A Generic Framework for Target-Specific Transformation Operators in XML Transformation Languages

Abstract

A key issue in exchanging XML-based data is their transformation. However, available transformation languages are generally still low-level. Their low-level transformation operators do not reflect the target language concepts and terminologies. Moreover, transformation correctness is usually beyond the scope of such operators. This paper presents a generic framework which offers higher-level transformation operators. Since it allows to express the transformation operators on the specific target languages level, the developer can more easily understand, validate, and modify the transformation. Based on a given XML schema of the target XML language, the necessary level transformation definitions are generated by the framework. In addition, transformation constraints are taken into consideration; besides transformation corresponding validation components are constructed. A showcase demonstrates how to generate the required components for BPEL- specific transformation operators and how to use them in XSLT.