I just wanted to put out a feeler to see if anyone on here is using the eXist XML database ( If so, (1) has it been successful for you, (2) how big is your collection(s), (3) any words of wisdom?
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eXist database 1
- Thread starter xmtb26
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I've been using eXist for a while now and I love it. The XQuery support is excellent and it seems to be robust (I have had no problems), but I have not tried using large collections. I primary use eXist + XQuery + XSL + XForms (mozilla plugin), it takes a little while to get your head around certain issues but it is a joy to work with XML throughout the application.
Recently, I have started using orbeon forms. This comes with eXist database as standard and uses some great technologies. It has an XML pipeline implementation (XPL) that is a working draft with w3c and has a server-side xforms engine that uses transforms and ajax to produce html forms with xforms functionality.
Jon
"I don't regret this, but I both rue and lament it.
Recently, I have started using orbeon forms. This comes with eXist database as standard and uses some great technologies. It has an XML pipeline implementation (XPL) that is a working draft with w3c and has a server-side xforms engine that uses transforms and ajax to produce html forms with xforms functionality.
Jon
"I don't regret this, but I both rue and lament it.
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1
- Thread starter
- #4
If you are familiar with the RSS XML format (i.e., basically a collection of <item> nodes), then you can easily have a collection greater than 15,000. We have some with over 60,000 <item>s.
The current version of the eXist database can have 2^16 collections. So, that is like having 2^16 different RSS feeds. Therefore, you are at about 25%. The next version is suppose to handle 2^32 collections. We currently only have a handful of collections and xqueries (which can also be stored in the database).
The are various ways to improve speed. Hardware aside, you need to try to improve your xqueries. For example, (1) use the REST method, (2) instead of using the WHERE clause make it a predicate, and (3) set-up your an index for a collection. Items 1 and 3 are discussed in the documentation that comes with eXist or at For item 2, I'd strongly recommend monitoring gmane.text.xml.exist at news://news.gmane.org.
The current version of the eXist database can have 2^16 collections. So, that is like having 2^16 different RSS feeds. Therefore, you are at about 25%. The next version is suppose to handle 2^32 collections. We currently only have a handful of collections and xqueries (which can also be stored in the database).
The are various ways to improve speed. Hardware aside, you need to try to improve your xqueries. For example, (1) use the REST method, (2) instead of using the WHERE clause make it a predicate, and (3) set-up your an index for a collection. Items 1 and 3 are discussed in the documentation that comes with eXist or at For item 2, I'd strongly recommend monitoring gmane.text.xml.exist at news://news.gmane.org.
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