Abstract:

The advent of XML as a universal exchange format and of Web
services as a basis for distributed computing, has fostered the
emergence of a new class of documents that we call Active XML
documents (AXML in short). These are XML documents where some of
the data is given explicitly while other parts are given only
intentionally by means of embedded calls to web services, that can
be called to generate the required information. We argue that AXML
provides powerful means for the modeling and integration of
distributed dynamic Web data. AXML can capture various integration
scenarios including peer-to-peer data mediation and warehousing,
while providing support for new features of Web services such as
subscription, service directories, and controlling data changes.
Moreover, by allowing service call parameters and responses to
contain calls to other services, AXML enables distributed
computation over the web. We overview in this talk the AXML
project, considering the new possibilities that Active XML brings
to Web data management and the fundamental challenges it raises.