A generic model for universal data storage and conversion

Abstract

We propose a data model which allows storing values of arbitrary types, including inter-data dependencies and meta information. Furthermore, we provide an Extensible Markup Language (XML) based model to describe data formats which allows specifying programs to convert data represented in existing formats both from and to our proposed data model. We will show that these programs are Turing complete, thus allowing the same arbitrarily complex conversions which are possible with Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) or the C programming language. In addition, we describe the components of a prototypical implementation in form of a validator, a data converter and a data generator. In combination with a data editor, parts of our prototypical implementation are already employed in several use cases in the industry to transform data between different formats.