Information Translation, Mediation, and Mosaic-Based Browsing in the TSIMMIS System

Abstract

Information Translation, Mediation, and Mosaic-Based Browsing in the TSIMMIS System Joachim Hammer, Hector Garcia-Molina, Kelly Ireland, Yannis Papakonstantinou, Jeffrey Ullman, Jennifer Widom Department of Computer Science Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2140, USA E-mail: joachim@cs.stanford.edu The tsimmis project [1] provides an architecture and tools for accessing multiple heterogeneous information sources by translating source information into a common self-describing object model, called the Object Exchange Model (OEM) [2]. tsimmis provides integrated access to heterogeneous sources through a layer of source specific translators as well as "intelligent" modules, called mediators. Translators (wrappers) convert queries over information in the common del (OEM) into requests the source can execute. The data returned by the source is converted back into the common model. Mediators are programs that collect information from one or more sources, process and combine it, and export the resulting information to the end user or an application program. Users or applications can choose to interact either directly with the translators or indirectly via one or more mediators. End users can access information either by writing applications that request OEM objects, or by using one of the generic browsing tools we have developed: a graphical user interface based on DOS and Microsoft Windows, a UNIX-based textual interface, and a graphical interface based on the HTTP protocol called mobie (MOsaic-Based Information Explorer) 1 . Our demo uses mobie since it is the most interesting of the three. mobie is a platform-independent tool for displaying and exploring OEM objects that are returned as a result of queries. mobie provides a mechanism for This work was supported by ARPA Contract F33615-93-11339, by the Anderson Faculty Scholar Fund, by the Center for Integrated Systems at Stanford University, and by equipment grants from Digital Equipment Corporation and IBM Corporporation