Is it possible to create an app to pull data from an online MySQL database? If so, please point me in the right direction. I couldn't find anything in Google really... so I'm turning to crackberry!
As far as I know RIM doesn't have any sql packages or API's pre-loaded. Your best bet is to search for a J2ME Connector/J or just use PHP and web connections.
You might want to start by putting some web services in front of the MySQL server.
There are several xml parsers available, or you can just parse the xml yourself (all depends on how big your xml file is). I would also recommend you keep the web service to a minimum on only return the data you need to minimize the network interactions.
The simplest kind of service would be to develop a REST based service in PHP which returns XML to the BB. You can then parse this XML on the BB using the SAX api (if the XML isn't too big).