XML Week
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I've been wanting to do this for quite some time, but it's been rare that anyone has submitted an XML article to me. For some reason this winter all of a sudden I got 4 articles in January and decided to stage them up for one long week of XML learning here at SQLServerCentral.com. After a successful SQL Server Standard issue on XML last year, it's good to get one here on the site.
A long, long time ago, in a galaxy quite close, this one in fact, I attended the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference here in Denver. At the time I was living and working in Virginia and building software for a small company, so it made sense for me to come to the conference. I fell in love with Denver as did my wife and we moved out here the next year.
This was in 98, and one of the things that was showcased back then was this new technology called XML. Having just completed an EDI implementation, I was rather excited to see a self describing, more flexible format. I dug in and thought that XML had some great capabilities. It also had a lot of overhead, similar to ATM network protocol, so it wasn't necessarily the best solution for all situations.
Over the years, I've seen XML grow, slower than expected, but becoming more and more mainstream over time. It's heavy use in Windows configuration files (web.config, IIS config, etc) as well as a great many new functions built into the .NET frameworks for Windows, has eased it's adoption by many Windows developers.
SQL Server DBAs, however, it seems are slower to adopt this format. Perhaps because we deal with our own relational format that we aren't embracing XML at the rate we have some of the other advances in SQL Server.
However this week we look to change that with a whole week of articles here at SQLServerCentral.com on XML as well as links to articles elsewhere on the web. We hope you learn something, get some ideas, and give us some feedback on why you like or dislike XML.
And we'd especially like to know where you think it's useful. If you've got an idea to share on how databases can use XML, please write us a short article and share your knowledge with others.
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In 2000 Microsoft implementation of XML was third among the big three RDBMS vendors because it did not shred or decompose the XML but that changed with 2005. So now I still say if you want a lot of XQUERY buy inexpensive tools like the one sold by Data Direct, all others use XML from the .NET FCL(framework class library) and native SQL Server 2005 as needed because although there was XML section in ANSI SQL 2003 the XML algebra is work in progress so what you can do is still limited. That is the reason Office XML, .NET XML, Biztalk XML and SQL Server XML are not the same, one only hope Microsoft will reduce the number to one or two.
Kind regards,
Gift Peddie -
Storing XML in SQL2005 is in demand and for ASP.NET developers who have to learn to wear the dba hat the entire database process is murky. Especially for RSS web feeds.
Design issues such as which indexes for the table containing that type of content are best used and how to store the XML of a web feed to optimize searching for and returning specific web feed fragments or entire web feeds. Store as XML, shred it, or a hybrid? What's the best way to get it all done?
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XML should be used as a transfer protocol. I see a use for sending (for example) 7 records at once to a sql server, and letting the Stored Procedure tear the xml down to it's fields and store it away. You've avoided setting up a recordset or calling a SP repeatedly (once for each record).
I could also see using the XML tools to produce XML on a Select from sql server for use in appropriate places.
But store XML in the database? Not in my house.
Student of SQL and Golf, Master of Neither -
NIMDB
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
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I tend to see XML as something that is great for storing data that is, for some reason, NOT in a RDBMS. It's good for messaging and storing data in files, but for real CRUD... I prefer my SQL. I use XML in a a lot of things, but I've never thought of it as something that should be stored in a database... not as raw XML anyway. It's a good way to send data into a standard relational setup, or extract data for usage in XML format, but it's not the best format for actually storing and manipulating that data.
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The only places I think xml might be useful is if you need to produce something like project specific surveys etc and the questions / answers could be different and you want a common interface.
I also think xml datatype can be useful for storing application settings (ie in place of a bunch of tables that would only contain 1 record, but have different columns)
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To add one more thing.
I think XML is very good for hierachical data structures e.g Treeview etc..
Patrick
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