Using XML with MySQL

[s0me0ne]

I was thinking that perhaps instead of using MySQL for hierarchical data perhaps I should store my categories with XML instead.

I could pull my categories from the XML file and possibly write a script to read my XML file and update the database whenever it changes.

Just curious if others think that would be good idea or not.

[dagon]

xml or not it has all the same old flat file vs db issues, scalability, convince, data integrity etc..

[NogDog]

As Dagon suggests, using an XML file as a database is generally going to be much slower than using a purpose-built DBMS such as MySQL, PostGre, etc. Also, you lose all the functionality that such DBMS's provide "out of the box".

Generally, XML is best used for what it was designed for: exchanging of data between discrete applications. In fact, it is not uncommon for applications to generate XML output "on the fly" from data queried from a database.