Access to heterogeneous data sources - XML

Hello, everyone:

We have a Oracle 3 tier application (using Oracle iAs to a back-end Oracle database on an Tru64 UNIX server) which also incorporates custom written analysis and mapping tools for fisheries-related data.

There is interest in broadening the scope of this application to also gather data from other data sources. The problem is that the other data sources are not Oracle databases (some are MS-SQL Server, others are MS-Access databases). Moving data to an Oracle format is not a possibility, as some of these data sources are out of our organization's control. To complicate matters even further, some of the data sources are not local (ie. in remote locations in either internal or external networks from one end of the country to another).

Is XML a possibility for this? What XML functionality is available through Oracle, MS-SQL server? How would I do this using XML?

Regards,
Andrea Received on Mon Mar 08 2004 - 08:37:46 CST