Transforming Data Models with UML

This chapter studies an approach to establish a formal connection between data models, in particular between conceptual data models and implementation data models. We use metamodeling techniques based on the Meta Object Facility MOF. MOF may be regarded as a subset of the Unified Modeling Language UML. As prominent example data models, we formally describe and thereby analyze the EntityRelationship and the Relational data model. In addition, we represent the transformation between these data models by MOF language features. Thus we describe the data models and their transformation within a single framework. All results are formally represented and validated by a MOF compliant tool. The approach presented is general enough so that it can used for other data models being important for the Semantic Web, e.g., the object-oriented data model or semi-structured data models like XML-based models.