XML *IN* Firebird - question

Lester Caine is asking on Firebird-Architects :

The job for the new year is to make a better interface to the XML

schemas that I am being asked to process. Having already established

that we do not want to store raw data as an unprocessed flat file with

all the XML tags in place, the obvious next question is "How should we

store it".



I think the discussion here should be on a 'standard' way of processing

any XML schema such that we can map the information into additional XML$

system tables and be able to rebuild the schema from that. (*NOT* part

of the engine just yet , but perhaps something for FB6 or 7 ). This

would then provide a basis on which to build the data that goes with the

schema, while at the same time making it searchable in a relational way.



As a starting point, I am looking at genealogical data. I have a 2000+

grid of CAINE/HUM PHRIES family history in a GEDCOM format, which I

would like to convert to XML. Both are flat file with tags formats, so

the basic conversion is simple, but there is no agreement on an XML

schema yet for the data, so I am looking at a data model to store the

raw data in Firebird, which can then be extracted in which ever way the

final XML goes. *THAT* is when I realised that the architecture of how

to do it is much more important than the XML.



So the first element of the jigsaw, is probably a table of elements,

with a tree structure describing the links to source elements, and

fields for storing the format and pattern information. This should

perhaps be something that the 'XML Binary Characterisation Working

Group' should be looking into as part of the standard, but they seem to

be having trouble deciding who pays for the catering next time they meet ;)



So am I alone here, or am I on the right track. I am having fun at the

moment with the simple matter of managing locations in the genealogical

data. Every event has a location, but there is no means of populating

that location from a location table. *THAT* seems to me what is

fundamentally wrong with XML, or have I just missed the trick of how to

do it?



--

Lester Caine