Versions and configurations in object-oriented database systems : a uniform treatment

Abstract

Object-oriented database models usually allow versions only at the most specialized type/c1ass in an inheritance hierarchy. The possibility of having versions at different levels of abstraction provides a richer model and allows a more natural representation of the reality. The presence of objects and its corresponding sets of versions at different levels of a type/class hierarchy introduces the need for handling version mappings. Integrity constraints can be associated to these mappings, restricting the set of possible combinations of versions appearing at different levels of the hierarchy. Sets of versions associated with each levei of an object hierarchy often represent a very large set of possible configurations for that object, which is difficult to be handled directly by the user. In this context, adequate mechanisms are very important to define and build object configurations by means of selections applied to the set of all possible configurations, defined by the combinations of versions. This paper proposes an approach in which versions and configurations may appear at different levels of an inheritance hierarchy, and a uniform treatment is given to these two concepts.