Ensuring Query Compatibility with Evolving XML Schemas

During the life cycle of an XML application, both schemas and queries may change from one version to another. Schema evolutions may affect query results and potentially the validity of produced data. Nowadays, a challenge is to assess and accommodate the impact of theses changes in rapidly evolving XML applications. This article proposes a logical framework and tool for verifying forward/backward compatibility issues involving schemas and queries. First, it allows analyzing relations between schemas. Second, it allows XML designers to identify queries that must be reformulated in order to produce the expected results across successive schema versions. Third, it allows examining more precisely the impact of schema changes over queries, therefore facilitating their reformulation

Query reformulation with constraints

Let Σ1, Σ2 be two schemas, which may overlap, C be a set of constraints on the joint schema Σ1 ∪ Σ2, and q1 be a Σ1-query. An (equivalent) reformulation of q1 in the presence of C is a Σ2-query, q2, such that q2 gives the same answers as q1 on any Σ1 ∪ Σ2-database instance that satisfies C. In general, there may exist multiple such reformulations and choosing among them may require, for example, a cost model

Integrating XML Data Sources using RDF/S Schemas: The ICS-FORTH Semantic Web Integration Middleware (SWIM)

Semantic Web (SW) technology aims to facilitate the integration of legacy data sources spread worldwide. Despite the plethora of SW languages e.g., RDF/S, OWL recently proposed for supporting large scale information interoperation, the vast majority of legacy sources still rely on relational databases RDB published on the Web or corporate intranets as virtual XML. In this paper, we advocate a Datalog framework for mediating high level queries to relational and or XML sources using community ontologies expressed in a SW language such as RDF/S. We describe the architecture and the reasoning services of our SW integration middleware, called SWIM, and we present the main design choices and techniques for supporting powerful mappings between different data models, as well as reformulation and optimization of queries expressed against mediation schemas and views

A schema-only approach to validate XML schema mappings

Since the emergence of the Web, the ability to map XML data between different data sources has become crucial. Defining a mapping is however not a fully automatic process. The designer needs to figure out whether the mapping is what was intended. Our approach to this validation consists of defining and checking certain desirable properties of mappings. We translate the XML schemas and the mapping into first-order logic formalism and apply a reasoning mechanism to check the desirable properties automatically, without assuming any particular instantiation of the schemas.Preprin

Validation of schema mappings with nested queries

With the emergence of the Web and the wide use of XML for representing data, the ability to map not only flat relational but also nested data has become crucial. The design of schema mappings is a semi-automatic process. A human designer is needed to guide the process, choose among mapping candidates, and successively refine the mapping. The designer needs a way to figure out whether the mapping is what was intended. Our approach to mapping validation allows the designer to check whether the mapping satisfies certain desirable properties. In this paper, we focus on the validation of mappings between nested relational schemas, in which the mapping assertions are either inclusions or equalities of nested queries. We focus on the nested relational setting since most XML’s Document Type Definitions (DTDs) can be represented in this model. We perform the validation by reasoning on the schemas and mapping definition. We take into account the integrity constraints defined on both the source and target schema.Preprin

Reasoning & Querying – State of the Art

Various query languages for Web and Semantic Web data, both for practical use and as an area of research in the scientific community, have emerged in recent years. At the same time, the broad adoption of the internet where keyword search is used in many applications, e.g. search engines, has familiarized casual users with using keyword queries to retrieve information on the internet. Unlike this easy-to-use querying, traditional query languages require knowledge of the language itself as well as of the data to be queried. Keyword-based query languages for XML and RDF bridge the gap between the two, aiming at enabling simple querying of semi-structured data, which is relevant e.g. in the context of the emerging Semantic Web. This article presents an overview of the field of keyword querying for XML and RDF

Constraints for Semistructured Data and XML

Integrity constraints play a fundamental role in database design. We review initial work on the expression of integrity constraints for semistructured data and XML