XML's greatest advantage is that it is a user-driven, open standard for exchanging data
both over corporate networks and between different enterprises, notably over the Internet.
The biggest market potential for the use of XML lies undoubtedly in its ability to mark up
mission-critical document elements self-descriptively. XML transports the meta data
together with the relevant data, thus allowing its meaning to be interpreted easily. In
addition, XML enables suitably coded documents to be read and understood without
difficulty by both humans and machines.
The principal motivation behind firms' present endeavors to integrate is their desire
to secure future business advantages for themselves by ensuring that they are fit for the
impending age of global electronic commerce. The fully automated processes which are
necessary to achieve this are considerably simplified because, XML, as a text-based format
is independent of the system platforms, programming languages and applications in which
the XML data is subsequently evaluated and edited. Investments in existing systems are
protected because these systems can be integrated easily with XML-based and Web-based
business processes.
Communication is currently hindered by the fact that applications
from different suppliers tend to be built on fundamentally different principles. A
proprietary approach to XML standards couldn’t possibly satisfy user requirements for
the simplest possible data exchange. At the present stage of XML acceptance such
approaches are therefore doomed to failure.
XML is an open standard for meta languages controlled by the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C). It was developed by users cooperating with industry and is being improved
continuously. XML's overwhelming success is attributable above all to its declared
objective of making data exchangeable worldwide across different applications and
platforms.
From the user’s point of view, this approach can reduce costs tremendously,
because only a few conversion solutions are necessary to integrate a large number of
discrete, proprietary solutions.
Despite this, software manufacturers who develop and implement industry-specific
initiatives and applications for XML still retain a considerable amount of freedom to
proliferate their own ideas. Providing this does not detract from the actual aims of XML
or related standards such as XSL, XSLT, XPath, etc., the outcome will be specific,
discrete solutions whose market success will continue to depend on the acceptance they
achieve among users. There will be no lack of room for good ideas, as long as they do not
conflict with XML's original purpose.
About the Tamino XML database
The Tamino XML database management system is geared entirely to XML. The advantages are
performance, data integration, zero-footprint data access and scalability.
Performance:
Tamino's outstanding performance results from its ability to store XML documents
directly in native XML format. This means that there is no need to convert incoming or
outgoing XML documents into any other database formats. This is an enormous advantage if
the documents have complex structures with several hierarchical levels, because if XML
documents were to be stored in a relational database (RDBMS), they would have to be split
up into a large number of separate tables. Tamino moreover guarantees the integrity of
data belonging to legally binding documentation, as document structures and content are
both preserved. Multimedia files can also be saved internally in Tamino. The database
structure can be adapted to changing requirements at any time with only minimal effort,
and with no normalization needed if new elements are added or removed.
Existing data sets can be integrated:
Tamino's "X-Node" integration component allows existing database systems
(such as RDBMSs) to be integrated seamlessly. Previous investments and already installed
IT infrastructures can thus continue to be used. External data is dynamically converted to
or from XML format. Through mapping, the SQL column containing a specific data value in a
relational database is determined in advance for each DTD-compatible XML element. Incoming
XML elements can then be transferred automatically to the SQL database. In the case of
queries the XML elements can be read from it and converted automatically into the required
XML data stream.
URL-based access using standard browsers:
Direct database access is possible over the Internet - with no need to install and use
special client software (a standard browser is sufficient). As with native XML data, XQL
or XPath queries are simply embedded in URL commands. The appropriate commands are
converted to SQL queries automatically for those queries which are mapped to external
RDBMS databases (e.g. ODBC).
Returned XML documents are formatted for their intended purpose either on the server (e.g.
for HTML) or when they reach the client (various output formats possible using style
sheets (XSL)). XML data can thus be accessed easily using wireless devices based on WAP,
because Wireless Markup Language (WML) DTDs are XML-compatible and thus simple to store.
Scalability:
There are no restrictions either on the number of users or on the number of
simultaneous accesses, and the system can be scaled by connecting additional Web servers
upstream.
For more information about Tamino, see www.softwareag.com/tamino.
About the author: Frank Jung is product marketing manager for
the Tamino XML database at Software AG.