Within research institutions like CERN (European Organization for Nuclear
Research) there are often disparate databases (different in format, type and
structure) that users need to access in a domain-specific manner. Users may
want to access a simple unit of information without having to understand detail
of the underlying schema or they may want to access the same information from
several different sources. It is neither desirable nor feasible to require
users to have knowledge of these schemas. Instead it would be advantageous if a
user could query these sources using his or her own domain models and
abstractions of the data. This paper describes the basis of an XML (eXtended
Markup Language) framework that provides this functionality and is currently
being developed at CERN. The goal of the first prototype was to explore the
possibilities of XML for data integration and model management. It shows how
XML can be used to integrate data sources. The framework is not only applicable
to CERN data sources but other environments too.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, conference report from SCI'2001 Multiconference
on Systemics & Informatics, Florid
