X-Global: a System for the "Almost Automatic" and Semantic Integration of XML Sources at Various Flexibility Levels

In this paper we propose X-Global, a novel, almost automatic and semantic system for integrating a set of XML sources. X-Global is parametric w.r.t. the flexibility level against which the integration task is performed; indeed, it can operate on rigid contexts, when two concepts are merged only if they have exactly the same meaning, as well as on flexible and informal situations, when two concepts are merged if they have close, even if not exactly identical, meanings. In this paper we describe the system in all details, illustrate various theoretical results as well as several experiments we have carried out for verifying its performance. Finally, we examine related literature and point out similarities and differences between X-Global and several other approaches already proposed in the past.