Functional-join processing

Inter-object references are one of the key concepts of object-relational and object-oriented database systems. In this work, we investigate alternative techniques to implement inter-object references and make the best use of them in query processing, i.e., in evaluating functional joins. We will give a comprehensive overview and performance evaluation of all known techniques for simple (single-valued) as well as multi-valued functional joins. Furthermore, we will describe special order-preserving\/ functional-join techniques that are particularly attractive for decision support queries that require ordered results. While most of the presentation of this paper is focused on object-relational and object-oriented database systems, some of the results can also be applied to plain relational databases because index nested-loop joins\/ along key/foreign-key relationships, as they are frequently found in relational databases, are just one particular way to execute a functional join. Received February 28, 1999 / Accepted September 27, 1999     

An interface between object-oriented databases and relational databases

Currently relational databases are widely used, while object-oriented databases are emerging as a new generation of database technology. This paper presents a methodology to provide effective sharing of information in object-oriented databases and relational databases. The object-oriented data model is selected as a common data model to build an integrated view of the diverse databases. An object-oriented query language is used as a standard query language. A method is developed to transform a relational data definition to an equivalent object-oriented data definition and to integrate local data definitions. Two distributed query processing methods are derived. One is for general queries and the other for a special class of restricted queries. Using the methods developed, it is possible to access distributed object-oriented databases and relational databases such that the locations and the structural differences of the databases are transparent to users.     

Query processing over object views of relational data

This paper presents an approach to object view management for relational databases. Such a view mechanism makes it possible for users to transparently work with data in a relational database as if it was stored in an object-oriented (OO) database. A query against the object view is translated to one or several queries against the relational database. The results of these queries are then processed to form an answer to the initial query. The approach is not restricted to a ‘pure’ object view mechanism for the relational data, since the object view can also store its own data and methods. Therefore it must be possible to process queries that combine local data residing in the object view with data retrieved from the relational database. We discuss the key issues when object views of relational databases are developed, namely: how to map relational structures to sub-type/supertype hierarchies in the view, how to represent relational database access in OO query plans, how to provide the concept of object identity in the view, how to handle the fact that the extension of types in the view depends on the state of the relational database, and how to process and optimize queries against the object view. The results are based on experiences from a running prototype implementation. Edited by: M.T. ?zsu. Received April 12, 1995 / Accepted April 22, 1996     

Bridging objects and relations: a mediator for an OO front-end to RDBMSs

An object-oriented paradigm is established as the leading approach for developing non-traditional applications, such as GIS or multimedia systems. On the other hand, relational databases have dominated the area of data processing in the past decade. These two trends motivate the research on integrating OO applications with relational databases. This paper presents our approach to the symbiosis of the OO and relational data models, which is built into GinisNT, a scalable OO GIS framework based on an OO-to-relational mapping algorithm. The mapping algorithm transforms classes and objects into relations and tuples, and vice versa, instantiates objects from relational databases. The methodology presented here is extremely efficient, as has been proved by a number of applications developed in GinisNT, and is at the same time cost efficient, as it builds upon existing platforms.     

Integrating relational and object-oriented database systems using a metaclass concept

This paper presents a specific approach of integrating a relational database system into a federated database system. The underlying database integration process consist of three steps: first, the external database systems have to be connected to the integrated database system environment and the external data models have to be mapped into a canonical data model. This step is often called syntactic transformation including structural enrichment and leads to component schemas for each external DBMS. Second, the resulting schemas from the first step are used to construct export schemas which are then integrated into global, individual schemas or views in the third step. In this paper we focus on the first step for relational databases, i.e., the connection of a relational database system and the mapping of the relational model into a canonical data model. We take POSTGRES as the relational database system and the object-oriented federated database system VODAK as the integration platform which provides the open, object-oriented data model as the canonical data model for the integration. We show different variations of mapping the relational model. By exploiting the metaclass concept provided by VML, the modelling language of VODAK, we show how to tailor VML such that the canonical data model meets the requirements of integrating POSTGRES into the global database system VODAK in an efficient way.     

基于GIS的农产品指标数据库表结构设计研究

为了将GIS(地理信息系统)有效地应用到农产品统计中,阐述了农产品指标的3种维度——属性维度、时间维度、空间维度。分析了全关系数据库模型、面向对象数据库模型、对象关系混合数据库模型对GIS数据存储的各类特点,考虑到农产品指标数据本身的特点,提出了采用关系型数据库存储GIS数据与农产品指标数据,并以此模型为基础,设计和分析了数据库物理设计中农产品指标横向与纵向存储的两种结构方案。通过测试数据验证了两者的优缺点,并提出了数据库分区和面向时间或空间维度独立建表的优化途径。     

Export database derivation in object-oriented wrappers

Wrappers export the schema and data of existing heterogeneous databases and support queries on them. In the context of cooperative information systems, we present a flexible approach to specify the derivation of object-oriented (OO) export databases from local relational databases. Our export database derivation consists of a set of extent derivation structures (EDS) which defines the extent and deep extent of export classes. Having well-defined semantics, the EDS can be readily used in transforming wrapper queries to local queries. Based on the EDS, we developed a wrapper query evaluation strategy which handles OO queries on the export databases. The strategy is unique in that it considers the limited query processing capabilities of local database systems as well as the language constraints on the local query languages.     

基于关系数据库的对象数据管理方法研究

面向对象方法在许多领域中已经得到了广泛应用 .对象描述方法可以很方便地描述领域中具有复杂结构的数据 ,但这些复杂数据的存储问题还有待妥善解决 .在数据存储管理方面 ,关系数据库系统一直处于主导地位 .本文提出了一种将对象模型和关系模型有机结合在一起的方法 .该方法将数据存储功能从领域数据对象中分离出来 ,采用专门的对象管理器来处理复杂的对象数据与关系数据库的交互问题 .该方法已经被用于海洋传播模型数据库管理系统的设计开发中 ,并取得较好的效果     

Managing the US Navy's first OO digital mapping project

In the late 1980s the Defense Mapping Agency began converting their paper maps into digital format. A military standard known as Vector Product Format emerged as the format for storing digital vector data. The VPF relational data model, however, has problems representing complex spatial data. In 1991, the US Navy, a DMA database user, began investigating how object technology could improve its digital maps. This research led to the development of the Object Vector Product Format, an object-oriented approach to viewing and editing digital maps and charts. By combining multiple relational databases into a single OO database, OVPF offers users such key advantages as the ability to immediately update and modify the content of the original data. Over the course of developing OVPF we have also learned some valuable lessons about managing OO projects. Our experiences have given us insight into some important risk-management techniques, including how to manage the expectations of decision-makers and sponsors and how to implement effective training methods. Managing the OVPF project was much more rewarding than most due to the greatly increased productivity offered by an OO approach     

Formal approach for reengineering fuzzy XML in fuzzy object-oriented databases

Since semi-structured documents (e.g., XML) could benefit greatly from database support and more specifically from object-oriented (OO) database management systems, we study the methodology of reengineering XML to object-oriented databases when database migration occurs in this paper. In particular, considering the need of processing the imprecise and uncertain information existing in practical applications, we investigate the problem of migrating fuzzy XML to fuzzy object-oriented databases. To find the object-oriented schema that best describes the existing fuzzy XML schema (DTD), we devise a comprehensive approach centering on a set of mapping rules. Such reengineering practices could not only provide a significant consolidation of the interoperability between fuzzy OO and fuzzy XML modeling techniques, but also develop the practical design methodology for fuzzy OO databases.     

Main memory orientated optimization of OO queries using typedDatalog with foreign predicates

Object-oriented database systems (OODBs) have created a demand for relationally complete, extensible, and declarative object-oriented query languages. Until now, the runtime performance of such languages was far behind that of procedural OO interfaces. One reason is the internal use of a relational engine with magnetic disk resident databases. The authors address the processing of the declarative OO language WS-OSQL, provided by the fully operational prototype OODB called WS-IRIS. A WS-IRIS database is main memory (MM) resident. The system architecture, data structures, and optimization techniques are designed accordingly. WS-OSQL queries are compiled into an OO extension of Datalog called ObjectLog, providing for objects, typing, overloading, and foreign predicates for extensibility. Cost-based optimizations in WS-IRIS using ObjectLog are presented. Performance tests show that WS-IRIS is about as fast as current OODBs with procedural interfaces only and is much faster than known relationally complete systems. These results would not be possible for a traditional disk-based implementation. However, MM residency of a database appears to be only a necessary condition for better performance. An efficient optimization is of crucial importance as well     

Translating update operations from relational to object-oriented databases

In migrating a legacy relational database system to the object-oriented (OO) platform, when database migration completes, application modules are to be migrated, where embedded relational database operations are mapped into their OO correspondents. In this paper we study mapping relational update operations to their OO equivalents, which include UPDATE¹, INSERT and DELETE operations. Relational update operation translation from relational to OO faces the touchy problem of transformation from a value-based relationship model to a reference-based model and maintaining the relational integrity constraints. Moreover, with a relational database where inheritance is expressed as attribute value subset relationship, changing of some attribute values may lead to the change of the position of an object in the class inheritance hierarchy, which we call object migration. Considering all these aspects, algorithms are given mapping relational UPDATE, INSERT and DELETE operations to their OO correspondents. Our work emphasize in examining the differences in the representation of the source schema's semantics resulting from the translation process, as well as differences in the inherent semantics of the two models.     

一种元数据处理的多媒体联邦数据库

当前基于联邦数据库方向的多媒体联邦数据库系统已经取得较大发展。然而，在大多数项目研究中．很少有项目将重点放在元模型的研究上。反过采说，标准数据库系统（关系，对象关系，面向对象）没有定义了一种多媒体和联邦特点的元数据模型。在这篇文章中，提出了一种多媒体联邦数据库的元数据结构的规范。这种规范的鲒构是基于一种新的面向对象的元模型。而这种元模型是支持多媒体类型和联邦元数据的。通过使用这种元模型，联邦多媒体的管理者和用户能够准确的确定出数据是如何构成的．以及操作类型是如何允许实现的。     

Designing data warehouses with OO conceptual models

The authors propose an approach that provides a theoretical foundation for the use of object-oriented databases and object-relational databases in data warehouse, multidimensional database, and online analytical processing applications. This approach introduces a set of minimal constraints and extensions to the Unified Modeling Language for representing multidimensional modeling properties for these applications. Multidimensional modeling offers two benefits. First, the model closely parallels how data analyzers think and, therefore, helps users understand data. Second, multidimensional modeling helps predict what final users want to do, thereby facilitating performance improvements. The authors are using their approach to create an automatic implementation of a multidimensional model. They plan to integrate commercial online-analytical-processing tool facilities within their GOLD model case tool as well, a task that involves data warehouse prototyping and sample data generation issues     

关系数据库与面向对象数据库的集成

本文从ＲＤＢ（ｒｅｌａｔｉｏｎａｌｄａｔａｂａｓｅ）的缺欠、ＯＯＤＢ（ｏｂｊｅｃｔｏｒｉｅｎｔｅｄｄａｔａｂａｓｅ）的不足和新的数据库应用需求３个方面指出了统一关系范型和ＯＯ范型、集成ＲＤＢ与ＯＯＤＢ的趋势，讨论了集成ＲＤＢ与ＯＯＤＢ的３种途径，最后介绍了一个集成关系与对象模型的多媒体数据库系统ＴＨＣＩＭＨＹＰＥＲ的总体设计.     

一种实现继承关系向关系表转换的方法

本文提出一种面向对象概念模型中继承关系向关系表转换的一种方法。基于这种转换方法，给出了它的SQL语句的实现。     

A Methodological Approach for Object-Relational Database Design using UML

The most common way of designing databases is by means of a conceptual model, such as E/R, without taking into account other views of the system. New object-oriented design languages, such as UML (Unified Modelling Language), allow the whole system, including the database schema, to be modelled in a uniform way. Moreover, as UML is an extendable language, it allows for any necessary introduction of new stereotypes for specific applications. Proposals exist to extend UML with stereotypes for database design but, unfortunately, they are focused on relational databases. However, new applications require complex objects to be represented in complex relationships, object-relational databases being more appropriate for these requirements. The framework of this paper is an Object-Relational Database Design Methodology, which defines new UML stereotypes for Object-Relational Database Design and proposes some guidelines to translate a UML conceptual schema into an object-relational schema. The guidelines are based on the SQL:1999 object-relational model and on Oracle8i as a product example. Initial submission: 22 January 2002 / Revised submission: 10 June 2002 Published online: 7 January 2003 This paper is a revised and extended version of Extending UML for Object-Relational Database Design, presented in the UML’2001 conference [17].     

PolarDB: An infrastructure for specialized NoSQL datebases and DBMS

This paper presents a new infrastructure for creating specialized databases and database management systems (DBMSs). Some principles of this infrastructure are formulated based on an analysis of various NoSQL solutions. The main features of the proposed approach are: (a) a flexible system of type definitions that allows one to create data structures based on different paradigms and (b) different forms of supporting structured data and mapping them onto the file system. Experiments are carried out to implement RDF graphs, relational tables, name tables, and object-relational mappings. The proposed approach allows one to solve certain problems of developing new technologies for working with Big Data.     

Performance analysis of parallel object-oriented query processing algorithms

Advanced application domains such as computer-aided design, computer-aided software engineering, and office automation are characterized by their need to store, retrieve, and manage large quantities of data having complex structures. A number of object-oriented database management systems (OODBMS) are currently available that can effectively capture and process the complex data. The existing implementations of OODBMS outperform relational systems by maintaining and querying cross-references among related objects. However, the existing OODBMS still do not meet the efficiency requirements of advanced applications that require the execution of complex queries involving the retrieval of a large number of data objects and relationships among them. Parallel execution can significantly improve the performance of complex OO queries. In this paper, we analyze the performance of parallel OO query processing algorithms for various benchmark application domains. The application domains are characterized by specific mixes of queries of different semantic complexities. The performance of the application domains has been analyzed for various system and data parameters by running parallel programs on a 32-node transputer based parallel machine developed at the IBM Research Center at Yorktown Heights. The parallel processing algorithms, data routing techniques, and query management and control strategies have been implemented to obtain accurate estimation of controlling and processing overheads. However, generation of large complex databases for the study was impractical. Hence, the data used in the simulation have been parameterized. The parallel OO query processing algorithms analyzed in this study are based on a query graph approach rather than the traditional query tree approach. Using the query graph approach, a query is processed by simultaneously initiating the execution at several object classes, thereby, improving the parallelism. During processing, the algorithms avoid the execution of time-consuming join operations by making use of the object references among the objects. Further, the algorithms do not generate any temporary data, thereby, reducing disk accesses. This is accomplished by marking the selected objects and by employing a two-phase query processing strategy.