Incorporating XSL Processing into Database Engines

The two observations that 1) many XML documents are stored in a database or generated from data stored in a database and 2) processing these documents with XSL stylesheet processors is an important, often recurring task justify a closer look at the current situation. Typically, the XML document is retrieved or constructed from the database, exported, parsed, and then processed by a special XSL processor. This cumbersome process clearly sets the goal to incorporate XSL stylesheet processing into the database engine. We describe one way to reach this goal by translating XSL stylesheets into algebraic expressions. Further, we present algorithms to optimize the template rule selection process and the algebraic expression resulting from the translation. Along the way, we present several undecidability results hinting at the complexity of the problem on hand.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2002
• Where: VLDB
• Authors: Guido Moerkotte
• Keywords: Database, VLDB 2002, XML Document, Xsl Stylesheets