Filter
Top Products
Chapter 6. RDB and XML integration 133
XML Column method
The XML Column method provides the facility to store the entire XML document
as is in a table column. The XML documents are inserted into table columns that
are enabled for XML and can be updated, retrieved, and searched. The XML
document can also be kept on the local file system and only a pointer to the
document be kept in the table column.
If you want to search the XML document based on certain element or attribute
values, you can map the element and attribute data from an XML document to
DB2 tables called
side tables. We can build indexes on these side tables to
support fast structural search. Figure 5-6 gives an overview of the column
method.
When to use XML Column method
We recommend using the XML Column method under the following conditions:
The XML documents already exist.
There is a requirement to archive documents. For example, a news publishing
company that serves articles over the Web may want to maintain an archive
of published articles, which the users can search for.
Generally read-only documents
Stores documents externally, but use DB2 for management and search.
Requirement for range-based searches on document elements.
Documents with large text blocks (no larger than 2 GB, in which case the table
column cannot accommodate the document and it has to be decomposed into
more columns) which require structured searches using Text Extender.