Automatic Generation of XML Files and Their Database Registration from Tabular Form Specifications

Abstract

Various forms of tables have been used as tools for visualizing and arranging information in many fields. In addition, XML is widely used as a language for exchanging data. We have studied how documents are formally processed with software development tools. In this paper, we propose a system to create and manage tabular specifications based on an attribute graph grammar. A tabular form specification is represented by a marked graph, and its syntax is defined by an attribute NCE graph grammar. We add a new attribute that contains XML source codes of the tabular form specifications. The XML source codes are generated by evaluating the attribute and are automatically registered to the database. The specifications are then retrieved from the database. Our system can perform a characteristic retrieval for software specifications. The results may lead to a considerable improvement in the efficiency of human labor due to the use of a unified formal methodology based on graph theory and advanced retrieval.