Utilizing Superclass/Subclass Relationship in Mapping XML Schema to ORDBs

XML is popularly used as the de-facto standard for exchanging data between information systems. Storage and access to such XML encoded data is needed. Many approaches have been proposed: (i.) Storing XML data in its native form (native XML databases), (ii.)Use of existing DBMSs to store XML encoded data (XML-enabled databases). ORDBs integrate the rich object-oriented modeling capabilities as well as leverage the mature relational database technologies in storing and accessing data. Therefore, use of ORDBs to store XML encoded data enables us to exploit these rich powerful features. Extracting semantics that exists in XML schema enables us to exploit rich OO modeling capabilities of ORDBs during mapping. This is especially beneficial when storing large amounts of structured XML data. In this paper, we outline techniques to identify superclass/subclass relationship in XML Schema and propose guidelines to map XML Schema to ORDB schema utilizing such semantic information.