XML Data Management: Native XML and XML-Enabled Database Systems [Paperback]

Akmal B. Chaudhri (Author), Awais Rashid (Author), Roberto Zicari (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201844524 | ISBN-13: 978-0201844528 | Publication Date: March 22, 2003 | Edition: 1

Within a very short amount of time XML has become an essential part of almost every developer's arsenal of tools. It has affected every area of software. One of the fields where the impact of XML is still being worked out is in the world of databases and data management. Will XML and native XML databases replace traditional relational databases? How can XML be used as a tool to make relational databases even stronger? This book is intended to address these questions. It provides a discusssion of the various XML data management approaches employed in a range of products and applications. The book is based on a series of presentations at last year's OOPSLA conference. Topics covered range from using XML with Oracle9i or SQL Server to embedded XML databases to Tamino. Individual chapters are written by experts in those fields. In all cases the authors use concrete, practical examples, explore alternative approaches, and examine their strengths and weaknesses. There is no other book with the breadth of coverage offered here.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"This is an excellent book that combines a practical and analytical look at the subject."

—Leo Korman, Principal Software Engineer, KANA Software

As organizations begin to employ XML within their information-management and exchange strategies, data management issues pertaining to storage, retrieval, querying, indexing, and manipulation increasingly arise. Moreover, new information-modeling challenges also appear. XML Data Management—with its contributions from experts at the forefront of the XML field—addresses these key issues and challenges, offering insights into the advantages and drawbacks of various XML solutions, best practices for modeling information with XML, and developing custom, in-house solutions.

In this book, you will find discussions on the newest native XML databases, along with information on working with XML-enabled relational database systems. In addition, XML Data Management thoroughly examines benchmarks and analysis techniques for performance of XML databases.

Topics covered include:

The power of good grammar and style in modeling information to alleviate the need for redundant domain knowledge

Tamino's XML storage, indexing, querying, and data access features

The features and APIs of open source eXist

Berkeley DB XML's ability to store XML documents natively

IBM's DB2 Universal Database and its support for XML applications

Xperanto's method of addressing information integration requirements

Oracle's XMLType for managing document centric XML documents

Microsoft SQL Server 2000's support for exporting and importing XML data

A generic architecture for storing XML documents in a relational database

X007, XMach-1, XMark, and other benchmarks for evaluating XML database performance

Numerous case studies demonstrate real-world problems, industry-tested solutions, and creative applications of XML data management solutions.

Written for both XML and relational database professionals, XML Data Management provides a promising new approach to data management, one that is sure to positively impact the way organizations manage and exchange information.

0201844524B01302003

About the Author

Akmal B. Chaudhri works for IBM developerWorks, where he is also Zone Editor for Special Projects. A recognized authority on objects and databases, he has been a regular presenter at many international conferences, including OOPSLA and Object World. In addition, he has edited several books on these topics.

Awais Rashid is a Lecturer in the Computing Department of Lancaster University in the U.K. where he leads research into the application of new technologies, such as XML and aspect-oriented programming, and database systems. He has actively published on these topics and has organized a number of relevant international events.

Roberto Zicari is a full Professor for Databases and Information Systems at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. He is an internationally recognized expert in Object Technology. He has consulted and lectured in Europe, North America, and Japan.

0201844524AB01312003

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 688 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (March 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201844524
• ISBN-13: 978-0201844528
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,718,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Precisely what we needed, May 1, 2003

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: XML Data Management: Native XML and XML-Enabled Database Systems (Paperback)

At our company, we write Java applications. Soon, we got to the point that we needed a more formal way to read/write data than merely an ad hoc approach. We use XML. The obvious approach is to use a well tested relational database, like those supplied by IBM, Oracle or Microsoft. A problem was getting detailed, objective explanations of what would be involved with each choice. Each vendor is perfectly willing to be our "friend" and supply us with reams of documentation. But still...

The chapters in this book that describe how to hook up XML to those 3 vendors' databases were excellent and clear.

But what we ended up doing was going with something suggested in ANOTHER chapter - building an embedded XML database. You will not see this advocated by a vendor; there is no sale for them here. Other than this book, we found it tough to get lucid explanations of the pros and cons of this route. It will take more work, but we hope it will give better performance - no interprocess communication, for one thing. Plus of course no licence fees, and easier installation and management, since we will have access/own all the source code. This was not our original intention, by any means. But the book's comparative analysis was so persuasive that we ended up taking this road. (Hopefully, it will not be a dead end.)

That one chapter on embedded XML databases was, to us, the most precious thing in the entire book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well overview of available products and strategies, November 14, 2004

By 

Raghir (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: XML Data Management: Native XML and XML-Enabled Database Systems (Paperback)

I think it is a very good book. It describes several actors in the XML data storage world. It also points out several strategies to deal with XML in relational databases.
It is very easy to read and the language is very clear.
Some experience in XML and how to store it is recommended in order to get the most of it.
I really enjoyed the chapter on eXist as it really goes into details about the index and storage architecture. It is stays quite high level though.
It helps you understand pros and cons of the different products and architectures (client/server as opposed to embedded).
Everyone dealing with XML storage should read it.