Chapter 18. XML and Databases

by Earl Bingham

In this chapter

XML and Databases—Introduction to the History of Their Relationship

Working with XML as Data

XML and Relational Databases

Native XML Databases

Future Directions

Additional Resources

Roadmap

XML and databases have an interesting relationship because XML documents organize data and style, and databases have been designed to store data and semantics.

Often relational databases that work with XML are referred to as XML-Enabled Databases because they have extensions that allow them to seamlessly transfer data between themselves and XML documents. Database vendors have been around for a long time and have developed mature repositories that can store your XML content. Each of the major database vendors have developed comprehensive XML solutions to work with XML-related content in their databases. In addition to the normal operations you can do with the data using the databases or with the DOM and SAX APIs, easy-to-use components are also provided by the major software vendors.