Introduction to Semistructured

Data and XML

Chapter 27, Part D

Based on slides by Dan Suciu
University of Washington

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 1

How the Web is Today

™ HTML documents
• often generated by applications
• consumed by humans only
• easy access: across platforms, across organizations
™ No application interoperability:
• HTML not understood by applications
• screen scraping brittle
• Database technology: client-server
• still vendor specific

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 2

New Universal Data Exchange

Format: XML
A recommendation from the W3C
™ XML = data
™ XML generated by applications
™ XML consumed by applications
™ Easy access: across platforms, organizations

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 Paradigm Shift on the Web

™ From documents (HTML) to data (XML)

™ From information retrieval to data
management
™ For databases, also a paradigm shift:
• from relational model to semistructured data
• from data processing to data/query translation
• from storage to transport

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 4

Semistructured Data

Origins:
™ Integration of heterogeneous sources
™ Data sources with non-rigid structure
• Biological data
• Web data

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 5

The Semistructured Data Model

Bib

&o1
Object Exchange
complex object paper
paper Model (OEM)
book

references
&o12 &o24 &o29
references
references
author page
author year author
title http title publisher title
author
author
author

&o43 &25
&96
1997
last
firstname
firstname lastname first
lastname

&243 &206
“Serge”
“Abiteboul”
“Victor” 122 133
“Vianu”

atomic object
Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 6

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 Syntax for Semistructured Data
Bib: &o1 { paper: &o12 { … },
book: &o24 { … },
paper: &o29
{ author: &o52 “Abiteboul”,
author: &o96 { firstname: &243 “Victor”,
lastname: &o206 “Vianu”},
title: &o93 “Regular path queries with constraints”,
references: &o12,
references: &o24,
pages: &o25 { first: &o64 122, last: &o92 133}
}
}

Observe: Nested tuples, set-values, oids!

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 7

Syntax for Semistructured Data

May omit oids:
{ paper: { author: “Abiteboul”,
author: { firstname: “Victor”,
lastname: “Vianu”},
title: “Regular path queries …”,
page: { first: 122, last: 133 }
}
}

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 8

Characteristics of Semistructured
Data
™ Missing or additional attributes
™ Multiple attributes
™ Different types in different objects
™ Heterogeneous collections

Self-describing, irregular data, no a priori structure

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3
 Comparison with Relational Data
row row row

name phone name phone name phone name phone

John 3634 “John” 3634 “Sue” 6343 “Dick” 6363

{ row: { name: “John”, phone: 3634 },

Sue 6343 row: { name: “Sue”, phone: 6343 },
row: { name: “Dick”, phone: 6363 }
}
Dick 6363

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 10

XML

™ A W3C standard to complement HTML

™ Origins: Structured text SGML
• Large-scale electronic publishing
• Data exchange on the web
™ Motivation:
• HTML describes presentation
• XML describes content
HTML4.0 ∈ XML ⊂ SGML
™ http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006 (version 2,
10/2000)

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 11

From HTML to XML

HTML describes the presentation

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4
 HTML

<h1> Bibliography </h1>

<p> <i> Foundations of Databases </i>
Abiteboul, Hull, Vianu
<br> Addison Wesley, 1995
<p> <i> Data on the Web </i>
Abiteboul, Buneman, Suciu
<br> Morgan Kaufmann, 1999

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 13

XML
<bibliography>
<book> <title> Foundations… </title>
<author> Abiteboul </author>
<author> Hull </author>
<author> Vianu </author>
<publisher> Addison Wesley </publisher>
<year> 1995 </year>
</book>
…
</bibliography>

XML describes the content

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 14

Why are we DB’ers interested?

™ It’s data, stupid. That’s us.
™ Proof by Google:
• database+XML – 1,940,000 pages.
™ Database issues:
• How are we going to model XML? (graphs).
• How are we going to query XML? (XQuery)
• How are we going to store XML (in a relational
database? object-oriented? native?)
• How are we going to process XML efficiently?
(many interesting research questions!)

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 Document Type Descriptors

™ Sort of like a schema but not really.

<!ELEMENT Book (title, author*) >
<!ELEMENT title #PCDATA>
<!ELEMENT author (name, address,age?)>
<!ATTLIST Book id ID #REQUIRED>
<!ATTLIST Book pub IDREF #IMPLIED>

™ Inherited from SGML DTD standard

™ BNF grammar establishing constraints on element
structure and content
™ Definitions of entities
Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 16

Shortcomings of DTDs

Useful for documents, but not so good for data:

™ Element name and type are associated globally
™ No support for structural re-use
• Object-oriented-like structures aren’t supported
™ No support for data types
• Can’t do data validation
™ Can have a single key item (ID), but:
• No support for multi-attribute keys
• No support for foreign keys (references to other keys)
• No constraints on IDREFs (reference only a Section)

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 17

XML Schema

™ In XML format
™ Element names and types associated locally
™ Includes primitive data types (integers, strings, dates,
etc.)
™ Supports value-based constraints (integers > 100)
™ User-definable structured types
™ Inheritance (extension or restriction)
™ Foreign keys
™ Element-type reference constraints

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 18

6
 Sample XML Schema
<schema version=“1.0” xmlns=“http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema”>
<element name=“author” type=“string” />
<element name=“date” type = “date” />
<element name=“abstract”>
<type>
…
</type>
</element>
<element name=“paper”>
<type>
<attribute name=“keywords” type=“string”/>
<element ref=“author” minOccurs=“0” maxOccurs=“*” />
<element ref=“date” />
<element ref=“abstract” minOccurs=“0” maxOccurs=“1” />
<element ref=“body” />
</type>
</element>
</schema>

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 19

Important XML Standards

™ XSL/XSLT: presentation and transformation
standards
™ RDF: resource description framework (meta-info
such as ratings, categorizations, etc.)
™ Xpath/Xpointer/Xlink: standard for linking to
documents and elements within
™ Namespaces: for resolving name clashes
™ DOM: Document Object Model for manipulating
XML documents
™ SAX: Simple API for XML parsing
™ XQuery: query language

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 20

XML Data Model (Graph)

db
#0

book book publisher

b1
pub b2 pub
title mkp
author
title author name state
author
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7
pcdata pcdata pcdata pcdata pcdata pcdata pcdata
Complete... Chamberlin Principles... Bernstein Newcomer Morgan... CA

Issues:
• Distinguish between attributes and sub-elements?
• Should we conserve order?
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 XML Terminology

™ Tags: book, title, author, …

• start tag: <book>, end tag: </book>
™ Elements: <book>…<book>,<author>…</author>
• elements can be nested
• empty element: <red></red> (Can be abbrv. <red/>)
™ XML document: Has a single root element
™ Well-formed XML document: Has matching tags
™ Valid XML document: conforms to a schema

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 22

More XML: Attributes

<book price = “55” currency = “USD”>

<title> Foundations of Databases </title>
<author> Abiteboul </author>
…
<year> 1995 </year>
</book>

Attributes are alternative ways to represent data

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 23

More XML: Oids and References

<person id=“o555”> <name> Jane </name> </person>

<person id=“o456”> <name> Mary </name>

<children idref=“o123 o555”/>
</person>

<person id=“o123” mother=“o456”><name>John</name>

</person>

oids and references in XML are just syntax

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 24

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 XML-Query Data Model
™ Describes XML data as a tree
™ Node ::= DocNode |
ElemNode |
ValueNode |
AttrNode |
NSNode |
PINode |
CommentNode |
InfoItemNode |
RefNode
http://www.w3.org/TR/query-datamodel/2/2001
Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 25

XML-Query Data Model

Element node (simplified definition):

™ elemNode : (QNameValue,
{AttrNode },
[ ElemNode | ValueNode])
Æ ElemNode

™ QNameValue = means “a tag name”

Reads: “Give me a tag, a set of attributes, a list of

elements/values, and I will return an element”

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 26

XML Query Data Model

Example:
book1=
book1=elemNode(book,
elemNode(book,
<book
{price2,
{price2,currency3},
currency3},
<bookprice
price==“55”
“55”
currency
[title4,
[title4,
currency==“USD”>
“USD”>
author5,
author5,
<title>
<title>Foundations
Foundations……</title>
</title>
author6,
author6,
<author>
<author>Abiteboul
Abiteboul</author>
</author> author7,
author7,
<author>
<author>Hull
Hull</author>
</author> year8])
year8])
<author>
<author>Vianu
Vianu</author>
</author>
<year>
<year>1995
1995</year>
</year>
price2
price2==attrNode(…)
attrNode(…) /*/* next
next*/*/
</book> currency3
currency3==attrNode(…)
attrNode(…)
</book>
title4
title4==elemNode(title,
elemNode(title,string9)
string9)
……
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 XML Query Data Model

Attribute node:

™ attrNode : (QNameValue, ValueNode)

Æ AttrNode

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 28

XML Query Data Model

Example:

<book
<bookprice
price==“55”
“55”
price2
price2==attrNode(price,string10)
attrNode(price,string10)
currency string10
string10==valueNode(…)
valueNode(…) /*/*next
next*/*/
currency==“USD”>
“USD”>
<title> currency3
currency3==attrNode(currency,
attrNode(currency,
<title>Foundations
Foundations……</title>
</title>
<author>
string11)
string11)
<author>Abiteboul
Abiteboul</author>
</author>
<author>
string11
string11==valueNode(…)
valueNode(…)
<author>Hull
Hull</author>
</author>
<author>
<author>Vianu
Vianu</author>
</author>
<year>
<year>1995
1995</year>
</year>
</book>
</book>

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 29

XML Query Data Model

Value node:
™ ValueNode = StringValue |
BoolValue |
FloatValue …

™ stringValue : string Æ StringValue

™ boolValue : boolean Æ BoolValue
™ floatValue : float Æ FloatValue

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 30

10
 XML Query Data Model
Example:
price2
price2==attrNode(price,string10)
attrNode(price,string10)
<book
<bookprice
price==“55” string10
“55” string10==valueNode(stringValue(“55”))
valueNode(stringValue(“55”))
currency
currency==“USD”>
“USD”> currency3
currency3==attrNode(currency,
attrNode(currency,string11)
string11)
<title> string11
string11==valueNode(stringValue(“USD”))
valueNode(stringValue(“USD”))
<title>Foundations
Foundations……</title>
</title>
<author>
<author>Abiteboul
Abiteboul</author>
</author> title4
title4==elemNode(title,
elemNode(title,string9)
string9)
<author> string9
string9==
<author>Hull
Hull</author>
</author>
valueNode(stringValue(“Foundations…”))
valueNode(stringValue(“Foundations…”))
<author>
<author>Vianu
Vianu</author>
</author>
<year>
<year>1995
1995</year>
</year>
</book>
</book>

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 31

XML vs. Semistructured Data

™ Both described best by a graph
™ Both are schema-less, self-describing
™ XML is ordered, ssd is not
™ XML can mix text and elements:
<talk> Making Java easier to type and easier to type
<speaker> Phil Wadler </speaker>
</talk>
™ XML has lots of other stuff: attributes, entities,
processing instructions, comments

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