Serving XML: practical techniques for the dissemination of structured electronic information
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830110411943 |
| Pages | 408-414 |
| Date | 01 December 2001 |
| Published date | 01 December 2001 |
| Author | Ron Gilmour |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Serving XML: practical
techniques for the
dissemination of
structured electronic
information
Ron Gilmour
Introduction
Extensible markup language (XML, see Bray et
al. (1998)) has given information providers the
ability to structure their data in a format which
is both human- and machine-understandable,
and which is independent of any particular
computing platform or processing application.
But while XML has met with widespread
approval within the mark-up world, there is no
consensus on the best way to make XML
structured data available to users. Much of the
current use of XML relies on database software.
While the combination of databases and XML
can be very powerful, it also introduces
redundancy. The self-describing nature of
XML can make a database superfluous,
especially for smaller applications. The current
paper explores computationally lightweight,
database-free means of communicating
structured data via the World Wide Web.
The database approach
Kim and Choi (2000) have described a
bifurcated system composed of a ``retrieval
module'' and a ``browsing module''. Records
are stored in an Access database. In the retrieval
module, an active server pages (ASP) script
generates XML documents that are then
displayed to the user. The browsing module
produces larger XML files that are displayed via
extensible stylesheet language (XSL, see Clark
(1999)). Chang (2000) created a searchable
interface for archival finding aids by loading
XML-encoded documents into an Access
database and making that database searchable
via ASP scripting. These approaches are
complex and fail to take full advantage of an
XML document's ability to emulate a database
through its own organization.
The author
Ron Gilmour is Science Reference Librarian at the Science
Library, University at Albany, Albany, New York, USA.
E-mail: gilmr@albany.edu
Keywords
World Wide Web, Databases, Data structuring,
Dissemination
Abstract
The self-describing nature of data marked up using
extensible markup language (XML) allows the XML
document itself to act in a manner similar to a database, but
without the large file sizes and proprietary software
generally associated with database applications. XML data
can be made directly available to users using a variety of
methods. This paper explores methods for both server-side
and client-side processing and display of XML-encoded data,
using an annotated bibliography as an example.
Electronic access
The research register for this journal is available at
http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emerald-library.com/ft Many thanks to Marjorie Benedict of The University
of Albany Libraries, who has allowed the author to
use her bibliography on Gabrielle Roay as an
example file for the techniques presented in this
paper. The sample files may reflect outdated versions
of his work. The most current version of the
bibliography is available at http:///www.albany.edu/
~mb648/Roy/
408
Library Hi Tech
Volume 19 .Number 4 .2001 .pp. 408±414
#MCB University Press .ISSN 0737-8831
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