XML and datawarehousing

[sweetleaf]

Hi,

I am interested in incorporating xml into the datawarehouse practices of the company I work for but know very little about xml other than it being a data-centric markup language intended for streamlining data exchange - and this may not even be that accurate..

Is it common to deploy xml when dealing with DW's? If so, in what way(s)? What are the benefits (eg. cost savings, governance etc)? Can anyone give me examples of scenarios were xml would be advantageous to using classical predefined fixed-width or comma-delimmted flat files for exchanging data within and outside of the organization?

Many thanks

 

[chiph]

XML will likely be pretty useless within the data warehouse itself.

However it will likely be useful when transfering data to/from outside data sources. As you probably know, both parties to a transfer need to agree on the format used, and if you have someone who can accept XML, it might be worth investigating if there's an industry-standard XML format (such as is available from HR-XML.org).

But I suspect that most of the time you'll be using CSV flat files, as it's much easier to understand and work with. The exception would be where the data is naturally hierarchical, and XML allows you to represent that much easier.

Chip H.


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[sweetleaf]

Thanks Chip - that helps.

I see your points and agree that fixed-width/csv's will end up staying the more standard approach for their ease of use.

The one advantage I was able to pick out from your reply was in working with hierarchical data. I'm unfamiliar with that - if it's not too much trouble would you be able to expand on this a little?

Regards