Storing XML in MySQL

[CWebguy]

Hello! I am a newbie and have a question (thanks in advance)!

What I am trying to accopmlish is to somehow store XML data into MySQL (using PHP I'm guessing). Can anyone point me in the right direction to get started? Thanks!

Lance

[NogDog]

Do you simply want to store the raw XML text in a single database field, or do you want to parse the XML into discrete rows and columns of data within a database table (or maybe more than one table)?

[CWebguy]

The second option, multiples fields of data. Thanks so far Nogdog!

[NogDog]

You're probably looking at either using the [man]simpleXML[/man] functions if running PHP 5, or the [man]DOM_XML[/man] functions if using PHP 4. They will allow you to build a structured object from the XML file, and then you can loop through it to extract the desired data and insert it into the database.

[CWebguy]

Thanks so far Nogdog! A couple more questions.

1) Is there a real life example I can find of this being used that you know of?

2) Is this the best thing to do if I will be uploading the XML into the database on a regular basis (possibly even daily)?

Thanks!