Information integration systems have to cope with a wide variety of different information sources, which support query interfaces with very varied capabilities. To deal with this problem, the integration systems need descriptions of the query capabilities of each source, i.e., the set of queries supported by each source. Moreover, the integration systems need algorithms for deciding how a query can be answered given the capabilities of the sources. Finally, they need to translate a query into the format that the source understands. We present two languages suitable for descriptions of query capabilities of sources and compare their expressive power. We also use one of the languages to automatically derive the capabilities description of the integration system itself, in terms of the capabilities of the sources it integrates. We describe algorithms for deciding whether a query "matches " the description and show their application to the problem of translating user queries into source-specific queries and commands. We propose new, improved algorithms for the problem of answering queries using these descriptions. Finally, we identify an interesting class of source capability descriptions, for which our algorithms are much more efficient.
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