An Analysis of the Current Development Stage of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and its Usage for Database Systems

Inhaltsangabe: Abstract: The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is receiving a great deal of attention from computing and Internet communities. This is mainly because of its ability to reduce obstacles in sharing data among diverse applications and databases by providing a common format for expressing data structure and content. The scope of this project is to investigate the current stage of XML and its usage for database systems. In order to understand the XML database technology a general introduction to both database systems and XML is provided to the reader in chapter two and three. Chapter four and five deal with the methodology and findings of this project. These chapters rely on articles, case studies and surveys which are examined and evaluated. Finally, a conclusion and review chapter is included. The analysis of the current adoption of XML among software developers revealed that in Spring 2001 more than one third of international developers already used XML. In 2001 they spent about 5.4% of their development time using XML. For 2002 it is predicted that they will spend an average of 9% of their development time using XML. Concerning XML databases there are currently two major XML related database types available. These are native XML and XML enabled relational databases. Native XML databases are constructed to use the recommended XML standards to the most possible extent. Thereby, the XML document is the fundamental unit of storage. XML enabled relational databases are relational databases equipped with an additional layer to map XML content in to the relational tables. XML documents are only used as a means of transport between the database systems. Native XML databases are better suited for dealing with document structured content whilst XML enabled relational databases are more appropriate to handle data structured content such as numbers and pieces of text. The implementation process of an XML related database system into an organisation requires