As a PL/SQL developer, when trolling the web, I repeatedly come across people referring to dbms_xmldom usage for XML manipulation as "an old fashioned approach" and recommending that SQL statements be used in preference.
While I understand that in many contexts SQL may be the "better" choice, I simply don't get these blanket "dbms_xmldom is bad; SQL is good" statements as:
- DOM is very much not legacy as a concept. As a simple example, every browser I am aware of has DOM at its core, and this shows no signs I can see of changing.
- As a general principle,it would seem sensible to minimise switches between the PL/SQL and SQL engines
- Relating to 2 above: In my experience, in fairly complex XML document manipulation, replacing the SQL component with dbms_xmldom calls has significantly improved performance of the process.
However, I fully recognise that I may be "missing something" and I would like to make sure that:
- dbms_xml dom is not a "legacy" technology that Oracle intends phasing out or not evolving (which would surprise me tremendously)
- There is not some other reason I am unaware of that makes it "bad practise" in the Oracle world to use dbms_xmldom.
I am therefore inviting commentary from all you experts out there to enlighten me (and anyone else who may feel the same way as I do)!
thanks