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On Dec 5, 2003, at 3:36 AM, Barwell Jonathan wrote: > I wonder whether you are actually using the right technologies to > solve your problems. In essence you are trying to design a relational > database using XML. I had the same reaction to the original post. As useful as XML is for lots of things, one needs to guard against the temptation to see nails that need pounding simply because one has a hammer. XML per se has no notion of cross-document referential integrity nor does XPath/XSLT 1.x have the notion of a join. Obviously these are two great strengths of the relational approach. To the extent that other aspects of the situation here demand an XML approach, XSLT 2.0 / XQuery joins across two documents seem like a more natural fit than trying to coerce the data into a single document where DTD/Schema id/idref constraints can apply. True those are not mature Recommendations, but there is a lot of software out there that supports them, from industrial strength XML servers to open source. Saxon might be the best tool with which to start experimenting.
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