In the last few years, we have witnessed a rapid growth in distributed database processing. We consider the question of data integration: how we can integrate distributed schemas into a new one and query just that new schema without losing the ability to retrieve data from the original schemas. The area in which we try to answer that question is federated databases, where the original heterogen...

A broad variety of data is available in distinct heterogeneous sources, stored under different formats: database formats (in relational and object-oriented models), document formats (SGML/XML), browser formats (HTML), message formats, etc. The integration of such data is increasingly important for modern information systems applications such as data warehousing, data mining, and web application...

Research on schema integration leads to the identification of many different conflict types. Some of them received much attention and many papers proposed solutions for their resolution. However, literature usually focuses on traditional problems, whilst new kinds of schema discrepancies, due to the object orientation or the generalization concept, are not really treated. Moreover, most of the ...

Schema matching is a basic problem nowadays in many application areas, such as data integration, data warehouse and e-business. In this paper, we propose a generic schema matching method called GSM (Generic Schema Matching) and its optimizing approaches. GSM provides an extensible library of match algorithms to support multi-strategy matching approach. It also uses a mapping knowledge base to l...

Integration of data is required when accessing multiple databases within an organization or on the WWW. Schema integration is required for database interoperability, but it is currently, a manual process. The so-called Global-as-View approach constitutes an effective proposal for the design of data integration systems. The combination of diverse database schemata into an integrated view is achi...

Data integration is the flexible and managed federation, analysis, and processing of data from different distributed sources. Data integration is a key issue for exploiting the availability of large, heterogeneous, distributed and highly dynamic data volumes on Grids. This paper presents a framework for integrating heterogeneous XML data sources distributed among the nodes of a Grid. We present...

We focus on the problem of semi-automated query discovery for XML views without requiring the intervention of an expert to guarantee a correct final result. Given multiple independent sources of heterogeneous XML data structures, our tool, SPHINX, lets a nontechnical user define views using example -based, graphical, interaction. SPHINX embodies a syntactically derived meta-model of federating ...

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The process of integrating the schemas of several databases into an integrated schema is not easy, due to semantic heterogeneities. We present a method to detect class similarities by following a strategy and applying comparison criteria, that exploits the semantically rich structures of the schemas (previously enriched), along both the generalization/specialization and the aggregation dimensio...