Project Proposals for William Flynn Scholarship: IIndex page

Project Number: 6
Project Title: XML and databases: optimum solutions for web-based document management systems
Project Supervisors: Professor Paul Mc Kevitt, Mrs Maeve Paris

As a platform- and software- independent language, XML could be considered an ideal technology around which to construct a publishing process, and examples of web-based XML document management systems are emerging (e.g. XML Europe 2001 conference). A publishing process based on XML and its associated technologies (including XSLT, XPath, and XQuery among others) has many advantages, but also raises many questions, which form the basis of this proposed study:
1. Which database should be used for an XML web-based document management system?
2. What is the optimum presentation technology with supporting tools for such a project?

1. XML and relational databases
The question of where XML sits in relation to hierarchical, relational and object-oriented data modelling paradigms is a matter of debate. RDBMSs continue to be the dominant data storage technique for large-scale systems, with hierarchical and object databases satisfying specialised requirements, but in recent years many popular DBMSs have been hybrid object-relational, which would tend to suggest a blurring between data model paradigms. At the same time, RDBMS producers support object-relational and XML features in recent releases. XML databases, on the other hand, can be divided into native XML and XML-adapted databases, depending on whether they deal with data-centric or document-centric documents. Detractors have dismissed XML databases as 'snake oil' or 'just a comeback of the hierarchical model', while proponents have argued for their suitability in exploiting semi-structured data and their portability. This study seeks to discover whether there is a middle ground between the mathematical rigour of the relational database model and the flexibility and inherent usability of XML (perhaps through XMLQuery).

2. XSLT, CSS and programming languages
In relation to the second question of choosing the best presentation technology with supporting tools for an XML web-based document management system, there have been recent debates on XSL versus CSS, as well as questions about the selection of XSLT over programming languages such as PHP in order to generate presentation content. There are many benefits of using XML/XSLT in the presentation layer, but there have been criticisms of XSLT's declarative syntax, and the fact that it offers a template-driven rather than a procedural approach. XPath's evolution, combined with the potential XQuery offers may strengthen XSLT in the longer term.

If you are interested in being considered for a studentship please contact
the Group Director, Professor T.M. McGinnity by email:
tm.mcginnity@ulst.ac.uk

or telephone: +44-(0)28-71375417.

See the current research section of this website for details on research projects pursued by existing PhD students