Agile Database Techniques: Effective Strategies for the Agile Software Developer

Chapter 22. Realistic XML

XML is just a commonly accepted representation of data and technologies to work with it. Not really all that much to get excited about when you stop and think about it.

XML is a subset of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), the same parent of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). At the time of this writing, XML is a robust and growing technology. However, in everyone's zeal to work with these new technologies, many people have forgotten some of the data community's hard-earned lessons. Although XML has been clearly overhyped, it still has a very bright future. As a result, the primary goal of this chapter is to do some level setting with respect to XML.

This chapter briefly provides an overview of Extensible Markup Language (XML) techniques and technologies and discusses potential issues that project teams face when working with XML, including:

• The role of the agile DBA

• An XML primer

• Practical applications for XML

• Vocabularies

• How to model XML

• XML mapping and data binding

• How to persist XML in relational databases

• How to persist XML in XML databases

• XML development strategies

The Role of the Agile DBA

The role of the agile DBA is to ensure that the transmission and sharing of data involving the systems they work on occur in accordance to the needs of your organization. Because XML is the most commonly used technology for performing these functions, agile DBAs must understand XML technologies and be prepared to work with application developers in order to use XML ...