XML Matchers: approaches and challenges

Schema Matching, i.e. the process of discovering semantic correspondences between concepts adopted in different data source schemas, has been a key topic in Database and Artificial Intelligence research areas for many years. In the past, it was largely investigated especially for classical database models (e.g., E/R schemas, relational databases, etc.). However, in the latest years, the widespread adoption of XML in the most disparate application fields pushed a growing number of researchers to design XML-specific Schema Matching approaches, called XML Matchers, aiming at finding semantic matchings between concepts defined in DTDs and XSDs. XML Matchers do not just take well-known techniques originally designed for other data models and apply them on DTDs/XSDs, but they exploit specific XML features (e.g., the hierarchical structure of a DTD/XSD) to improve the performance of the Schema Matching process. The design of XML Matchers is currently a well-established research area. The main goal of this paper is to provide a detailed description and classification of XML Matchers. We first describe to what extent the specificities of DTDs/XSDs impact on the Schema Matching task. Then we introduce a template, called XML Matcher Template, that describes the main components of an XML Matcher, their role and behavior. We illustrate how each of these components has been implemented in some popular XML Matchers. We consider our XML Matcher Template as the baseline for objectively comparing approaches that, at first glance, might appear as unrelated. The introduction of this template can be useful in the design of future XML Matchers. Finally, we analyze commercial tools implementing XML Matchers and introduce two challenging issues strictly related to this topic, namely XML source clustering and uncertainty management in XML Matchers.Comment: 34 pages, 8 tables, 7 figure

XML Schema Clustering with Semantic and Hierarchical Similarity Measures

With the growing popularity of XML as the data representation language, collections of the XML data are exploded in numbers. The methods are required to manage and discover the useful information from them for the improved document handling. We present a schema clustering process by organising the heterogeneous XML schemas into various groups. The methodology considers not only the linguistic and the context of the elements but also the hierarchical structural similarity. We support our findings with experiments and analysis

A Progressive Clustering Algorithm to Group the XML Data by Structural and Semantic Similarity

Since the emergence in the popularity of XML for data representation and exchange over the Web, the distribution of XML documents has rapidly increased. It has become a challenge for researchers to turn these documents into a more useful information utility. In this paper, we introduce a novel clustering algorithm PCXSS that keeps the heterogeneous XML documents into various groups according to their similar structural and semantic representations. We develop a global criterion function CPSim that progressively measures the similarity between a XML document and existing clusters, ignoring the need to compute the similarity between two individual documents. The experimental analysis shows the method to be fast and accurate

Novel Method for Measuring Structure and Semantic Similarity of XML Documents Based on Extended Adjacency Matrix

AbstractSimilarity measurement of XML documents is crucial to meet various needs of approximate searches and document classifications in XML-oriented applications. Some methods have been proposed for this purpose. Nevertheless, few methods can be elegantly exploited to depict structure and semantic information and hence to effectively measure the similarity of XML documents. In this paper, we present a new method of computing the structure and semantic similarity of XML documents based on extended adjacency matrix(EAM). Different from a general adjacency matrix, in an EAM, the structure information of not only the adjacent layers but also the ancestor-descendant layers can be stored. For measuring the similarity of two XML documents, the proposed method firstly stores the structure and semantic information in two extended adjacency matrices(M1, M2). Then it computes similarity of the two documents through cos(M1, M2) Experimental results on bench-mark data show that the method holds high efficiency and accuracy

Similarity of XML Data

Currently, XML is still more and more important format for storing and exchanging data. Evaluation of similarity of XML data plays a crucial role in efficient storing, processing and manipulating data. This work deals with possibility to evaluate similarity of DTDs. Firstly, suitable DTD tree representation is designed. Next, the algorithm based on tree edit distance technique is proposed. Finally, we are focusing on various aspects of similarity, such as, e.g., structural and linguistic information, and integrate them into our method.Jazyk XML se v dnešní době stává stále důležitějším formátem pro uchování a výměnu dat. Provnání podobnosti XML dat hraje zásadní roli v efektivním ukládání, zpracovávání a manipulaci s daty. Tato práce se zabývá možnostmi jak zjišťovat podobnost mezi DTD. Napřed je navržena vhodná reprezentace DTD stromů. Následně je navržen také algoritmus, který je založený na editační vzdálenosti stromů. Nakonec se zaměřujeme na různé aspekty podobnosti, jako jsou například strukturální a lingvistické informace, a snažíme se je zahrnout do naší metody.Department of Software EngineeringKatedra softwarového inženýrstvíFaculty of Mathematics and PhysicsMatematicko-fyzikální fakult

XML documents clustering using a tensor space model

The traditional Vector Space Model (VSM) is not able to represent both the structure and the content of XML documents. This paper introduces a novel method of representing XML documents in a Tensor Space Model (TSM) and then utilizing it for clustering. Empirical analysis shows that the proposed method is scalable for large-sized datasets; as well, the factorized matrices produced from the proposed method help to improve the quality of clusters through the enriched document representation of both structure and content information

Redocumentation through design pattern recovery:: an investigation and an implementation

In this thesis, two methods are developed in an aid to help users capture valuable design information and knowledge and reuse them. They are the design pattern recovery (DPR) method and pattern-based redocumentation (PBR) method. The DPR method is for matching up metrics of patterns with patterns themselves in order to capture valuable design information. Patterns are used as a container for storing the information. Two new metrics, i.e., p-value and s-value are introduced. They are obtained by analysing product metrics statistically. Once patterns have been detected from a system, the system can be redocumented using these patterns. Some existing XML (extensible Markup Language) technologies are utilised in order to realise the PRB method. Next, a case study is carried out to validate the soundness and usefulness of the DPR method. Finally, some conclusions drawn from this research are summarised, and further work is suggested for the researchers in software engineering