Crunching XML files with MariaDB

In January I wrote my first post about node.js and MariaDB . In February I continued with a second post about using jQuery and some GIS calculations. Now it is time for the third and this time the main focus is not so much on GIS functionality, but instead on the capabilities MariaDB has for handling piles of unstructured data. In this case I’ll be focusing on crunching a pile of XML files without importing the XML data itself.

MariaDB 10.0, which had its GA launch in early April, includes the Connect engine. …

jQuery and GIS distance in MariaDB

I’ve continued building on my MariaDB GIS and node.js example application that I wrote about two weeks back, https://blog.mariadb.org/node-js-mariadb-and-gis/. The application shows how to load GPX information into MariaDB, using some MariaDB GIS functionality, and making use of the node.js platform together with MariaDB’s non-blocking client.

With the GPX data converted into GIS points in the MariaDB database, I wanted to further expand a little on both the GIS aspect and also look at how some additional data could be shown in the application by using jQuery’s Ajax calls to update a piece of the web based application UI.

Node.js, MariaDB and GIS

The availability of the node.js binding for MariaDB’s non-blocking client library together with the GIS capabilities of MariaDB inspired me to make an example of using node.js and MariaDB to import so-called GPX tracks to a MariaDB database and then show them on a map. GPX tracks are what are stored by many GPS devices including running watches and smartphones.

My project makes use of MariaDB’s non-blocking client library together with the node.js platform and on top of that uses the GIS functionality found in MariaDB 5.5 and 10.0.

To start with let’s go through the software and components I’m using:

  • Node.js – The popular Node.js platform built on Chrome’s JavaScript runtime.