Conceptual Modeling for XML Vol. 99: Dissertations in Database and Information Systems

Overview

XML is a popular format for data representation. As the amount of data represented in XML grows, it is necessary to concentrate on the process of modeling XML schemes of the XML representations. However, modeling the XML schemes on the level of XML schema languages, such as XML Schema, has some drawbacks. A natural idea to improve this situation is to model the XML schemes first on a conceptual level. It is motivated by the world of relational databases where the A01 also starts modeling the data first on a conceptual level. In this publication the focus lies on conceptual modeling for XML.
The A01 starts with a motivating example to point out to several problems that can arise when using only XML schema languages for modeling XML schemes. It is discussed how modeling the data on conceptual level can help. Also, it is shown that conceptual modeling for XML has some specifics that should be taken into account by a conceptual model for XML. Mainly, this means that it is necessary to separate the conceptual modeling process in two parts. In the main part of the publication, the A01 introduces his own conceptual model for XML called XSEM that extends the Entity-Relationship model and takes into account the specifics identified in the previous parts of the text. The book is concluded with possible applications of the proposed model and the current and future work in the area.

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