Data Source Integration and Evolution, Heterogeneous Databases, Interoperability, Mediators, High-Level Integration Semantics, CORBA
Megaprogramming, module interconnection languages, and mediator-based approaches built on standard distributed object technologies such as CORBA and DCOM have provided promising advances in enterprise-level data integration. These distributed object technologies, however, still require relatively low-level, technology-dependent implementations to achieve object (or module) interconnection, communication, and coordination. The Component Object Interconnection Language (COIL) is a language designed specifically to facilitate rapid and flexible data integration through high-level object interconnections. COIL is an extensible language, with both declarative and imperative aspects. It has been designed to provide broad functionality in declaring and controlling structural and semantic data integration, and includes constructs for specifying updates, constraint enforcement, and update propagations. This paper presents an overview of COIL and a stylized example showing an application of the COIL language and its components.