Value Reconciliation in Mediators of Heterogeneous Information Collections Applying Well-Structured Context Specifications

Method for value reconciliation in Local as Views (LAV) mediators of heterogeneous information collections applying well-structured specifications is presented. This approach extends a procedure for heterogeneous information sources registration at subject mediators with LAV organization. Conflicts in value semantics and representation in contexts of the mediator and a collection should be recognized and explicitly specified. According to the proposed method, value semantics contexts should be defined for the mediator and for a collection. In such context for each value kind a type is to be specified that includes a generic function converting values from a collection context into the mediator context (and/or back). Each type attribute having the respective value semantics is to be typed with such type definition. Such structuring of type attribute semantics definition gives significant economy in development of value conversion functions needed to reconcile values between the mediator and collection contexts.