

3. XML Characteristics

XML is a markup language, like HTML

XML primarily consists of tags, attributes and data

XML tags are not pre-defined like HTML

XML tags are user-defined

While HTML defines the layout for data, XML
describes the data

XML documents need to be well formed

4. XML Usage

Transporting, Storing and Sharing Data
Examples:

Software Updates

XML Sitemaps

Web-based feeds, such as RSS, jobs, weather
reports, stock updates, etc.

Third-party application

5. Strengths of XML

It is written in plain text format

It is platform independent, either hardware or
software

It works well with applications

It’s a W3C standard, which makes it universal

6. XML vs. RDMSs

XML does not support traditional elements of
relational databases such as triggers, indexes,
queries across multiple documents, etc.

XML will not be suitable for very large amounts of
data unlike relational databases

XML is file-based while relational databases are
server-based

7. XML Issues

Speed – Data retrieval could be relatively slow due
to verbose nature

Security – Data could be interrupted during
transmission

Scope – Limited scope in comparison to relational
databases

8. XML Schema

Schemas are used to validate XML documents

A Schema defines the structure and data
constraints of an instance XML document

Examples are DTD (Document Type Definition),
XML Schema, etc.

9. XML Validation

Validators check an XML document against its
schema and determines if its valid or not


Examples of XML Validation tools are Core Filing,
W3C XML Validator, etc.

10. Conclusion

XML stores, transports and shares data. It’s data
storage capabilities is very limited in relation to
relational databases

It is a very vital tool for communicating between
applications over networks

It’s use as a means of data storage should be for
small/medium-sized amount of data

11. References

USA. Oracle. (2012) Oracle XML DB Developer’s Guide.
California: Oracle Corporation. (11.2).

IBM. (2012) Investigate current XML tools. developerWorks.
[Online]. (June). Available from
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/xxmltools/index.html. [Accessed: 3 December 2012]

IBM. (2011) Investigate state-of-the-art XML compression
techniques. developerWorks. [Online]. (July). Available from http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/xdatacompression/index.html. [Accessed: 3 December 2012]

12. References

W3Schools (2012) XML Tutorial. [Online] Available from:
http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp [Accessed: 24
November 2012]

Maneth, S. (2010) Introduction to XML, [Handout] XML and
Databases. ICT Module. NICTA and UNSW, Department, South
Wales, September 2010.

Gonzalez, M., Prieto, M., Nieto, M. (2009) A Study of Native XML
Databases. Department of Computer Science, University of
Valladolid, Spain.

13. References

Papamarkos, G., Zamboulis, L., Poulovassilis, A. (2007) XML
Databases. School of Computer Science and Information
Systems, Birbeck College, University of London.