<blockquote style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;" class="gmail_quote">I'll leave the question alone as to the value of a relational database<br>for this data over using the SWORD API.
</blockquote><div><br>Actually, I am interested in this question if you have time / desire to enlighten me. I think I can manage the chunk of code you gave me (thanks), but I have never compiled a program in my life. I have been building web applications for about 7 years with PHP, and now Ruby for the last year and a half.
<br><br>I am willing to learn the Sword API if I need to, but I can build web applications very quickly with Ruby on Rails. The rest of my data (user info, notes, user generated translations, a wiki like interface for commentary) will all be in a relational database. Would there be speed benefits from using the Sword API over the indexing provided by mysql or postgre? What about application development time? In the Rails framework, I hardly even have to write SQL, if I used the Sword API I would have to learn a bit about c++ and bindings to Ruby... I am willing, but what is the advantage?
<br><br>By the way, I have tried and use many of the Sword front ends and highly respect the work you all are doing.<br></div>