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Re: Which is better (for medical data)?

• To: Elizabeth Hinson <elhinson@r...>
• Subject: Re: Which is better (for medical data)?
• From: "akmal @ city" <akmal@s...>
• Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 11:36:18 +0100 (BST)
• Cc: xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <002b01c276fd$b3d83650$e8e26618@khinson>

On Fri, 18 Oct 2002, Elizabeth Hinson wrote:

> Hello XML experts,
> 
>  
> 
> I'm involved in a project to develop a medical database for clinical
> images. We are considering Filemaker 6.0 (which is for the
> non-professional, much like Access, but has the ability to export and
> import XML). I understand all the big guys too handle XML. But someone
> told me that XML itself CAN be used as a database. Then I heard about
> "Native XML Databases" or NXDs. But reading further I got confused.
> There seem to be 2 camps: those in favor of traditional databases with
> XML support, and the pure XML folks.
> 
> What would you recommend? Which is better (for medical data)?
> 
>  
> 
> Native XML database
> 
> or
> 
> XML-enabled relational database?
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks a lot!
> 
>  
> 
> Elizabeth
> 
> (An XML newbie)
> 
> 

Hello Elizabeth.

You didn't mention what you wanted to do with the XML. If you are
considering Filemaker already and it meets your needs, stick with it.

I am working with a number of others on a forthcoming book:

"XML Data Management: Native XML and XML-Enabled Database Systems"
http://www.aw.com/catalog/academic/product/1,4096,0201844524,00.html

Another book to look at is:

"Designing XML Databases" by Mark Graves
http://vig.prenhall.com/catalog/academic/product/1,4096,0130889016,00.html

The focus of Mark's book is using existing Relational technology and he
covers several approaches to managing XML. Nice gentle read IMHO.

If performance is an issue, I have a list of XML benchmarks that I
maintain:
http://www.btinternet.com/~webdatabases/html/benchmarks.html

Scroll down to near the bottom of the page.

I've also helped with a couple of workshops where we've had good papers
published covering issues of storage, performance, etc. Proceedings will
be published soon. Some web pages:

"EDBT 2002 Workshop on XML-Based Data Management"
http://www.btinternet.com/~webdatabases/edbt02/index.html

"VLDB 2002 Workshop on Efficiency and Effectiveness of XML Tools, and
Techniques"
http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~ebh/eextt2002/

"Web Databases 2002"
http://www.btinternet.com/~webdatabases/webdb02/index.html

You can try your hand at an Open Source NXD, such as Xindice from Apache.
I recently published an article on dW:
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-xindice.html

Far better to try for yourself, rather than just reading about it IMHO.

HTH

--
Akmal B. Chaudhri
Zone Editor, Special Projects (Eclipse, Grid, Web Services)
IBM developerWorks - http://www.ibm.com/developerWorks/
WebDatabases ------- http://www.btinternet.com/~webdatabases/

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Which is better (for medical data)?
    • From: "Ken North" <ken_north@c...>

• References:
  • Which is better (for medical data)?
    • From: "Elizabeth Hinson" <elhinson@r...>

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