Comment Choose wisely (Score 1) 105
I think xml databases, or xml extensions to relational database, have their uses but they are (off course) not the ultimate answer to all our problems. In specific situations they certainly live up to the hype in others no, but that's also the case for relational databases.
I think it is vital to make a difference between the actual storage and the way to access it, the 'interface'. With Oracle (since 9iR2) one can store the xml as a clob, as an XMLType and object types that are based on your xml complex types but also (traditional) in a relational model. To access data one can use different strategies: the more or less traditional way using SQLXML (maybe as xml view) to present the relational data as xml or using XPath or XQuery. It is also possible to present your xml data in a relational manner. All the options have their pros and cons. But I want to stress it again: there is not a single answer, it depends on the situation. If only for storage it may be a very viable options to store the xml as one big clob. For extensive searching it may be better to use the xsd based XMLType. But for retrieving relational data the use of an xml view may be the better solution.
I my current project We use Oracle (9iR2) for centrally storing our xsd's and xslt's. Our applications can retrieve them via standard http calls and with a webdav client like XML Spy we can easily maintain them. Heck, in this case we are even not interested how they are actually stored.
I think it is vital to make a difference between the actual storage and the way to access it, the 'interface'. With Oracle (since 9iR2) one can store the xml as a clob, as an XMLType and object types that are based on your xml complex types but also (traditional) in a relational model. To access data one can use different strategies: the more or less traditional way using SQLXML (maybe as xml view) to present the relational data as xml or using XPath or XQuery. It is also possible to present your xml data in a relational manner. All the options have their pros and cons. But I want to stress it again: there is not a single answer, it depends on the situation. If only for storage it may be a very viable options to store the xml as one big clob. For extensive searching it may be better to use the xsd based XMLType. But for retrieving relational data the use of an xml view may be the better solution.
I my current project We use Oracle (9iR2) for centrally storing our xsd's and xslt's. Our applications can retrieve them via standard http calls and with a webdav client like XML Spy we can easily maintain them. Heck, in this case we are even not interested how they are actually stored.
