I'm rather new to this, so it's possible that i'm thinking wrongly...
Anyhow, I'd like to add one more point to this idea :
When we say that the hotel is making it's data available as XML on the
web, what it will actually be doing is translating the data in it's
hotel
management database into XML, almost certainly through some Database-XML
interface. This will have to be done at very frequent intervals, in
both directions, in order to show the latest status of , say, bookings.
But doing this requires a standardised mechanism to delineate
the XML elements as tables/columns/keys/other entities according to
their
DBMS. I feel that this mechanism (say, having an attribute listing this
'level' ) should be worked out so as to facilitate web search engines as
well.
XML-Data gives the basic features in this respect, by allowing
keys, etc. This could be built upon.
Any such XML should also be readable by other similar programs
(say by the software used by a travel agent who adds this into his own
database) besides casual browsers.
Does this sound reasonable?
Sudarshan Purohit 18th feb 98
PSPL,Pune, India 1010hrs.