[nycphp-talk] Some comments on the XML Talk
bz-gmort at beezifies.com
bz-gmort at beezifies.com
Tue Oct 30 16:51:55 EDT 2007
Tim Gales wrote:
>
> But when it comes time to exchange data from one table in a
> database to another database -- even within the the same DBMS --
> all bets about the "not-needing-to-be-next-to-another-attribute-ness"
> are off. (e.g. as in a comma separated file)
>
I've never run into this issue. I've run into the "if you don't specify
the order, the database will use it's own default ordering" - and a lot
of depending on "select *" to give things in the "correct" order.
But one can hardly blame databases for having different defaults if you
fail to specify one.
> Thus XML frees you from the confines of having to carefully
> order your data when you want to exchange it.
>
> Now if during the exchange of XML data it has to
> stop on a system and be stored, it certainly makes sense
> to put it into an XML database.
This statement prompted my reason for replying. Is there a standalone
set of tools for updating/editing an XML database?
I'm thinking of something along the lines of Microsoft Access, where you
have 1 tool which has forms, program logic, and a database and all the
data ends up "together" from a user standpoint. So I can give someone a
couple of access files and they have a complete application they can run
locally?
(In case one is curious, my father was demonstrating a little MSAccess
app he is putting together for tracking/monitoring environmental data.
Something along the lines of the life cycle of animals in an
environment, the number of particular animals seen, yadda yadda yadda.
I don't pretend to understand what it is he is doing, it's just his
current crusade to organize his own data and give other people the
ability to track the same data and share it with each other in an
organized fashion.
He was motivated to do so after he discovered how useful having such
data organized and handy is when disputing the environmental impact
statements of company paid environmental surveyors doing a 1 day study)
Something non-Access based would be better, but since this basically is
a tool for non-techies, it has to be simple and not dependent on a
centralized server for the data to be housed.
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