XML flava of VB?

[MattR]

You know,

There are better things we can be doing to improve performance than spending money on hardware for our databases.

I was thinking -- make the forums / threads / posts XML and then store all the other information in the database.

That would give the advantage of having lightning quick page display (since there aren't any worries about querying the DB each and every time a thread is viewed) and the ability to update them easily (via XML coolness). It also allows you to easily package things up for stuff like WAP (provided people would want to read posts and such from their WAP device).

Any thoughts?

[MattR]

Another thought is that maybe create an archive of posts / threads in XML (so that you can search them) every month or something to lessen the load of the post and thread tables.
So, you'd kick off a script every so often which would go through and rip out all posts / threads that haven't been touched in the past few weeks, write them to the XML files, and then kill them from the post and thread tables.

[JimF]

The second suggestion has been mulled around, though not using xml - though I would assume it's just as plausable.

I think having an auto-archive system would be good, where after a certain amount of days, older threads would get purged and archived.

-jim

[Skeptical]

Believe me, if vB could utilize xml, all the big corporations would desert OpenTopic and use vB.

[Martin]

Originally posted by Skeptical
Believe me, if vB could utilize xml, all the big corporations would desert OpenTopic and use vB.

Infopoop said the same thing about UBB, and I see how many corps left that to jump on the OT bandwagon...

[Sharg]

I bilieve jelsoft after 2.0 is released and finished will focus on optimizing vb for very heavy traffic site.
These are great suggestions that will have to be brought back when they will come to this point.

I like the idea of a cron auto archiving.

[MattR]

Originally posted by Skeptical
Believe me, if vB could utilize xml, all the big corporations would desert OpenTopic and use vB.

Well, any application can use XML if you code it in to it -- so it's not as much a matter of could as it is a matter of should. :)

But I agree, OpenTopic has been a colossal flop from what I can tell.

I’m working on an archival hack (probably XML, or in the least just a new thread and post table for old threads/posts) which can be adapted for 2.0 whenever it is released.

[Skeptical]

XML does have a huge future since it totally separates out data from layout, meaning you can then code a Message Board client via web page, C++ application, WAP, whatever...

But in the meantime, it's the word "XML" that'll entice huge corporations.

[Mark Hewitt]

Yeah I can say about XML. I work for a company who develops systems for large corporations and you just have to say "XML" to them and they are already writing the cheque!!

[Zef Hemel]

XML support would undoubtly be a good addition for vB, though do browsers support it? All I've seen so far is scripts that parse it and translate it into HTML.

[Mark Hewitt]

I think you misunderstand, XML was originally touted as a language to replace HTML, this has now died a death and the real purpose of XML has been revealed.

Its a gerneral purpose data storage language which you can do all sorts of cool stuff with and there is support for it with many languages (I work with Java). Many big corporations now use XML for data storage because of its flexibility and transformability, it's a very powerful tool.

[Zef Hemel]

Oh that has changed quickly then :) I read the PHP 4 cookbook, which said that it still was going to replace HTML, which I'd think is a good idea in combination with XSL.

But XML as storage won't be nearly as fast as sql database servers, would it be?