Interoperability in Information

Schemas

Ruben MendesOrientador: Prof. José Borbinha

MEIC-Tagus Instituto Superior Técnico

Introduction• Information Systems

– Complex and heterogeneous Environment– Many inter-related applications– Exchange and Store Information

• XML – Human Readable Text Representation of Information– Dominant Standart used to Transmit and Store Information

• XML Schemas Languages– Define the Structure of an XML Document

• XSLT– Used to Transform XML Documents– Rule-Based Language

The Problem - Motivation• XSLT language is too much procedural for a transformation language

– Reducing the potential of being used in other scenarios.– Human experts have to generate complex transformations written in

XSLT that specify the relationship between schemas

• How can we better represent the mappings in order to retrieve the valuable information in one XSLT?

• How can that information be analyzed and manipulated?

• What value can that information generate?

The Problem - Motivation

• ANSWER: Create a Conceptual Representation from an XML transformation coded in XSLT.

– Written in a declarative language with higher level of abstraction– Separates the design of the relationship between schemas from its

implementation– Allows mappings to be manipulated and analyzed on a more objective level

The Problem - Perspectives

• Those conceptual representations can be analyzed and may be used for:

– Creating visual mapping representations suitable for human analysis– Compare two different transformations– Debugging XSLT transformations– Expand or update the definition of a XML schema– Updating an XSLT – Convert to other legacy transformation languages(eg. SQL, Xquery)

Related Work

• XML Transformation Languages– XSLT Alternatives( eg. Xquery, Xstream, Higher-Level TL)

• Ontology Matching– Specifies the mapping between two different ontologies– Ontology Mapping Languages(SWRL, OWL)– Frameworks (eg. MAFRA,Coma++)– Semantic Bridges

• encapsulate all the necessary information to transform the instances from a source ontology to a target ontology

Related Work

• XSLT Static Analysis– XSL Processors Improvements– Searching for Input and Output nodes– Extracting Node Dependencies

• Schema Mapping Between XML Documents– Semi-Automated Mapping Frameworks (eg. Clio, Clip)– Validation of Mappings

Proposed Solution - Requirements• Repox Framework

– Data Aggregation and Interoperability Manager

• XMAP– Mapping Language used by REPOX Framework– Declarative Language with XML syntax– Uses Semantic Bridges to describe the relations between two schemas

REPOX

<xmap:mapping-model xmlns:xmap="&xmap;" xmlns:s1="&s1;" xmlns:s2="&s2;" id="http://localhost/test/map3"> <xmap:sourceSchema id="&s1;"/> <xmap:targetSchema id="&s2;"/>  <xmap:mapping source="s1:author" target="s2:author"> <xmap:mapping source="s1:firstName/s1:value" target="s2:name"/> <xmap:mapping source="s1:lastName/s1:value" target="s2:name"/> </xmap:mapping></xmap:mapping-model> XMAP Language Syntax Example

Proposed Solution - Architecture

Work Plan

Risks• There will exist XSLT mappings rules that will be very hard to

convert– Some rules may need user interaction/feedback.

• Pareto 80-20 Principle– Implementing 80% of the solution costs 20% of time– Implementing the remain 20% may cost more than 80% of the time.

Thank You For Your Attention

Questions?