Aggregate Table-Driven Querying via Navigation Ontologies in Distributed Statistical Databases

In this paper we describe a query paradigm based on ontologies, aggregate table-driven querying and expansion of QBE. It has two novel features: visually specifying aggregate table queries and table layout in a single process, and providing users with an ontology guide in composing complex analysis tasks as queries. We present the role of the fundamental concept of ontology in the context of the content representation of distributed databases with large numbers of multi-valued attributes, and in query formulation and processing. The methods and techniques developed for representing and manipulating ontologies for query formulation and processing make extensive use of XML and DOM. The core functionalities of content representation, query formulation without prior knowledge about databases, statistical summary and result presentation are integrated into a front-end client within the underpinning MVC architecture, which has been implemented in Java and JAXP.