XML database opinions

I'm not sure if this is an appropriate forum for this, but I was wondering if any readers here have first-hand knowledge of xml databases compared, or at least links to articles about them.

Orbeon comes bundled with eXist, but I know nothing about it's reliability, scalability or state of development compared to other XML databases. I did find some articles comparing some (including one that wasn't too favorable to eXist, but it was several years old), but was hoping to get info from first-hand experiences.

I work for a gov't agency and am doing a little research on my own evaluating the feasibility of moving to an XForms solution for our internal forms. We are currently using Oracle 10g as our main database with Java web applications. (we have 4 regional offices and multiple installations of Oracle). It's hard for me to estimate the volume of internal documents that would be "active" at any time, but maybe 100,000 per region would be a reasonable estimate - I guess one thing I'd like input on is whether or not eXist would be an appropriate choice.

Please note that I'm a newbie to Xforms, know very little about XML database, and only have elementary expertise with Oracle. I'm mainly looking for any opinions or pointers that would get me looking in the right direction.

Also, does the Orbeon website or Wiki have articles relating to specific technical issues on how to use eXist with Orbeon, or do I take it most of this would be considered information you're supposed to seek out on the eXist website?

Thanks!

A lot of people have recommended MarkLogic, but I have never played around with it.  It is not freely available.  I have heard people complain of scalability issues with earlier versions of eXist, but I have never really pushed it myself.  I don't know how well it would do with hundreds of thousands or millions of documents.

Ethan




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Hello Francis,

About a year ago we faced the same issue; we had been using eXist for a while and found its scalability not suiting to our needs.

There are quite a few XML databases out there; we decided to review the Berkeley XML database (now an Oracle open source project) and MonetDB (a Ducth open source project).

When it comes to speed, MonetDB turned out to be a true monster. The downside of MonetDB is its rather limited feature set; there is no full support for Xquery (1.0) and typical Enterprise features like clustering capabilities lack (at least, they did so back in the summer of 2009).

The BDB XML store really slow when compared to MonetDB, but still a lot better than eXist. Most features you'd expect for an Enterprise-ready product are there and there's even commercial support from Oracle available. If you're already an Oracle shop that might be a plus :-).

Finally we decided to go with MySQL :).

Best, Robin

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: FParsons [mailto:[hidden email]]
Verzonden: maandag 31 mei 2010 23:31
Aan: [hidden email]
Onderwerp: [ops-users] XML database opinions


I'm not sure if this is an appropriate forum for this, but I was wondering if
any readers here have first-hand knowledge of xml databases compared, or at
least links to articles about them.

Orbeon comes bundled with eXist, but I know nothing about it's reliability,
scalability or state of development compared to other XML databases. I did
find some articles comparing some (including one that wasn't too favorable
to eXist, but it was several years old), but was hoping to get info from
first-hand experiences.

I work for a gov't agency and am doing a little research on my own
evaluating the feasibility of moving to an XForms solution for our internal
forms. We are currently using Oracle 10g as our main database with Java web
applications. (we have 4 regional offices and multiple installations of
Oracle). It's hard for me to estimate the volume of internal documents that
would be "active" at any time, but maybe 100,000 per region would be a
reasonable estimate - I guess one thing I'd like input on is whether or not
eXist would be an appropriate choice.

Please note that I'm a newbie to Xforms, know very little about XML
database, and only have elementary expertise with Oracle. I'm mainly looking
for any opinions or pointers that would get me looking in the right
direction.

Also, does the Orbeon website or Wiki have articles relating to specific
technical issues on how to use eXist with Orbeon, or do I take it most of
this would be considered information you're supposed to seek out on the
eXist website?

Thanks!

-----
-- Francis
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As an alternative to eXist you should evaluate :

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Robin Diederen wrote

Finally we decided to go with MySQL :).

Just out of curiosity, did you mean you gave up on XForms? Or can you use MySQL for this (pardon my ignorance!)

Hi Francis,

No we didn't give up with xForms. We're actually very happy with Orbeon :-).

We gave up on using a native XML database; MySQL works like a charm for us.

Best, Robin

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: FParsons [mailto:[hidden email]]
Verzonden: woensdag 2 juni 2010 14:23
Aan: [hidden email]
Onderwerp: [ops-users] RE: XML database opinions



Robin Diederen wrote:
>
> Finally we decided to go with MySQL :).
>

Just out of curiosity, did you mean you gave up on XForms? Or can you use
MySQL for this (pardon my ignorance!)


-----
-- Francis
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mozer wrote

As an alternative to eXist you should evaluate :
* Marklogic, if you need corporate support
* QizX, cross plateform, open source, and with support (and even source
code) if needed

Thanks for your reply. Have you evaluated QizX? On the QizX web site, it calls itself an "XML Search Engine".  If you've looked at this, would you say it's easier to administer than other XML databases? Would you consider it robust and trustworthy?

Good to hear (the Orbeon part ;).

Note that all major databases, including Oracle, SQL Server, and DB2,
have XML support. These might be options as well.

-Erik

On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 5:25 AM, Robin Diederen <[hidden email]> wrote:

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Hi there,
we are investigating Orbeon forms for potential use in the company and we would like to use Form runner with different xml DB instead of exist. We prefer BaseX, but I will take a look at other DBs suggested in this topic such as MonetDB and BDB. My question is - where can I find information about using different XML DBs and how hard is it to do that - does it require changing source code or does it only require some configuration. I would appreciate some further guidance.