Hi Jay,

You are asking for advice, so here is mine :

Working with BaseX, you shall get rid of any entity/relationship model (or stick to java JPA plumbing), and focus on the documents or the messages your application will exchange.

Each document might be identified - either by path and/or an unique attribute or element, for cross references (maybe with xml:base attribute ?).

At first glance, one could think of the following document types :

- Artist or Band (auto referencing Artists)

- Album (including Songs)

- Tour

As I write, I just realize that your question could be all about the distinction between aggregation and reference relations in the object world (just think of the Eiffel expanded keyword).

Good designing !

Best regards,

Fabrice ETANCHAUD

SPI Informatique

De : basex-talk-bounces@mailman.uni-konstanz.de [mailto:basex-talk-bounces@mailman.uni-konstanz.de] De la part de Jay Straw
Envoyé : mercredi 29 mars 2017 03:16
À : basex-talk@mailman.uni-konstanz.de
Objet : [basex-talk] Performance: associating one with many, or many with one?

Hi List!

I'm building an application in base-x that's sort of like a local music wiki: bands, members, venues, promoters, and albums and songs are some of what I'm representing in XML.

And what I'm wondering is that, in a situation where there's one of something (a musician), and a bunch of something else they're associated with (song writting or performance credits), which node should get the reference?

The numerous node gets the reference back to the one:

    <album name="We Might Rock You" by="The Quesadillas">

        <track number="1" name="Hot Cross Buns" written-by="Joe Schmoe" />
        <track number="2" name="Bicycle" written-by="Joe Schmoe" />

    </album>

    [ etc ]

Or the one refers to the many:

    <person name="Joe Schmoe">

        <songs-written>

            <song name="Hot Cross Buns" />

            <song name="Bicycle" />

        </songs-written>

    </person>

Example 1, I could use something like:

    track[@written-by="Joe Schmoe"]

Example 2:

    person[@name="Joe Schmoe"]/songs-written/song

My other thought was putting the references in both, but I'll have to do this with many types of objects I'm representing and I don't want things to get out of control (then again, if I go to export an <album/> or <band/> and I'm using the second method, I'll have to do a join)

I have a feeling in a large set, the second way wins out. Even where I live, with only around 750,000 people in our entire state (Alaska), we have easily 100 - 200 acts, including bands, solo performers, traditional acts, etc, with thousands of individuals that compose them. But I want bands that are extinct, bands that are on hiatus, etc, and I hope my software is useful to others in larger cities as well.

So, maybe a pointless question because my db will be so tiny compared to some folks who post on here, but just curious :-)

Also, if this problem has a name I can research myself, that'd be great!

Be well,

Jay Straw