Incorporating fuzzy information into the formal mapping from web data model to extended entity-relationship model

摘要

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) has been the de-facto standard of information representation and exchange over the Web. The mapping from XML model to conceptual databases benefits XML data integration at a high level of data abstraction. Fuzziness is inherent in the many real-world applications. Fuzzy XML model has been developed for managing fuzzy data on the Web. This paper concentrates on formal mapping from the fuzzy XML model to the Extended Entity-Relationship (EER) model. For this purpose, the paper introduces different levels of fuzziness into EER model and presents the corresponding graphical representations, with the result that EER model can model fuzzy information. The formal mapping from the fuzzy XML model to the fuzzy EER model is then investigated. With the fuzzy XML and EER models, fuzzy information can be modeled at two kinds of data models. More important, the fuzzy XML model can be translated into the fuzzy EER model automatically. The formal mapping methods proposed in the paper are demonstrated with examples.