Week 1 Exercises:
XML-enabled databases and canonical mappings

1. Describe three real-world scenarios for using XML as a data transfer format. List the advantages and disadvantages of using XML in each scenario.

2. Design an XML schema that can be used to archive the data in a database. The schema should be designed so that the data can be restored later on the original database or in a different database. Write the schema using DTD, XML Schema, or RELAX NG notation. Describe the pros and cons of your schema, especially the technical challenges that might be faced by an application that uses it.

3. Discuss the pros and cons of using XML as a database archive format.

4. Consider a database with three tables: Actors (ID, Name, Birthdate), Movies (ID, Title, Producer, Director), and ActorsMovies (ActorID, MovieID). ActorsMovies is a join table that is used to join actors and movies. (Note that this is a many-to-many relationship. That is, one actor is in many movies and each movie has many actors.) Describe two different ways to map these tables to XML.