Database Reference
In-Depth Information
eXist
The eXist XML database started as a personal project of Wolfgang Meier in 2000 and continues
to be actively developed today. It is an open source XML database written in Java. It features
rich support for XPath and XQuery, as well as XInclude, WebDAV (Distributed Authoring and
Versioning), XML Access Control Markup Language (XACML) for security, SOAP, REST, and
XML-RPC. It also comes with an easy-to-use, web-based console to execute queries.
Oracle Berkeley XML DB
Berkeley XML DB is an open source database written in Java that started as a research project
at Harvard and is now supported by Oracle. Berkeley XML DB is embeddable, so it can run as a
JAR within your application. It supports C++, Java, XQuery, high availability, and transactions.
The Berkeley database is specifically geared toward developers rather than DBAs, as the only
way to interact with the database is to write code; it has no standalone server and no graphical
tool such as SQL Server Management Studio. You can use Berkeley XML DB to store a mixture
of XML documents and less-structured documents.
MarkLogic Server
MarkLogic is a server backed by an XML database that supports XQuery for Create, Read, Up-
date, and Delete (CRUD) operations; full-text searching; XML searching; and transactions. It
supports REST using XML or JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). Although MarkLogic is a
commercial product, there is a free community license available for small projects and nonprofit
organizations.
Apache Xindice
The Apache Xindice project was one of the early XML databases, with work beginning in 2001.
It was designed for working only with small and medium-sized documents. Since its last re-
lease—version 1.1—in 2007, it has not been actively maintained, and version 1.2 has been a
work in progress for years now.
Summary
There are many other XML databases, including TigerLogic, MonetDB, Sedna, and more. The
importance of XML databases in this context is that some of this work serves as a predecessor
to the more recent document-oriented databases, which we explore in a moment. More to the
point, however, is that these databases highlight some of the advantages that can be realized by
considering how your database maps to the specific needs of your application architecture, rather
than simply assuming that a relational database is a one-size-fits-all solution.
