TopXML : An exploration of XML in database management systems

TopXML : An exploration of XML in database management systems: "The other primary usage of XML is in a data-centric model. In a data-centric model, XML is used as a storage or interchange format for data that is structured, appears in a regular order and is most likely to be machine processed instead of read by a human. In a data-centric model, the fact that the data is stored or transferred as XML is typically incidental since it could be stored or transferred in a number of other formats which may or may not be better suited for the task depending on the data and how it is used. An example of a data-centric usage of XML is SOAP. SOAP is an XML based protocol used for exchanging information in a decentralized, distributed environment. A SOAP message consists of three parts: an envelope that defines a framework for describing what is in a message and how to process it, a set of encoding rules for expressing instances of application-defined datatypes, and a convention for representing remote procedure calls and responses."