Re: SGML and features database

[Chet Ensign <Chet_Ensign%LDS -at- NOTES -dot- WORLDCOM -dot- COM>]

Joyce Flaherty writes:

>    I could put the group data into the SGML database
>    as an entity.  OR, I could maintain the group data
>    outside the database, sort of like mainframe JCL.

If you already have the info in a separate and well-managed database, and there
is no pressing reason to merge it **into** the document content such as for
search & retrieval, then you could probably just keep it that way. Most of the
document databases on the market support both internal SGML data and externally
defined and stored metadata.

Hmmm. What you **could** consider doing would be to put the referencing info in
the SGML in some way. For example, as an element with a NOTATION that told the
system it had to resolve the content by going to the external routine named
.... or as a kind of hyperlink to the external database. The BASIS+ WEBServer
engine has a construct that may be analogous and give you food for thought.
When you point your browser at a Web site that has the database behind it, it
sends you an HTML page but the links are often not hard coded URLs. Although
they look and act just like any other link, they are actually embedded search
commands that are handed to the database, and are generated automatically by a
template. It is a neat idea.

Best,

/chet

Chet Ensign
Logical Design Solutions
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