Can XML be used to create and manage large publications online?

[Guest_imported]

I am a web designer who seem to be be increasingly asked to put hardcopy publications on the web. These are usually in the order of 50 - 500 pages in a Word Document or something. I know how to do this in HTML, but all the content management solutions (i.e. databases) I come across seem to deal with 'small' articles like posting a news release or adding/editing text to an existing page etc. An additional problem is that the organisation usually wants non-web designers to be responsible for posting this information, which again, I find populating a database is not the best solution as they will cut and paste a 500 page item into one field, leading to one humungous web page... Is XML a solution for converting and managing large documents on the web? I'd like to know how other people have resolved this issue before delving into learning XML myself.

 

[chiph]

I think you've got two separate problems here. One is managing the text/body of the document, and the other is manageing where the document is stored.

Since XML is derived from SGML (standard generalized markup language) it can in theory handle number one for you. But you have the problem of converting from whatever document format they give you into XML. The good news is that storing in XML will probably make searches easier.

Problem number two is probably not a good target for using an XML solution. I think your best bet there is either use a database that stores where things were put, or (more simply) design a convention on how the documents are stored in a directory structure.

Chip H.