XTaGe

 
XTaGe (XML Tester and Generator) is a flexible tool for the creation of complex XML collections. It focuses on XML collections with complex structural constraints and domain-specific characteristics, which would be very difficult to replicate using existing XML generators. It provides:

• A flexible component-based framework to create highly tailored generators to adapt XTaGe to new domains.
• A ready-made set of components that model commmon patterns that arise in complex collections.
• Easy adaptability to new use cases using a high-level language (XQuery).
• A GUI to facilitate the specification of collections by simply dragging and dropping components and filling in parameters.

 

XTaGe architecture

XTaGe bases the generation of XML documents on the specification of a base model that is composed by components that encapsulate XML patterns. There are two ways of generating complex XML collections:

• Creating XML documents from scratch

  XTaGe creates new XML documents using a base model that is composed by generator components, which encapsulate structural XML patterns. The available generator components are: Sequence, Choice, Combi, If_Ancestor, DminDmax.
   
  
  

• Transforming XML documents

  XTaGe also generates XML collections by controlled transformations of an existing one. The transformations are specified in a base model composed by transformation components which encapsulate a tree-oriented structural transformation. The available transformation components are: Add, Delete, Change order, Change Level.
  

 
New components can be defined by using XQuery. Moreover, XTaGe introduces controlled variability in the target collections by using value distributions and probability-labeled tree arcs.
 

Publications

• María Pérez, Ismael Sanz and Rafael Berlanga: XTaGe, a flexible XML collection generator. Demo in SIGMOD 2010
• María Pérez, Ismael Sanz and Rafael Berlanga. XTaGe: A flexible generation system for complex XML collections. DEXA 2009. LNCS 5690.