Web Service Modeling Framework for the Enhanced Data Warehouse

Abstract

This chapter presents how Web services architecture can be leveraged to extend an existing system to an open and flexible platform. It reviews crucial issues related to modularization, properties of the Web services, integration of heterogeneous services and incorporating new services. We describe the modeling framework used, which is the Web Service Modeling Framework (WSMF). As a case we show how the enhanced data warehouse system was remodeled in order to transform it from a closed solution to an open Web services-based system called the enhanced Knowledge Warehouse (eKW). We analyze eKW as a Web service and show how eKW conforms to the eight layers of functionality in Web services. We also speculate about the future of eKW in the semantic web and innovations it can contribute to knowledge management. In the semantic Web eDW should be used as a source of knowledge, hence the name “knowledge warehouse”.