Re: CMS tutorials

On Sun, 21 Dec 2003 18:06:06 -0500 
J Graham Zahoruiko <J> wrote:

> In my note I stressed the need to leverage the Open RDBMS as the point
> of integration for all content systems (CMS) combined with an Open
> publishing model (no API - use your own tools, scripting languages,
> application servers, etc.).

This assumes that an RDBMS is an appropriate and beneficial storage
model for your back end data.  This can be true, is often true, but is
not necessarily true.  The relational table model is but one possible
view of data and is frequently enough a lousy fit for CMS data (eg RDBMS
constraints and requirements for is-type-of models).  I generally find
that a mix of flat file-system data (essentially path-named blobs),
RDBMS and OOBMS do what I need.  RDBMS systems also tend to be extremely
fragile and expensively brittle once elements of data and schema
versioning enter the picture.  A near guaranteed tarbaby recipe, yet an
area that data-property partitioned systems (using the filesystem or an
OODBMS hierarcy or a custom DBMS) can handle fairly pleasantly.

> The NET/NET is, the RDBMS is for integration & storage, the CMS is for
> managing content (creation, workflow, versioning), and the Portal is
> leveraged for publishing information in a specific format for =
> consumption.

None of the current RDBMSes handle blobs well.  None handle anything
other than trivial partitioning schema worth a damn (just try and have
data-property defined partitioning schema under Oracle).  Often these
are simple areas where filesystem-based methods work well.  Dynamic type
systems where you don't know the library of possible types or their
relations in advance work very badly in RDBMS worlds, struggle but can
get by in standard OODBMS systems, and tend to work very nicely in
runtime morphic systems like the ZODB.

-- 
J C Lawrence
---------(*)                Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas.
[email protected]               He lived as a devil, eh?
http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/  Evil is a name of a foeman, as I live.
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