XML Matchers: Approaches and challenges
XML Matchers: Approaches and challenges
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.knosys.2014.04.044
复制
发表时间：
2014-07
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
S. Agreste;P. D. Meo;Emilio Ferrara;D. Ursino
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
S. Agreste;P. D. Meo;Emilio Ferrara;D. Ursino
模式匹配（SchemaMatching），即发现不同数据源模式中概念之间的语义对应关系的过程，多年来一直是数据库和人工智能研究领域的一个重要课题。在过去，它主要是针对经典数据库模型（例如，E/R模式、关系数据库等）。然而，近年来，XML在大多数不同的应用领域的广泛采用促使越来越多的研究人员设计特定于XML的模式匹配方法，称为XML Matchers，旨在发现DTD和XSD中定义的概念之间的语义匹配。XML匹配器不仅采用最初为其他数据模型设计的众所周知的技术并将其应用于DTD/XSD，而且还利用特定的XML特性（例如，DTD/XSD的层次结构）来提高模式匹配过程的性能。XML匹配器的设计是目前一个成熟的研究领域。本文的主要目标是提供一个详细的描述和分类的XML匹配器。我们首先描述DTD/XSD的特性在多大程度上影响了模式匹配任务。然后，我们介绍一个模板，称为XML Matcher Template，它描述了XML Matcher的主要组件，以及它们的角色和行为。我们说明了这些组件是如何在一些流行的XML匹配器中实现的。我们将XML Matcher模板视为客观比较方法的基准，这些方法乍看上去可能是不相关的。这个模板的引入在未来的XML匹配器的设计中会很有用。最后，我们分析了实现XML匹配器的商业工具，并介绍了与此主题密切相关的两个具有挑战性的问题，即XML源聚类和XML匹配器中的不确定性管理。
Schema Matching, i.e. the process of discovering semantic correspondences between concepts adopted in different data source schemas, has been a key topic in Database and Artificial Intelligence research areas for many years. In the past, it was largely investigated especially for classical database models (e.g., E/R schemas, relational databases, etc.). However, in the latest years, the widespread adoption of XML in the most disparate application fields pushed a growing number of researchers to design XML-specific Schema Matching approaches, called XML Matchers, aiming at finding semantic matchings between concepts defined in DTDs and XSDs. XML Matchers do not just take well-known techniques originally designed for other data models and apply them on DTDs/XSDs, but they exploit specific XML features (e.g., the hierarchical structure of a DTD/XSD) to improve the performance of the Schema Matching process. The design of XML Matchers is currently a well-established research area. The main goal of this paper is to provide a detailed description and classification of XML Matchers. We first describe to what extent the specificities of DTDs/XSDs impact on the Schema Matching task. Then we introduce a template, calledXML Matcher Template, that describes the main components of an XML Matcher, their role and behavior. We illustrate how each of these components has been implemented in some popular XML Matchers. We consider our XML Matcher Template as the baseline for objectively comparing approaches that, at first glance, might appear as unrelated. The introduction of this template can be useful in the design of future XML Matchers. Finally, we analyze commercial tools implementing XML Matchers and introduce two challenging issues strictly related to this topic, namely XML source clustering and uncertainty management in XML Matchers.