Methods and systems for analyzing XML documents

• US 20060161559A1
• Filed: 01/18/2005
• Published: 07/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lang, Christian A., Bordawekar, Rajesh R.
• Application Number:
  US11/037,617
• Publication Number:
  US 20060161559A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]

Abstract

Methods and systems for analyzing XML documents. The system scans an XML document, identifies different dimensions that span the XML document and detects scoping relationships amongst them. The system uses the dimensional information to create a logical hierarchical scoped dimension analysis model, maps the logical XML tree to this model, and then implements the analytical method over the logical model. The logical model allows both structural features and numeric/non-numeric data to be used for analysis. The analytical method allows users to query irregular structural properties of the XML documents using the XPath navigational API.

Claims

1. A system for analyzing XML documents, the system comprising:

an arrangement for parsing an XML document by node;

an arrangement for initializing the parsed node;

an arrangement for storing values associated with the parsed node; and

an arrangement for analyzing the parsed document.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the arrangement for initializing the parsed node comprises:

an arrangement for creating a tree node for the parsed node;

an arrangement for extracting dimensional information;

an arrangement for linking to at least one child node if the parsed node is a parent; and

an arrangement for establishing the parsed node as the root of a tree when the parsed node is not a parent.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the arrangement for extracting dimensional information comprises:

an arrangement for recording path information associated with the parsed node;

an arrangement for identifying at least one dimension associated with the path of each node.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the path information recorded by said recording arrrangement comprises at least one of:

hierarchy information and tag information.

5. The system according to claim 3, wherein said identifying arrangement comprises:

an arrangement for assigning at least one root dimension when the parsed node does not have a parent node;

an arrangement for assigning at least one scoped dimension when the parsed node has a parent node.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein said arrangement for assigning a scoped dimension comprises:

an arrangement for identifying unique tags amongst nodes with a common parent; and

an arrangement for assigning unique tags as dimensions scoped within the dimension of the parent node.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein said arrangement for storing values associated with the parsed node comprises:

an arrangement for storing at least one scoped dimension in an auxiliary data structure;

an arrangement for taking values associated with the parsed node and associating such values with a dimensional hierarchy generated by ancestors of the parsed node;

an arrangement for storing such values in the auxiliary data structure.

8. A method of analyzing XML documents, said method comprising the steps of:

parsing an XML document by node;

initializing the parsed node;

storing values associated with the parsed node; and

analyzing the parsed document.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein said step of initializing the parsed node comprises:

creating a tree node for the parsed node;

extracting dimensional information;

linking to at least one child node if the parsed node is a parent; and

establishing the parsed node as the root of a tree when the parsed node is not a parent.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein step of extracting dimensional information comprises:

recording path information associated with the parsed node;

identifying at least one dimension associated with the path of each node.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the path information recorded by said recording arrrangement comprises at least one of:

hierarchy information and tag information.

12. The system according to claim 10, wherein said identifying step comprises:

assigning at least one root dimension when the parsed node does not have a parent node;

assigning at least one scoped dimension when the parsed node has a parent node.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein said step of assigning a scoped dimension comprises:

identifying unique tags amongst nodes with a common parent; and

assigning unique tags as dimensions scoped within the dimension of the parent node.

14. The system according to claim 8, wherein said step of storing values associated with the parsed node comprises:

storing at least one scoped dimension in an auxiliary data structure;

taking values associated with the parsed node and associating such values with a dimensional hierarchy generated by ancestors of the parsed node; and

storing such values in the auxiliary data structure.

15. The method according to claim 8, wherein:

said step of storing values comprises creating and populating an auxiliary data structure per document;

said analyzing step comprises analyzing each document using an unstructured user query over the auxiliary data structure.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein said step of analyzing each document comprises at least one of:

selecting portions of a document according to the scoped dimensions and projecting the remaining document as a tree;

selecting portions of a document according to values of its properties and projecting the remaining document as a tree; and

performing future trend analysis to study the effect of structural changes.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein said step of creating and populating the auxiliary data structure comprises the steps of:

identifying scoped dimensions;

storing the scoped dimensions together with the node values in the auxiliary data structure.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein said analyzing step comprises:

identifying nodes in the XML document using tree-patterns extracted from the user query;

filtering the identified nodes based on the auxiliary data structure; and

executing the unstructured user query on the filtered nodes.

19. The method according to claim 9, wherein said filtering step comprises at least one of:

employing node context information; and

using the auxiliary data structure to obtain node context information related to the user-specified scoped dimensions.

20. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executed by the machine to perform method steps for analyzing XML documents, said method comprising the steps of:

parsing an XML document per node;

initializing the parsed node;

storing values associated with the parsed node; and

analyzing the parsed document.