XML storage in 8i - HELP!

[JMac]

Management have asked me for opinions on a proposed solution they're looking at. We currently runs applications built in VB using 8i.
We are tendering for a new system and the cheapest bid so far is for a confusing XML based application that - get this! - stores the data in flat text files as XML. I presume they mean as text documents/files full of XML tags - like an HTML source code file. (!!!).
As XML is hierarchical in form it can be handled by 8i's object type storage facilities? Correct?
Has anyone used, or know of, a successful application using 8i that stores 'normal' and XML data? Any ideas or opinions?

How can I best scare management away from the idea of storing the data in flat text XML format - and not in a relational database (8i)? It's a very cheap bid and if they get sold on the idea then guess who's going to have to make it work?

Help!

_________________________

John

[sudip]

Hi!
Tell them about the security features in Oracle. Tell them all the good things about an RDBMS. Tel them about the benefits of storing everthing in a centralised space. Tell them about online data retrieval requiremnts and any adhoc changes with a database can only handle.

[denevge]

If management still wants to go ahead with the cheap solution,

You could propose iFS to store the files instead of a regular file system.

Regards
Gert

[amar]

You can store XML docs in CLOB datatypes.
Processing thru JDBC/PLSQL is available.

-amar