Conceptual question - XML usage

[Lou Arnold]

I know what XML is, and I’ve seen many examples but I have a few conceptual questions about sharing info with it.

Suppose we have this example: A database – say its Oracle - has some data in it according to a schema. If one wants to move that data - to say a MySql database, I’m told that the data can be put into an XML file. But does that XML file need to have the schema encoded in it? If not, how does the receiving system know how that data is organized? If the file needs to have the schema encoded in it, how does the destination DBMS “understand” and create the database properly to be able to store the data?

In general…is the organization of the info (tag names, nested sections, order of information, etc) in an XML file specific to the two applications sharing the information? Are there a set of standards that set the organization of files sharing certain types of info?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2006 01:34PM by Lou Arnold .