Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-18
2002-11-26
Trammell, James P. (Department: 3621)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06487556
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method and system for data processing. Specifically, the method and system provide for structuring data within a database.
2. Description of Related Art
Using prior art methods, when two or more problem-domain objects are linked or otherwise refer to each other, programmers must create sophisticated mechanisms to manage the linkages, which may be cumbersome and error-prone. Typically, in the prior art, both of the linked objects contain, within the objects, information about the relation between the objects, and the relations between the problem-domain objects are rather static.
Products using RDBMS or object-oriented database management systems usually require complicated upgrade scenarios precisely because the databases “know too much” about the data contained within the database. One normally defines primary and foreign keys to build linkages between tuples. Keys and tables cannot be easily changed when relationships changed. The storage mechanism, i.e., the database, is constantly an issue. Ensuring backward compatibility and upgrade conversions may be costly and time-consuming.
Other disadvantages of the prior art are that existing storage systems do not clearly express state as a function of association and that object locking cannot easily be based on the cumulative set of associations to which a given object is a member.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention implements a datastore for a plurality of generic terminal objects. Terminal objects are related to zero or more association objects that represent a relation between terminal objects. Association objects are typed according to the relationship being represented between terminal objects. An association object has a state value corresponding to a state of the relation between terminal objects. An association object also has a role object for each of the terminal objects being related to the association object. A role object represents a relation between the association object and a terminal object. The role object is typed according to the relationship being represented between the associated object and the terminal object, and the role type is unique amongst the role objects within the association object. The datastore may store the association object and the terminal objects in a relational database on a computer-readable medium.
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Downs Carl Benjamin
Singh Mohinder Pal
International Business Machines - Corporation
LaBaw Jeffrey S.
O'Hagan Christopher P.
Trammell James P.
Wang Mary
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