Title: Managing changes to XML schema design styles in a temporal and multi-version XML environment

Authors: Zouhaier Brahmia; Fabio Grandi; Rafik Bouaziz

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Sfax, Road of the Aerodrome, Km 4.5, P.O. Box 1088, 3018 Sfax, Tunisia ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Bologna, Viale Risorgimento, 2, I-40136 Bologna BO, Italy ' Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Sfax, Road of the Aerodrome, Km 4.5, P.O. Box 1088, 3018 Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract: In temporal and multi-version XML environments, several research works have focused on changes to traditional aspects of XML schemas like element/attribute declarations and simple/complex type definitions. However, advanced aspects of XML schemas have been either considered only to a limited extent, like XML namespaces or not studied at all, like XML schema design styles. In this paper, we deal with this last aspect and propose, in the temporal and multi-version τXSchema (temporal XML schema) framework, an approach for: 1) easily specifying changes to the design styles of an XML schema through the use of a high-level schema change operation based on our previously proposed StyleVolution approach; 2) correctly propagating the possible effects to the underlying XML document instances through the transparent management of the schema and document versions; 3) dealing with the interaction between design styles and conventional schema changes, by means of a semi-automated conflict resolution.

Keywords: XML database; XML schema; XML schema design style; design style conversion; temporal XML; τXSchema; schema change; change propagation; schema versioning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWET.2020.114028

International Journal of Web Engineering and Technology, 2020 Vol.15 No.4, pp.351 - 382

Published online: 06 Apr 2021 *

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