[seul-edu] XML and my project

[rnd@sampo.karelia.ru]

Hi!

I have (at last) understood what is XML and how can  I  use  it
for many kinds of tasks. It could be useful in quiz software as
well.

Now on the slightly different topic.

Our (Karelian) ministry of education  plans  to  put  computers
into every school to automate management tasks.  They  plan  to
exchange data between different levels of educational ministry.

I (hope) I have some influence on how to do  it  software-wise.
So far my proposition was NOT to use proprietary protocols  and
formats (such as MS Access). I advised to develop and use  open
standards. (Please, note, that software for the task is only in
plans, so it is possible to make it right). There  are  reasons
for that:

-  open  way  allows  to  add   more   'players'   (information
sources/users) to the field without much pain.
- there is no dependance on some firm software (thus, no
need to forcily upgrade or say oh-oh when the firm goes under)
- open formats are usually human-readable (like HTML)

However, I am not sure if it is possible to make  (any?  some?)
relational database to work with XML effectively.

The (client) platform in question is Windows 95/DOS and Macs.

The dataflow is mostly school reports, cadres info, statistics,
etc.

*

At the same time, my superiors want  me  to  write  a  database
which  will  be  compatible  with  ministry-wide  data-exchange
scheme. And this is related to Linux directly  (because  I  use
Linux as a server :-)

So, to boil it down, the question is:

- what  do  I  need  to  make  a  relational  database  from  a
collection of XML files? 
(I already know how to use XQL to  make  queries  in  a  single
file, but if there are several files and I need relations?)

I remember, there were such talks in seul-edu  some  time  ago.
Things change rapidly, so if somebody knows a prooved answer  -
please, let me know. Thanks!

Sincerely yours, Roman Suzi
--
Russia * Karelia * Petrozavodsk * rnd@rsuzi.pgu.karelia.ru
* Monday, November 15, 1999 * Powered by Linux RedHat 6.0
* "Memory is a thing we forget with."