Authors:
Bruno Caires
and
Jorge Cardoso
Affiliation:
University of Madeira, Portugal
Keyword(s):
Information Integration, Semantic Web, Ontology, Web Services, Middleware.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Coupling and Integrating Heterogeneous Data Sources
;
Databases and Information Systems Integration
;
e-Business
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Middleware Integration
;
Middleware Platforms
;
Technology Platforms
Abstract:
The creation of loosely coupled and flexible applications has been a challenge faced by most organizations. This has been important because organization systems need to quickly respond and adapt to changes that occur in the business environment. In order to address these key issues, we implemented SWOAT, a ‘Service and Semantic Web Oriented Architecture Technology’ based middleware. Our system uses ontologies to semantically describe and formalize the information model of the organization, providing a global and integrated view over a set of database systems. It also allows interoperability with several systems using Web Services. Using ontologies and Web services, clients remain loosely coupled from data sources. As a result, data structures can be changed and moved without having to change all clients, internal or external to the organization.