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Comparing XML documents with XML grammars, also known as XML document and grammar validation, is useful in various applications such as: XML document classification, document transformation, grammar evolution, XML retrieval, and the selective dissemination of information. While exact (Boolean) XML validation has been extensively investigated in the literature, the more general problem of approximate (similarity-based) XML validation, i.e., document–grammar similarity evaluation, has not yet received strong attention. In this paper, we propose an original method for measuring the structural similarity between an XML document and an XML grammar (DTD or XSD), considering their most common operators that designate constraints on the existence, repeatability and alternativeness of XML elements/attributes (e.g., ?, ∗ , MinOccurs , MaxOccurs , etc.). Our approach exploits the concept of tree edit distance, introducing a novel edit distance recurrence and dedicated algorithms to effectively compare XML documents and grammar structures, modeled as ordered labeled trees. Our method also inherently performs exact validation by imposing a maximum similarity threshold (minimum edit distance) on the returned results. We implemented a prototype and conducted several experiments on large sets of real and synthetic XML documents and grammars. Results underline our approach’s effectiveness in classifying similar documents with respect to predefined grammars, accurately detecting document and/or grammar modifications, and performing document and grammar relevance ranking. Time and space analysis were also conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: XML grammar matching has found considerable interest recently, due to the growing number of heterogeneous XML documents on the Web, and the need to integrate, search and retrieve XML documents originated from different data sources. In this study, we provide an approach for automatic XML grammar matching and comparison aiming to minimize the amount of user effort required to perform the match task. This requires (i) considering the various characteristics and constraints of XML grammars (in comparison with ‘grammar simplifying’ approaches), (ii) allowing a flexible combination of different matching criteria (in comparison with static approaches), and (iii) effectively considering the semi-structured nature of XML (in contrast with heuristic methods). To achieve this, we propose an extensible framework based on the concept of tree edit distance as an optimal technique to consider XML structure, integrating different matching criteria to capture all basic XML grammar characteristics, ranging over element semantic and syntactic similarities, cardinality and alternativeness constraints, as well as data-type correspondences and relative ordering. In addition, our framework is flexible, enabling the user to choose mapping cardinality (i.e., 1:1,1:n, n:1, n:n), in comparison with exiting static methods (usually constrained to 1:1). User constraints and feedback are equally considered in order to adjust matching results to the user’s perception of correct matches. Experiments on real and synthetic XML grammars demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our matching strategy in identifying mappings, in comparison with alternative methods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]