XML DB Vs MySQL

[shahid_146]

Whenever I have to give an option to admin of the website to be able to change content on individual pages, I store the content in the database (most of the time MySQL). A new guy in my company joined recently and has advised me to use XML for storing text content of the websites which according to him is a better way then storing it into the database.
I want to know what are the main advantages of using XML file for storing text content or are there any ? Would love to know both the pros and cons.

URL: Binarytrends

 

[sjp]

What were that guy's arguments, or did he just tell you to use XML "because it's better" with no arguments supporting his point of view?

 

[shahid_146]

His argument was that it is faster in accessing. But I wanna know if there are any other benefits as well.

 

[stscac]

I use a combination of the two. I use MySQL for backend administration, and for data that I need parsed that doesn't need to be secure, I use XML. I have also written a tiny bit of VB.NET in my time as a "part-time programmer" and fetching information from a remote database is much easier and creates a smaller exe whwen using XML parsing.

-Steve

 

[sjp]

You need to clarify something else. Are you talking about XML databases or are you talking about XML files? These are two very different things.

XML databases are for example the freeware Berkeley XML DB or Oracle XML DB. These databases can be filled with XML-style information and they can be queried using XPath instead of SQL or something. The concept is relatively new as far as database history goes. I've only used Oracle XML DB briefly myself, I don't have any real experience with them.

XML files are just plain-text files in a certain format. They are good for small files like config files but completely unsuitable to access large amounts of data in a fast way. Relational databases are *a lot* faster when it comes to accessing data.

 

[Zubair1]

I think that using MySQL Database's is a much better choice rather then using XML to parse / access large sets of data time by time. By using XML as files you will quite frankly being using your file storage one way or another that is not for many especially if you are putting large amount of data to it. as the file grows the time to load it also grows. MySQL is fully powered with great features and loads of new coming accessing data from a mysql db is one of the easiet and fastest in my opinion.

Though i suppose maybe XML good for using template engines or reading small data from it.

 

[shahid_146]

Thanks guys

Thank you all for the replies. The conclusion which I get from this discussion is that what i was doing was more apropriate. Means storing my data in MySQL DB than XML files.

I really appreciate your help.