Using NNF to Transform Conceptual Data Models to Object-Oriented Database Designs

More work is needed on devising practical, but theoretically well-founded procedures for doing object-oriented database (OODB) design [17]. Design procedures should also be flexible enough to take into account various application characteristics (such as whether objects are very large or are read-only). In this paper, we present and discuss an OODB design procedure that addresses these problems. The procedure is practical in the sense that it is based on a common family of conceptual models and in the sense that it does not expect users to supply esoteric, difficult-to-discover, and hard-to-understand constraints (such as multivalued dependencies), nor does it make hard-to-check and easy-to-overlook assumptions (such as the universal relation scheme assumption). At the same time, the procedure is well-founded and formal, being based on NNF (Nested Normal Form [21]), a new theoretical result that characterizes properties of interest in designing complex objects. It is also adaptable to various applications characteristics.

[1]  Ramez Elmasri,et al.  Fundamentals of Database Systems , 1989 .

[2]  Ronald Fagin,et al.  A simplied universal relation assumption and its properties , 1982, TODS.

[3]  FaginRonald.  Degrees of acyclicity for hypergraphs and relational database schemes , 1983 .

[4]  Ronald Fagin,et al.  Degrees of acyclicity for hypergraphs and relational database schemes , 1983, JACM.

[5]  Won Kim.  Editorial directons , 1995, TODS.

[6]  Joachim Biskup,et al.  Database Schema Design Theory : Achievements and Challenges , 1995, CISMOD.

[7]  Leo Mark.  What is the Binary Relationship Approach? , 1983, ER.

[8]  Tok Wang Ling,et al.  Synergistic Database Design with an Extended Entity-Relationship Model , 1989, ER.

[9]  Jeffrey D. Ullman,et al.  The U. R. strikes back , 1982, PODS.

[10]  John G. Hughes,et al.  Object-oriented databases , 1991, Prentice Hall International series in computer science.

[11]  Toby J. Teorey,et al.  Database Modeling and Design - The Fundamental Principles, Second Edition , 1994 .

[12]  E. F. Codd,et al.  Recent Investigations in Relational Data Base Systems , 1974, ACM Pacific.

[13]  Abraham Silberschatz,et al.  Extended algebra and calculus for nested relational databases , 1988, TODS.

[14]  J. V. R. Wintraecken,et al.  The NIAM Information Analysis Method: Theory and Practice , 1990 .

[15]  Mihalis Yannakakis,et al.  Independent Database Schemas , 1984, J. Comput. Syst. Sci..

[16]  William Kent.  Consequences of assuming a universal relation , 1981, TODS.

[17]  Toby J. Teorey.  Database modeling & design : the fundamental principles , 1994 .

[18]  David Maier,et al.  The Theory of Relational Databases , 1983 .

[19]  Z. Meral Özsoyoglu,et al.  A new normal form for nested relations , 1987, TODS.

[20]  David W. Embley,et al.  Object-oriented systems analysis - a model-driven approach , 1991, Yourdon Press Computing series.

[21]  Laurian M. Chirica,et al.  The entity-relationship model: toward a unified view of data , 1975, SIGF.

[22]  Terry Halpin,et al.  Conceptual Schema and Relational Database Design , 1995 .

[23]  Arie Shoshani,et al.  Representing extended entity-relationship structures in relational databases: a modular approach , 1992, TODS.

[24]  François Bancilhon,et al.  Building an Object-Oriented Database System, The Story of O2 , 1992 .

[25]  David W. Embley,et al.  A normal form for precisely characterizing redundancy in nested relations , 1996, TODS.