The JSON Schema language lacks explicit support for defining time-varying schemas of JSON documents. Moreover, existing JSON NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, CouchDB) do not provide any support for managing temporal data. Hence, administrators of JSON NoSQL databases have to use ad hoc techniques in order to specify JSON schema for time-varying instances. In this chapter, the authors propose a disciplined approach, named Temporal JSON Schema (τJSchema), for the temporal management of JSON documents. τJSchema allows creating a temporal JSON schema from (1) a conventional JSON schema, (2) a set of temporal logical characteristics, for specifying which components of a JSON document can vary over time, and (3) a set of temporal physical characteristics, for specifying how the time-varying aspects are represented in the document. By using such characteristics to describe temporal aspects of JSON data, τJSchema guarantees logical and physical data independence and provides a low-impact solution since it requires neither updates to existing JSON documents nor extensions to related JSON technologies.
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