Utilizing new capabilities of XML languages to verify integrity constraints

Abstract

In this work, we show how integrity constraints expressed using Object Constraint Language (OCL) can be verified using XML technologies - Schematron, XPath/XQuery and XSLT - and using Model Driven Architecture (MDA) principles. Some constructs typical for OCL constraints are different from the methods used in XPath/XQuery expressions. That is why for translating some OCL expressions, the standard XML toolset must be extended. We introduce such extension for the 2.0 versions of the languages, but with the new features and constructs proposed in drafts for XSLT 3.0, XPath 3.0 and XQuery 3.0, the transition from OCL is much more seamless and transparent. Higher-order functions, maps, error-recovery instructions etc. provide us with necessary power to translate a general OCL expression and we discuss in detail their potential.

Semantic Document Adaptation with OCL Annotations

“…It implements the PIM and PSM modeling languages and operations for evolution of the PIM and PSM schemas described in [1]. It provides support for OCL integrity constraints modelling on both PIM and PSM level and translation of constraints from PSM level into Schematron [10].…”

“…We extended our OCL parser for the new constructs and extended the adaptation script generator component (which outputs XSLT) with support for annotations. The translation from OCL to XPath is based on the algorithm proposed in [10], the translation of the new extensions is described in Sec. V.…”

“…We will show a solution for this problem later in Sec. V. In our previous work [10], we have shown how OCL can be used for modeling integrity constraints for XML and how OCL expressions can be translated into XPath expressions. In this paper, we will use OCL expressions to annotate mappings and use the annotations to automatically generate an adaptation script.…”

“…The expression init X can be an arbitrary OCL expression, which can contain several extension constructs -functions prev and next to traverse between the source and target schema and class literals to indicate creating new instances. In our previous work [10], we elaborated on how to translate a general OCL expression over a PSM schema into an XPath expression over an XML document valid against the schema. We will extend this algorithm to support the aforementioned extensions.…”