Abstract
One of the major problems in integrating independently developed applications is the divergence between the data and control-of-processing models assumed by these applications. Research on database integration has focused on establishing and maintaining a canonical schema on top of the schemas of the underlying databases. At the same time, web-accessible software systems have been adopting a multi-layer architecture style, with databases in the lowest tier, business logic in the middle tier and user interfaces in the top-most tier. However, as the time-to-market window shrinks, new software is presented with the challenge of reusing and integrating the functionalities of existing whole applications, instead of simply their database back-ends. The Babel framework provides support for specifying existing applications in terms of the functionalities they deliver and the data they manipulate. In addition, it supports the specification of the “logic” defining how these functionalities should be integrated. Based on these specifications, Babel produces a run-time mediator that monitors the behavior of the underlying applications, evaluates the defined logic on the global state of the integrated system, and generates triggers for new functionalities to be accomplished according to these rules.
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Zhang, H., Stroulia, E. (2002). Babel: An XML-Based Application Integration Framework. In: Pidduck, A.B., Ozsu, M.T., Mylopoulos, J., Woo, C.C. (eds) Advanced Information Systems Engineering. CAiSE 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2348. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-47961-9_21
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