Using ORM in an ontology based approach for a common mapping across heterogeneous applications

Abstract

Enterprise application integration efforts face several impediments like: lack of common data semantics, conflicting or ambiguous meanings, homonymic usage, including non-existent documentation etc., resulting in massive duplications of master data-master data being defined as one common and true version of the truth in terms of client, customer, item, or mainstay entities for an organization. This use case demonstrates how ORM facilitated the definition of ontological bridges to establish and enable common mappings across disparate applications, which subsequently were realized in SQL based implementations that operate in a heterogeneous RDBMS environment. Using ISO 11179 ontological based entry points, the concept of ORM derived common mapping keys bridged across multiple applications enabled access to applications that contain data specialized in their subject area - enabling ondemand assembly and dynamic integration across stove-piped systems. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.