A unit test approach for database schema evolution

Context

The constant changes in today’s business requirements demand continuous database revisions. Hence, database structures, not unlike software applications, deteriorate during their lifespan and thus require refactoring in order to achieve a longer life span. Although unit tests support changes to application programs and refactoring, there is currently a lack of testing strategies for database schema evolution.

Objective

This work examines the challenges for database schema evolution and explores the possibility of using various testing strategies to assist with schema evolution. Specifically, the work proposes a novel unit test approach for the application code that accesses databases with the objective of proactively evaluating the code against the altered database.

Method

The approach was validated through the implementation of a testing framework in conjunction with a sample application and a relatively simple database schema. Although the database schema in this study was simple, it was nevertheless able to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed approach.

Results

After changes in the database schema, the proposed approach found all SELECT statements as well as the majority of other statements requiring modifications in the application code. Due to its efficiency with SELECT statements, the proposed approach is expected to be more successful with database warehouse applications where SELECT statements are dominant.

Conclusion

The unit test approach that accesses databases has proven to be successful in evaluating the application code against the evolved database. In particular, the approach is simple and straightforward to implement, which makes it easily adoptable in practice.     

面向海量层次信息可视化的嵌套圆鱼眼视图

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Computer aided design of database internal schema

A large number of complexly interrelated parameters are involved at the internal schema level design of database systems. Consequently, a single design model is seen to be infeasible. A package of three aids is proposed to assist a designer in step by step design of internal schema. The three aids pertain to splitting of a relation, merging of relations, and access strategy selection for a relation.     

Search for the Blind : A schema independent query method using concept hierarchy and keywords

Some database schema is very complex and it changes more frequently than the past. On the other hands, in such application database as scientific database and decision-support database, the importance of ad-hoc queries is expected to increase. Therefore the ability of a system to support ad-hoc queries without knowing the database schema information is needed. In this paper, we will describe a method to create candidate structured queries with concept hierarchy using user-input keywords. We will create structured queries in the following step; first, we extract the schema items related to keywords, and second, we compose possible paths between schema items, thus formulate candidate SQL queries.     

Knowledge Mining With VxInsight: Discovery Through Interaction

The explosive growth in the availability of information is overwhelming traditional information management systems. Although individual pieces of information have become easy to find, the larger context in which they exist has become harder to track. These contextual questions are ideally suited to visualization since the human visual system is remarkably adept at interpreting large quantities of information, and at detecting patterns and anomalies. The challenge is to present the information in a manner that maximally leverages our visual skills. This paper discusses a set of properties that such a presentation should have, and describes the design and functionality of VxInsight, a visualization tool built to these principles.     

A visual tool for user-interface development

VITUID is a visual tool for user interface development. It aims to help user-interface designers, who may be non-programmers, to specify and create interactive, graphical user interfaces through graphical interaction. VITUID lets designers specify the user command set and the human-computer dialogs by building a tree and specifying the behavior of each dialog via a dialog-control word, adopting the object-oriented approach. The main strategy of VITUID is to separate a user interface into an application-dependent part and an application-independent part and then let the designer specify only the application-dependent part.     

JAVA和XML Schema在数据有效性验证中的应用

数据的有效性验证是对输入数据正误的判断,分析了几种不同的数据验证方法,提出了新的验证方法即将XML Schema用于JAVA程序的数据有效性验证的可行性,并部分实现这种方案。     

基于信息导航的三维用户界面动态构建方法

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A manufacturing XML schema definition and its application to a data management system on the shop floor

Digitization for sharing knowledge on the shop floor in the machinery industry has been given much attention recently. To help engineers use digitization practically and efficiently, this paper proposes a method based on manufacturing case data that has a direct relation to manufacturing operations. The data are represented in XML schema, as it can be easily applied to Web-based systems on the shop floor. The definitions were made for eight manufacturing methods including machining and welding. The derived definitions consist of four divisions of metadata, work-piece, process and evaluation. Three divisions except for the “process” division are common to the manufacturing methods. The average number of elements for a manufacturing method is about 200. The represented schema is also used to convey knowledge such as operation standards and manufacturing troubleshooting on the shop floor. Using the definitions, a data management system is developed. It is a Web-based Q&A system, in which the engineers specify the manufacturing case data mainly by selecting from the candidates. Then, the system fills in the blank portions and/or shows messages to help complete the case data. The proposed method is evaluated through practical scenarios of arc welding and machining.     

A graphical database interface

A graphical database interface suitable for casual, naive users is described. It provides the user with a logical model of the database; this model typically being an abstraction of the actual database structure, and with an easy means of specifying a query through the use of a pointing device. The interface is a front-end processor and is logically separate from the database management system, it is thus possible to use it with any system.     

基于MVC模式的Web用户界面建模

分析了企业信息系统的Web用户界面开发特性,研究了当前主流前端框架的MVC(模型-视图-控制器)设计模式应用,针对Web前端开发需求及最佳实践方法,提出了一种符合MVC用户界面开发最佳实践的组件化Web用户界面建模方法.设计一套抽象和描述Web用户界面组件的UML(统一建模语言)概要文件,从界面数据模型、界面组件模型到界面交互模型等3个方面完成Web用户界面建模.以一个装修行业定制型ERP(企业资源计划)系统为例,通过用户界面建模实践,验证了本建模方法的可行性、易用性和有效性.     

XForms--下一代的Web窗体

综述了下一代Web窗体——XForms技术．对XForms的窗体定义思想以及处理模型给予了阐述；说明了XForms与其它XML技术之间的关系和现状；调研总结了XForms实现所依赖的浏览器和APl接口．最后简要分析、评述了XForms的不足以及待研究的问题．     

An Interactive Visual Interface for Online Product Catalogs

One of the key elements of e-commerce systems is the online product catalog. It provides sellers with a content management system that assembles, aggregates, normalizes, and distributes product information. It also provides potential buyers with an interactive interface that offers a multimedia representation of the product information as well as retrieval, classification and ordering services. In this paper, we discuss the interface aspect of online product catalogs, focusing on its ability to help shoppers navigate and analyze product information. Specifically, we present a new interactive interface for online product catalogs that effectively enables the shopper to navigate through the product information space and analytically select suitable products.     

Information visualization; assisting low spatial individuals with information access tasks through the use of visual mediators

This study investigated the use of visual mediators to facilitate information access by low spatial individuals. Based on theories of adaptive learning and field-dependence, two human-computer interfaces were developed which were intended to compensate for the inability of low spatial individuals to readily construct visual mental models of a menu system's structure. The two compensatory interfaces included: a 2D visual hierarchy and a linear structure. The information search performance of high and low spatial individuals was compared on the two compensatory interfaces and a third challenge match interface, which challenged individuals to construct a mental model of a hierarchical menu system in order to perform efficiently. The visual mediators were successful in accommodating low spatial individuals, as indicated by the lack of any significant performance differences being detected between the high and low spatial groups on the two compensatory interfaces. High spatial individuals outperformed low spatial individuals only when information search tasks required the use of spatial ability in mentally constructing a model of the organization and structure of embedded task information. The key factor in the accommodation process was the elimination of the need to mentally visualize the structure of embedded task information. These results indicate that visualization techniques can be successfully used to enhance the information search performance of low spatial individuals.     

一种时序数据的可视化技术与工具

时序数据在许多研究领域中都广泛存在.信息可视化是对时序数据进行分析的有力工具,然而已有的时序数据可视化技术无法较好地分析时间跨度长的时序数据.提出一种称为FisheyeLines的可视化技术,能够快速显示大数据集的整体视图,同时方便查看细节信息;能够清楚地表达复杂信息间的相互关系,同时可以显示对象的属性.基于FisheyeLines可视化技术,还给出了一种称为FisheyeLinesVis的可视化工具,可以方便地构造时序数据可视化应用.对以上技术和工具所构造的应用实例的分析与评估充分验证了该方法的有效性和易用性.     

Automatic generation of probabilistic relationships for improving schema matching

Schema matching is the problem of finding relationships among concepts across data sources that are heterogeneous in format and in structure. Starting from the “hidden meaning” associated with schema labels (i.e. class/attribute names), it is possible to discover lexical relationships among the elements of different schemata. In this work, we propose an automatic method aimed at discovering probabilistic lexical relationships in the environment of data integration “on the fly”. Our method is based on a probabilistic lexical annotation technique, which automatically associates one or more meanings with schema elements w.r.t. a thesaurus/lexical resource. However, the accuracy of automatic lexical annotation methods on real-world schemata suffers from the abundance of non-dictionary words such as compound nouns and abbreviations. We address this problem by including a method to perform schema label normalization which increases the number of comparable labels. From the annotated schemata, we derive the probabilistic lexical relationships to be collected in the Probabilistic Common Thesaurus. The method is applied within the MOMIS data integration system but can easily be generalized to other data integration systems.     

DaisyVA:支持信息多面体可视分析的智能交互式可视化平台

针对目前缺乏有效地支持信息多面体可视分析的交互式信息可视化平台的问题,提出并实现了一个面向最终用户的交互式可视化平台DaisyVA.首先建立了一个支持信息多面体可视分析界面模型IMFA,并定义了IMFA的多面体数据模型、可视表征模型和交互控制模型;然后围绕IMFA设计了DaisyVA的体系架构,讨论了基于模型的系统开发机制、核心模块与运行时框架机理,以及DaisyVA组件库;最后将DaisyVA应用于大型集团制造企业物流网络瓶颈的可视分析实例中.实例分析结果表明,DaisyVA能为多面体数据提供统一建模的支持和可扩展可视化算法库的支持、提供多种所需的交互技术并可灵活定制可视分析的交互任务、支持信息多面体间的内在语义关联分析,以及能够为最终用户提供一种简单快速原型方法,因此能够为信息多面体可视分析提供一种有效的支持.