Automata-based Static Analysis of XML Document Adaptation

TL;DR

This paper introduces an automata-based static analysis method for validating XML document adaptations through type inference of update sequences, aiding schema evolution and document exchange.

Contribution

It presents a novel automata-based approach that infers document update types from schemas and update rules, improving validation of schema adaptations.

Findings

Automata-based inference accurately determines document update types.

Type inclusion checks ensure conformance to target schemas.

Method supports efficient validation during schema evolution.

Abstract

The structure of an XML document can be optionally specified by means of XML Schema, thus enabling the exploitation of structural information for efficient document handling. Upon schema evolution, or when exchanging documents among different collections exploiting related but not identical schemas, the need may arise of adapting a document, known to be valid for a given schema S, to a target schema S'. The adaptation may require knowledge of the element semantics and cannot always be automatically derived. In this paper, we present an automata-based method for the static analysis of user-defined XML document adaptations, expressed as sequences of XQuery Update update primitives. The key feature of the method is the use of an automatic inference method for extracting the type, expressed as a Hedge Automaton, of a sequence of document updates. The type is computed starting from the original schema S and from rewriting rules that formally define the operational semantics of a sequence of document updates. Type inclusion can then be used as conformance test w.r.t. the type extracted from the target schema S'.