Do XML-based Databases Live Up to the Hype?

douthitb asks: "I have recently started work as a contractor with a company developing/improving an application for exchanging large amounts of data. The current solution exchanges data via XML, but the data itself is stored in a SQL Server database. There is a concern about the overhead involved with wrapping and unwrapping the XML to get the data in and out of a relational database. The proposed solution is to use Tamino, an XML-based database. Neither I nor any of the other developers have any experience with Tamino, but the desired result is to remove the bottleneck of converting the XML back and forth. Does anyone have experience using Tamino (or any other XML-based database)? What benefits and/or difficulties did you have in using an XML database, as opposed to its relational counterpart? How large of a learning curve should be expected with a product like this? Do XML databases really live up to the hype? A similar topic was discussed on Slashdot way back when, so I was hoping to get some more up-to-date feedback on the subject." "Sales reps from Software AG, the makers of Tamino, were brought in to discuss the benefits of their product with us. They, of course, presented Tamino as the end all, cure all database system (it will even clear your acne and make you popular with the girls!). The management of the company I'm contracting with were basically eating out of the sales reps' hands, without asking any of the "tough" questions about what the product can do; I was less convinced. Doing some initial searching on the Internet, I have had trouble finding much information about Tamino outside of the Software AG website."

Comments

The Problem

[SmurfButcher Bob]

... is that XML is only half of the solution.

For an XML database to really shine, it needs to be integrated with with a TCP/IP filesystem. Once the physical data is stored using TCP/IP (as opposed to FAT or NTFS), the XML database really begins to take off because the data is already in a network format.

I swear to god there was a Dilbert on this...

Re:The Problem

[SmurfButcher Bob]

Well, you really need to have a TCP/IP based File I/O for any performance with an XML database. Although technically, you would probably get better gains by switching to an HTML database. The HTML database would be better, anyway, because it'll run in any web browser, and it doesn't exactly care what filesystem is in use. That, and all these "data integrity" whiners can then use any CSS validator to check the validity of the data. That way, your HTML Programmers can write on whatever platform they wish, enabling a new paradigm for a pan-dimensional database structure to coexist and re-leverage new legacies before they are implemented, in a cost-efficient and transcendentally transparent manner.

I found that Dilbert, btw! It was an E-Mail based database! Now if you'll please excuse me, I'll be over here, ducking under a table.

Proverb

[Anonymous Coward]

I once had a problem.
I thought: "Oh, I know: I'll just use XML!"

Now I had two problems.