xlinkit

Abstract

xlinkit is a lightweight application service that provides rule-based link generation and checks the consistency of distributed Web content. It leverages standard Internet technologies, notably XML, XPath, and XLink. xlinkit can be used as part of a consistency management scheme or in applications that require smart link generation, including portal construction and management of large document repositories. In this article we show how consistency constraints can be expressed and checked. We describe a novel semantics for first-order logic that produces links instead of truth values and give an account of our content management strategy. We present the architecture of our service and the results of two substantial case studies that use xlinkit for checking course syllabus information and for validating UML models supplied by industrial partners.