A relational database management system having an XML storage
implementation to reduce overhead associated with consuming data from
multiple data providers, where each having proprietary database schemas.
The XML storage solution allows data from any arbitrary relational
database schema to be loaded, rearranged and retrieved. The present
invention is directed to an implementation of an edge table such that
large volumes of XML data of any structure can be stored effectively. The
edge table may be designed as one large XML document where the schema
information is stored separately from the instances, and relationships
and constraints are expressed using foreign keys. The edge table further
provides for full type support and validation. Indices and clustering
provide efficient data access and query execution.