Customer Reviews

XML for Data Architects: Designing for Reuse and Integration (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In a nutshell, this book is all about understanding XML schemas. As the use of XML transactions to exchange, share, and move data among enterprise systems grows, enforcing data standards and structural efficiency plays a critical role for ensuring overall flexibility, robustness and extensibility.

The author starts the book with a discussion about various XML application scenarios and attempts to classify the use of XML data containers into three forms viz., a document, transaction or a message. He argues that any form of cross platform exchange and sharing of enterprise data falls in to one of the three.

He then convinces how the use of highly reusable structures and custom data types affects data architecture. If you are wondering, data architecture is a term used to describe XML structures that plumb disparate enterprise systems. Here are two new buzzwords - Application to Consumer (A2C) and Application to application (A2A). Since XML also used to describe data extracts from, insertions into, and exchanges between application systems and databases, it is important to understand variation in database data type support.

In the chapters that follow, XML schema is introduced as the singular standard for achieving maximum reusability and enforcing data standards. For each of the three XML usages, he quotes XML snippets and critiques on various approaches. The focus remains on a designing an XML schema for maximum reuse and extensibility.

The book should have been named as "XML Schema primer". Most of the chapters are dedicated to discuss application of XML schemas. The amount of material covering actual process, challenges and strategy recommendations to achieve optimal data architecture does not do any justice to the title.

Ajith Kallambella [...]

At first I was somewhat skeptical due to a couple of negative reviews. However, I was desparate. The other XML books I've read (and fallen asleep with) seem to be restatements of the W3C specifications. I am a DBA/Data Architect in the midst of an international Web Services and SOA project and I needed something fast. As it turns out, this was probably the best investment in reference materials I've made in a long time. I guess I am not really sure what the other reviewers missed, but this book was perfect for me. I hold mixed roles of DBA as well as Data Architect - data modelling mostly. Recently, I was tasked with trying to determine why and how all of this XML stuff fits in a SOA project, and from the data perspective. Although I've been a DBA for too many years to share, I've positioned myself mostly at the persistence layer. This book really opened my eyes. Thorough, concise, and very focused on what "data folks" need. Five stars were a must for me.

In the evolving world of technology, and the 'do more with less' mentality, this book has helped me tremendously in expanding my Data Administration responsibilities in a major financial institution. This book is easy to follow, provides great guidelines and techniques for incorporating and expanding metadata into this new technology, XML. I would recommend this book to any Data Administrator whose company is embarking, or expanding, their web presence, and is concerned about maintaining the quality of the data.

As the manager of SW development staff, this easy to understand XML manual has shaped and fine tuned the thinking of my department ... more consistency, logical, etc. This author really nailed it. It's mandatory reading.

A solid insight into the important linkage between XML and Data Architecture. The author's approach and recommendations on reusable data structures outline the path to enabling structural consistency and standards conformity. I work in Data Architecture and this book supports the viable dependency XML and Data Architecture have on one another. This is a book I highly recommend to all XML and architecture practitioners.

This book hit the spot for me. They provide a wealth of ideas and recommendations on how to create well structured, reusable XML schemas, along with good guidelines on the various strengths and weaknesses of different choices. It definitely gave me a lot of good information, and a good feeling for what is possible and what is important in designing XML data models. It's not an easy read, as it requires a reasonable comfort with XML Schema, and the terminology is fairly technical, but once you get used to their style, it's quite clear.

This book is great! I bought it because other data architects at a conference recommended it. I'm a data architect and after reading it, I am recommending it to others. It is very easy reading and also an excellent reference guide. By showing others chapters in the book, it has helped me explain XML and how it affects our company. I recommend it highly for all those involved in information technologies.

The content of the book is very appealing, but I found many problems:

- a good knowledge of XML schema is required
- a good knowledge of data modeling topics is required

If you have the required knowledge, you will find a lot of obvious things, that you maybe already know. Some hints and methodologies are useful, but they represent only a small portion of the book.

If you don't have the required knowledge, you will find difficult understanding the "big picture" from which the ideas in the book are derived.

I don't suggest buying this book.

This book is a perfect match for the data architect, data analyst, data administrator, or database administrator coming from a background devoted to relational databases. It clearly explains what XML is and more importantly, how it impacts your world. The author's style is easy to read, which is surprising considering how dry this subject could have been.
This book is a must for every data professional's library.

There isn't much real content in this book and you have to trudge through a lot of vague and cumbersome writing to get to it.

Here's a representative extract:

"What should be obvious to any practitionaer is that effective engineering of a schema requires expertise with metadata and related data archtitecture disciplines. Wihtout a metadata and data architecture focus, the broad proliferation of nonstandard and ad hoc XML transactions and schemas will be seen, resulting in increased data disparity, integration complexity, and a failure to reduce related technology costs." (page 197)

It also has a very poorly produced index, which makes it far less useful than it might have been as a XML schema reference book.