Chameleon: an Extensible and Customizable Tool for Web Data Translation

Chameleon is a tool for the management of Web data according to different formats and models and for the automatic transformation of schemas and instances from one model to another. It handles semistructured data, schema languages for XML, and traditional database models. The system is based on a "metamodel" approach, in the sense that it knows a set of metaconstructs,and allows the definition of models by means of the involved metaconstructs. The system also has a library of basic translations, referring to the known metaconstructs, and builds actual translations by means of suitable combinations of the basic ones. The main functions offered to the user are: (i) definition of a model; (ii)definition and validation of a schema with respect to a given model; (iii)schema translation (from a model to another).