Reasoning about XML with temporal logics and automata

We show that problems arising in static analysis of XML specifications and transformations can be dealt with using techniques similar to those developed for static analysis of programs. Many properties of interest in the XML context are related to navigation, and can be formulated in temporal logics for trees. We choose a logic that admits a simple single-exponential translation into unranked tree automata, in the spirit of the classical LTL-to-Büchi automata translation. Automata arising from this translation have a number of additional properties; in particular, they are convenient for reasoning about unary node-selecting queries, which are important in the XML context. We give two applications of such reasoning: one deals with a classical XML problem of reasoning about navigation in the presence of schemas, and the other relates to verifying security properties of XML views

A Direct Translation from XPath to Nondeterministic Automata

Abstract. Since navigational aspects of XPath correspond to first-order definability, it has been proposed to use the analogy with the very successful technique of translating LTL into automata, and produce efficient translations of XPath queries into automata on unranked trees. These translations can then be used for a variety of reasoning tasks such as XPath consistency, or optimization, under XML schema constraints. In the verification scenarios, translations into both nondeterministic and alternating automata are used. But while a direct translation from XPath into alternating automata is known, only an indirect translation into nondeterministic automata- going via intermediate logics- exists. A direct translation is desirable as most XML specifications have particularly nice translations into nondeterministic automata and it is natural to use such automata to reason about XPath and schemas. The goal of the paper is to produce such a direct translation of XPath into nondeterministic automata.

Logics for Unranked Trees: An Overview

Labeled unranked trees are used as a model of XML documents, and logical languages for them have been studied actively over the past several years. Such logics have different purposes: some are better suited for extracting data, some for expressing navigational properties, and some make it easy to relate complex properties of trees to the existence of tree automata for those properties. Furthermore, logics differ significantly in their model-checking properties, their automata models, and their behavior on ordered and unordered trees. In this paper we present a survey of logics for unranked trees

Alternating register automata on finite words and trees

We study alternating register automata on data words and data trees in relation to logics. A data word (resp. data tree) is a word (resp. tree) whose every position carries a label from a finite alphabet and a data value from an infinite domain. We investigate one-way automata with alternating control over data words or trees, with one register for storing data and comparing them for equality. This is a continuation of the study started by Demri, Lazic and Jurdzinski. From the standpoint of register automata models, this work aims at two objectives: (1) simplifying the existent decidability proofs for the emptiness problem for alternating register automata; and (2) exhibiting decidable extensions for these models. From the logical perspective, we show that (a) in the case of data words, satisfiability of LTL with one register and quantification over data values is decidable; and (b) the satisfiability problem for the so-called forward fragment of XPath on XML documents is decidable, even in the presence of DTDs and even of key constraints. The decidability is obtained through a reduction to the automata model introduced. This fragment contains the child, descendant, next-sibling and following-sibling axes, as well as data equality and inequality tests

In the Maze of Data Languages

In data languages the positions of strings and trees carry a label from a finite alphabet and a data value from an infinite alphabet. Extensions of automata and logics over finite alphabets have been defined to recognize data languages, both in the string and tree cases. In this paper we describe and compare the complexity and expressiveness of such models to understand which ones are better candidates as regular models