Migrating relational databases into XML documents

This paper aims to devise a method for migrating a relational database (RDB) into an XML document. Database migration is concerned with the process of converting schema and data from a source RDB, as a one-time conversion, into a target XML database to be managed and handled in its new environment. The source schema is enriched semantically and translated into a target schema, and the data stored in the source database is converted into a target database based on the new schema. The semantic enrichment process is requisite to produce an enhanced metadata model from the source database and captures essential characteristics of target XML schema, and suitable for converting RDB data into an XML document. Algorithms are developed for producing the target database according to a set of migration rules to translate all constructs of an RDB into an XML Schema, based on which RDB data is then converted. A prototype system has been implemented and empirically evaluated by testing its results, looking at our achievements and reflecting on the results. From the evaluation of results, it is concluded that the proposed solution is efficient and correct.