Abstract:
EXtensible Markup Language (XML) has emerged as the dominant
standard in describing and exchanging data among heterogeneous data sources.
XML with its self-describing hierarchical structure and its associated XML
Schema (XSD) provides the flexibility and the manipulative power needed to
accommodate complex, disconnected, heterogeneous data. The issue of large
volume of data appearing deserves investigating XML Document Warehouses.
But due to XML's non-scalar, set-based semi-structured nature, traditional data
design models lack the ability to represent XML design level constructs in an
abstract and implementation-independent form which are crucial for designing
complex domains such as data marts and data warehouses, but also during their
operational and maintenance phase. We utilize Object Oriented (00) concepts
to develop a conceptual model for XML Document Warehouses. In this paper
we propose a conceptual design formalism to build meaningful XML Document
Warehouses (XDW). Our focus includes; (1) conceptually design and build
meaningful XML (warehouse) repository (xFACT) using 00 concepts in integration
with XML Schema constructs, (2) conceptually model and design virtual
dimensions using XML conceptual views [lOa] [lOb] to satisfy warehouse
end-user requirements and (3) use UML package diagrams to help logically
group and build hierarchical conceptual views to enhance semantics and expressiveness
of the XDW.
