Re: [Refdb-users] xnotes

[Markus H. <mar...@mh...>]

Bruce D'Arcus writes:
 > You only allow title, keywords, and users to be associated with an 
 > xnote.  This essentially means all of this information is user-level, 
 > and precludes the possibility of using it in a multi-user context.
 > 

No. It rather encourages using it in a multi-user context as it does
not require that users fiddle with the same xml snippet.

 > Or is the problem that it is difficult to fit this into a RDBMS 
 > context; that because of *that* there can only be one note?
 > 

It's the other way round: fitting it into a RDBMS context does not
require to keep the notes together at the XML level. As long as the
notes share a common title, common keywords, or link to the same
objects in the database, they will pop up side by side when running an
appropriate query. Consider these examples:

User 1 adds this:

<xnote user="user1">
   <title>Some Topic</title>
   <note>This is the User1 opinion.</note>
   <keyword>something</keyword>
   <keyword>whatever</keyword>
   <link type="reference" target="Miller1999">
<xnote>


and user 2 adds this, without even knowing that User1 is working on
the same topic:

<xnote user="user2">
   <title>Some Topic</title>
   <note user="user2">This is the User2 opinion.</note>
   <keyword>something</keyword>
   <keyword>nothing</keyword>
   <link type="reference" target="Miller1999">
<xnote>

If you now run a query that returns the reference "Miller1999", both
notes will be attached to the result. If you search for notes
containing the keyword "something", you'll also get back both
notes. Please note that it is possible for both users to use
different but overlapping sets of keywords.

regards,
Markus

-- 
Markus Hoenicka
mar...@ca...
(Spam-protected email: replace the quadrupeds with "mhoenicka")
http://www.mhoenicka.de