Is this a GOOD use of XML?

[Heath Lilley]

Hello all,
The Problem...
I am creating an application that is going to generate customer readable literature from a database. This in formation needs to be somewhat customized to the customer based on some sort of project that we have/are going to do for them.
The deal is i have several items/materials that will be used on the project and depending on the items there uses will change. And i need to develop a way to interchange the usage description text for a given item based on the type of the item....
An Example...
I have 2 types of paint (acrylic and latex)
Latex is used in 3 coats, indoor surfaces only.
Acrylic is used in 4 coats outdoor surfaces only.
I need to out put...
#acrylic#
The Acrilic Green paint will be applied in 4 coats for every external surface.
#latex#
The Latex Green paint will be applied in 3 coats for every internal surface.

A Proposed solution...
So I was thinking of storing the display text as a field for this material in a DB table as something like the following...
(this is only formatted for clarity)

<plain-text>The paint will be applied in </plain-text>
<usage>
<coat-rule>
<rule-condition>project.material.type == "acrylic"</rule-condition>
<rule-text>4</rule-text>
<rule-condition>project.material.type == "latex"</rule-condition>
<rule-text>3</rule-text>
</coat-rule>
</usage>
<plain-text> coates for every </plain-text>
<usage>
<surface-rule>
<rule-condition>project.material.type == "acrylic"</rule-condition>
<rule-text>"external</rule-text>
<rule-condition>project.material.type == "latex"<rule-condition>
<rule-text>"internal"</rule-text>
</surface-rule>
</usage>
<plain-text> surface.</plain-text>

I could then write a parser to read through the above string and parse out what I need based on the rules i have in place.
The Question...
Is this a valid use of XML? I am pretty sure I could do it this way but is it a "good" solution. I guess I am looking for other examples or "cook books" for this kind of problem.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Heath
[ April 22, 2003: Message edited by: Heath Lilley ]