Management of XML documents in object-relational databases

Abstract

Many applications deal with complex XML documents that need to be made persistent. We investigate the use of the object-relational modeling approach that combines both the strengths of object oriented concepts and relational DBMS technology provided by current DBMS vendors. As a prerequisite, we analyze the document definition and generate the equivalent object-relational database schema in SQL. We discuss the main issues when mapping XML documents to an object-relational target schema with the example of Oracle. The paper concludes with a summary of our experiences with the object-relational approach for XML document mangement. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002.