Two-Way Mapping between Object-Oriented Databases and XML

This paper presents a novel approach for mapping an existing object-oriented database into XML and vice versa. The major motivation to carry out this study is the fact that it is necessary to facilitate platform independent exchange of the content of object oriented databases and the need to store XML in a structured database. There are more common features between the object-oriented model and XML and thus the the two-way mapping from object-oriented databases into XML (and vice versa) should be less problematic. To achieve the mapping, what we call the object graph is derived based on characteristics of the schema to be mapped. For object-oriented schema, the object graph simply summarizes and includes all nesting and inheritance links, which are the basics of the object-oriented model. Then, the inheritance is simulated in terms of nesting to get a simulated object graph. This way, everything in a simulated object graph is directly representable in XML format. Finally, we handle the mapping of the actual data from the object-oriented database into corresponding XML document(s). On the other hand, the common features between the object-oriented model and XML make it is more attractive to map from XML into object-oriented database; such mapping preserves database specifics. To achieve the mapping, the object graph is derived based on characteristics of the XML schema; it simply summarizes and includes all complex and simple elements and the links, which are the basics of the XML schema. Then, the links are simulated in terms of nesting to get a simulated object graph. This way, everything in a simulated object graph is directly representable in object-oriented database. Finally, we handle the mapping of the actual data from XML document(s) into the corresponding object-oriented database.