Semi-Structured Data Model

Semi-Structured Data Model

This is a Data Model that is based on Graphs

• for representing both regular and irregular data

Main Ideas:

• Data is Self-Describing
• Flexible Data Typing
• Serialized Forms

Data is Self-Describing

The content comes with it’s own description

• (In contract to Relational Data Model where the schema and the data are stored separately)

Starting point:

• associations list: a collection of key-value pairs

For example, a record:

• name : Alan,
• tel : 32190,
• email : alan@aol.ru

But values themselves can be collections

• name :
  • first : Alan,
  • last : Black
• tel : 32190,
• tel : 32191,
• email : alan@aol.ru

And some labels may repeat

Graphical representation

• can graphically represent as Trees
• 
• 
• the XML Data Model adopts this representation

Flexible Data Typing

• there can be no typing at all
• but data may be typed

There’s a serialized form

• The serialized representation of a such graph
• XML
• JSON
• etc

Links

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-structured_data
• http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/~ptw/teaching/ssd/notes.html

Sources

• XML and Web Technologies (UFRT)