Integrity constraints for XML

TLDR

Integrity constraints support semantic specification, query optimization, and data integration, but the XML DTD ID/IDREF mechanism is limited to simple references and cannot express more complex semantic constraints such as keys, inverse relationships, or object-style references. The paper investigates XML integrity constraints to enhance semantic specification and improve reference mechanisms, and examines the implication of general constraints like functional, inclusion, and inverse constraints defined via navigation paths. The authors extend DTDs with key, foreign key, inverse, and object‑identity constraints, and analyze the implication of general functional, inclusion, and inverse constraints defined by navigation paths. The proposed constraints benefit native XML and preserve semantics of relational or object data, and the authors establish complexity and axiomatization results for their finite implication problems, extending relational dependency theory on key–foreign key interactions.

Abstract

Integrity constraints are useful for semantic specification, query optimization and data integration. The ID/IDREF mechanism provided by XML DTDs relics on a simple form of constraint to describe references. Yet, this mechanism is not sufficient to express semantic constraints, such as keys or inverse relationships, or stronger, object-style references. In this paper, we investigate integrity constraints for XML, both for semantic purposes and to improve its current reference mechanism. We extend DTDs with several families of constraints, including key, foreign key, inverse constraints and constraints specifying the semantics of object identities. These constraints are useful both for native XML documents and to preserve the semantics of data originating in relational or object databases. Complexity and axiomatization results are established for the (finite) implication problems associated with these constraints. These results also extend relational dependency theory on the interaction between (primary) keys and foreign keys. In addition, we investigate implication of more general constraints, such as functional, inclusion and inverse constraints defined in terms of navigation paths.