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Mismatches
in data formats or structures are frequently a cause of incompatible data
exchanges. For instance, one system will be updated so that a new attribute is
added to a data item, or a new data element is deleted from a list of data. The
other system usually cannot manage these mismatches in expectations, and either
shuts down with an error, or blithely continues processing what it thinks it
can do (sometimes correctly and sometimes incorrectly), but does not inform
anyone of the inconsistency.
The
use of object models to establish both the structure of each object and the
contents of each data exchange can alleviate many of these problems. In
addition, if metadata models of the objects are available in electronic format
(e.g. as XML), then systems can automatically detect and correct mismatches.
Keywords:
keywords
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