OBJECT-ORIENTED CONCEPTUAL MODELING TECHNIQUES TO DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT A SOUND AND ROBUST ORACLE ENVIRONMENT

Abstract The paper will introduce the advantages of using the Object-Oriented Model for conceptual modeling, as a kind of knowledge model to capture information system properties. Next, the paper will explain how to properly implement such a system description in an advanced ORACLE environment, using OR ACLE v7 as server and Developer/2000 as execution model tool. The main contribution is the definition of a precise mapping between OO notions at the conceptual model level, and ORACLE structures for implementation at the programming level. This allows us to connect OO modeling with a sound and functionally equivalent relational implementation in Oracle. 1. Introduction The use of the object notion in Software Production Environments is becoming more and more extended. We have OO Databases, Analysis and Design Methods, Programming Languages, etc. In our case, we are interested in the use of an OO model to deal with the Conceptual Modeling step, where the interaction between users and analysts is expected to produce a model including all the relevant system properties. We cannot forget that our main objective is to produce a sound and robust final software product. This is why we are specially interested in connecting the good properties (from our point of view) attached to an OO Analysis with a powerful and reliable software development environment. When referring to such a software development environment, in our case, we mean ORACLE v7 with Developer/2000 basically, because we have a pool of designers who have experience with it, and who are at the moment reasonably satisfied with the results. The basis of our experience is to be able to properly implement objects in a ORACLE relational context. To do so, we follow a methodological approach that has two main steps: 1. A conceptual Modeling step, where after interaction with clients (users) an set of graphical models are built following an OO methodological approach called OO-METHOD [Pas96] [Pas97]. The main features of this methodology are the following: After having obtained the analysis models (object, dynamic and functional) which characterize what we call the conceptual model, a corresponding OO formal specification constitutes a high-level data dictionary that is generated in an automated way. 2. A precise execution model determines the details that have to be taken into account to properly implement the quoted conceptual model. In this paper, we will present this conversion for ORACLE development environments, clearly specifying how to map the OO notions collected in the OO-METHOD analysis models in the structures attached to a well-defined ORACLE relational environment. This is the basic document used by designers to generate the final software product. This translation process has the following principal phases: • the generation of CREATE TABLE statements, which include attributes and integrity constraints • the generation of the Data Base PROCEDURES, PACKAGES and TRIGGERS attached to the OO specification.