Haystack: A customizable general-purpose information management tool for end users of semistructured data

Abstract

We posit that a semistructured data model offers the right balance of rich structure and flexible (or lack of) schema allowing naive end users to record information in whatever form makes it easy for them to manage. We describe our Haystack system, which exposes the richness and flexibility of the data model while offering the user natural, traditional interfaces that shield them from the specifics of schemas, tuples, and database queries. We outline research challenges that remain to be addressed.