XPathLog is a Datalog-like extension of XPath for querying,
manipulating and integrating XML data. The querying part extends XPath
with binding variables to XML nodes that are "traversed" when
evaluating an XPath expression. In contrast to other approaches, the
XPath syntax and semantics is also used for a declarative
specification how the database should be updated: when used in rule
heads, XPath filters are interpreted as specifications of elements and
properties which should be added to the database. Special operations
for data integration include additional cross links (subelement
relationship and attributes) between fragments of the original
database, declaring synonym relationships between notions from
different sources, and XML element fusion.
As a data manipulation and integration language, XPathLog is
originally based on a graph-based, edge-labeled model, called
XTreeGraph. The XTreeGraph extends the basic XML data model by
modeling multiple overlapping trees, and thus allows for restructuring
existing XML trees into a densely connected graph database. XML result
trees are then defined as XML tree views by projections from this
database. The LoPiX implementation follows a "warehouse approach"
where the integrated XTreeGraph is materialized.
In the present talk, a "lazy materialization" strategy is
proposed that does not materialize the complete internal database,
and that is based on the original XML tree model combined with
XLink: Data items that are not (yet) changed are integrated into the
internal database as references, represented by XLinks. The approach
uses our recent proposal for a logical, transparent data model
for XLinked data. Only if a referenced data item is actually
modified in course of the integration process, it is (partially)
loaded into the database; unchanged fragments of it still being
represented in a lazy way by XLinks.
