Purely relational approach
XML and system interoperability

To store an XML document in a relational database, the simplest solution is to split the data into different tables and columns. Another solution would have been to store the XML data as a CLOB (Character Long Object). However, we won't go into this possibility here, as it is of little interest. It is then no longer possible to exploit the different levels of granularity of the XML document: it can only be rendered as a whole.

The first step is to set up the relational schema. Figure 2 shows the conceptual database model that can be implemented to achieve the desired objectives. In this model, we can identify two types of elements:

• those that will be directly associated with data extracted from the XML document...