Subscribe to RSS feed

Aug
28

On Intelligent File Systems, XQuery and the Cloud

by Kurt Cagle

Cloud computing has largely passed through it's hype phase - that period where all kinds of magical characteristics are applied to it because no one really knows that much about it, and is shifting to the real world scenarios where people are actually building clouds and finding the limitations therein (and the cycle goes through the Trough of Despair).

Despite this incipient skeptical phase, there are some significant reasons to think hard about the combination of cloud computing and XML Databases, especially those such as MarkLogic or eXist-db that combine the database with a web app server. There are many ways of using such servers, though I believe one of the most powerful is to use a RESTful Services approach in conjunction with URL rewriting in order to create intelligent file systems.  Read more...
(1694 words, 0 images, est. 6:47 mins reading time)

This is a preview of On Intelligent File Systems, XQuery and the Cloud. Read the full post.
(1694 words, 0 images, est. 6:47 mins reading time)

This post has no tag

3 comments

Aug
19

Package Repository in eXist XML Database

by James Fuller

Over the past few weeks I have created and committed to eXist /trunk a new core extension for the eXist XML database which provides developers with the ability to manage external packages/dependencies.

If you have worked with other package management systems, like:

  • rpm
  • aptitude / apt get / dpkg / yum
  • CPAN Perl modules / PAR
  • Python eggs
  • Ruby gems
  • PHP Pear

then you should understand the goal of package management within eXist, e.g. make it easy for developers to create and distribute reusable components. This has been a percolating topic for the past year in the XML world and, in my opinion, can't come soon enough. Florent Georges is spearheading the charge here and I thank him for his work on EXPath, as well as his continuing contribution to eXist.  Read more...
(700 words, 0 images, est. 2:48 mins reading time)

This is a preview of Package Repository in eXist XML Database. Read the full post.
(700 words, 0 images, est. 2:48 mins reading time)

This post has no tag

3 comments

Aug
17

XML Database Security and Recovery

by Kurt Cagle

Editor Note: This was originally published Feb. 10, 2010.

 Over the weekend, a client of mine was hacked, part of what seems to have been a broad, rootkit based attack that took out a number of sites in what appeared to be prep work for zombification of servers for spam delivery. I won't give out the details of this particular incident, as we're still trying to figure out the exact exploit, but it brought to light a few facets of emergency preparedness that should be thought about when dealing with XML databases in particular.

 Read more...
(1066 words, 0 images, est. 4:16 mins reading time)

This is a preview of XML Database Security and Recovery. Read the full post.
(1066 words, 0 images, est. 4:16 mins reading time)

This post has no tag

3 comments

Aug
17

Creating a File Upload Widget for eXist and XQuery

by Kurt Cagle

Editor Note: This was originally published 30 October 2009.

One of the more problematic issues involved with working with XML Databases is what may seem to be relatively simple - getting files into the database in the first place. This was one of the challenges that was put to me by Dan McCreary for a series of open source applications that he's developing around the eXist XML database as part of his efforts with Syntactica. While you can use WebDAV (and in general probably should for production level work), a generalized file uploader web app is also possible, and serves to illustrate how you can actually create some very powerful tools with application vendor augmented XQuery. Note that the examples given here are all built around the eXist-db XML Database. It's definitely possible to do similar applications using the MarkLogic database, though I'll leave this as an exercise for a future article.  Read more...
(4190 words, 0 images, est. 16:46 mins reading time)

This is a preview of Creating a File Upload Widget for eXist and XQuery. Read the full post.
(4190 words, 0 images, est. 16:46 mins reading time)

Tags: ,

Leave comment