Mailing-List: contact general-help@xml.apache.org; run by ezmlm
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 14:43:59 -0500 (EST)
From: Donald Ball <balld@webslingerZ.com>
To: general@xml.apache.org
Subject: Re: XML from Relational Database
In-Reply-To: <001001bf8eb5$af0aab40$38a3f1ce@ls-.mitretek.org>
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 <Pine.LNX.4.10.10003151437470.26268-100000@phoenix.webslingerZ.com>
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On Wed, 15 Mar 2000, Thomas B. Passin wrote:

> 
> Guerry Semones asked -
> 
> 
> >I know that Oracle has released code to allow one to create an XML file
> >containing SQL query information, and from processing that file via a
> >servlet, generate a new XML file.
> >
> >I'm also aware of at least one effort out there to do a similar thing
> in
> >open source.
> >
> >What solutions have folks here found that work best?
> >
> 1) db2xml (can be used as a servelet)
> http://www.informatik.fh-wiesbaden.de/~turau/DB2XML/index.html
> 
> 2) DataJunction/xmlJunction (not a servelet, but probably callable from
> a servelet)
> www.datajunction.com
> 
> Note: xmlJunction is just out and is not linked to on Datajunction's
> home page yet.  But keep looking - they say it will be free until
> August.
> 
> 3) Cold Fusion (not a servelet)
> www.allaire.com
> 
> These all can convert relational data to xml files.

Cocoon's got three different ways to do this.

1. SQLProcessor - DOM based, non-namespace aware

2. SQL XSP taglib - DOM based, namespace aware

3. SQLFilter (for cocoon2) - SAX based, namespace aware

All three use a very naive mapping from the database to the XML file. Each
column turns into an element, rows are generally wrapped inside elements,
rowsets are generally wraped inside elements. Some have questioned why I
don't provide support for a more complex mapping of columns to XML nodes
(attributes, etc.) - my feeling is that that's a job better left to XSLT.
I've said it before, though, and I'll say it again - if someone can
suggest a better tagset for configuring a SQL query and mapping of the
results to XML in XML than the one I'm using, I'll be happy to add another
interface. It's all about choice.

- donald