Easy Integration: From XML to the Datastore Without the Mess

Overview

XML has become the world's de facto data exchange format, and Ruby on Rails is a full participant in that framework. Using a combination of the XML::Mapping Ruby gem and the ActiveRecord component of Rails (without all the other heavy components), one can parse an XML document, map it to an object, manipulate the object, and persist it to an Oracle database backend with less code than one could imagine. As an added bonus, one has the full power and flexibility of the legendary ActiveRecord at one's service from the Rails stack. There are a couple of options in the Ruby world for marshalling and unmarshalling data from XML to objects and back.