Harald Schöning

Tamino - An Internet Database System

Software AGs Tamino is a novel database server designed to fit the needs of electronic business and worldwide information exchange via the Internet. It is not just an on-top solution based on a database system originally designed for use in other application areas. Rather, it is entirely designed for the specific scenario of HTTP-based access to data represented in XML. These data can stem from various sources, and can be combined on the fly when a corresponding request is encountered. This paper sketches the architecture and the functional features of Tamino, and justifies its various design decisions.

Realizing a temporal complex-object data model

Support for temporal data continues to be a requirement posed by many applications such as VLSI design and CAD, but also in conventional applications like banking and sales. Furthermore, the strong demand for complex-object support is known as an inherent fact in design applications, and also emerges for advance “conventional” applications. Thus, new advanced database management systems should include both features, i.e. should support temporal complex-objects. In this paper, we present such a temporal complex-object data model. The central notion of our temporal complex-object data model is a time slice, representing one state of a complex object. We explain the mapping of time slices onto the complex objects supported by the MAD model (which we use for an example of a non-temporal complex-object data model) as well as the transformation process of operations on temporal complex-objects into MAD model operations. Thereby, the basic properties of the MAD model are a prerequisite for our approach. For example, time slices can only be directly stored, if non-disjunct (i.e. over-lapping) complex objects are easily handled in the underlying complex-object data model.

Tamino - a DBMS designed for XML

Tamino is Software AGs XML database management system. In contrast to solutions of other DBMS vendors, Tamino is not just another layer on top of a database system designed to support the relational or an object-oriented data model. Rather, Tamino has been completely designed for XML. This paper gives a short overview of Taminos architecture and then addresses some of the design considerations for Tamino. In particular, areas are presented where database design for XML was nontrivial, and where some issues are still open.

Parallelism in processing queries on complex objects

Complex objects to support non-standard database applications require the use of substantial computing resources because their powerful operations and their related integrity constraints must be performed and maintained in an interactive environment. Since the exploitation of parallelism within such operations seems to be promising, we investigate the principal approaches for processing a query on complex objects (molecules) in parallel. A number of arguments favor methods based on inter-molecule parallelism as against intramolecule parallelism. Retrieval of molecules may be optimized by multiple storage structures and access paths. Hence, maintenance of such storage redundancy seems to be another good application area to explore the use of parallelism. Deferred update seems to be a bad idea, whereas concurrent update strategies incorporate salient application features. For performance reasons, we have chosen a multiprocessor system sharing an instruction addressable common memory which is used for buffer management, synchronization, and logging/recovery. Activation of concurrent requests is supported by a nested transaction concept which allows a safe and effective execution control within parallel actions of an operation.

Data Mining und Analyse

Globaler Wettbewerb und technischer Fortschritt haben in den vergangenen Jahren eine viel starker individualisierte Anfertigung von Produkten jeglicher Art moglich gemacht. In einzelnen Beispielen ist aufgezeigt worden, dass die Produktion von kleinsten Mengen (Losgrose 1) okonomisch sinnvoll machbar erscheint. Die meisten dieser Produktionsvorgange basieren auf einer vereinfachten Produktionslandschaft mit niedriger Komplexitat, ahnlich einer modernen Manufaktur (vgl. Hubschmid, 2012). So konnen in einem einfachen Herstellungsprozess mit einfachen Zuliefererprozessen typische Individualanfertigungen von hoher Qualitat und Exklusivitat produziert werden. Oft werden diese dann uber das Internet vertrieben.

Publishing of Interoperable Services and Processes in UDDI

This paper presents a requirements analysis and a solution approach to representing collaborative business processes conforming to the Wf-XML/ASAP standard proposal in a UDDI registry. Wf-XML/ASAP is introduced as a coordination protocol for business collaborations focusing on loosely coupled subprocesses which involve executable and human activities. The UDDI standard as part of the web services protocol stack is designed to hold service relevant information from overall business entities down to technical fingerprints of mostly simple web services. We present a solution approach that allows to use UDDI for registering and discovering services using Wf-XML/ASAP interfaces. We conclude that while such a representation is possible, some of UDDIs structures and relationships need to be extended in order to get an appropriate service registry for interoperable services collaborative infrastructures.

XML data management (panel session): go native or spruce up relational systems?

XML data is likely to be widely used as a data exchange format but users also need to store and query XML data. The purpose of this panel is to explore whether and how to best provide this functionality.

Tamino – A Database System Combining Text Retrieval and XML

In 1999, Software AG released the first version of its native XML server Tamino [276, 274, 275], which includes a native XML database. The term native has become popular since then, being used with differing meanings. While some sources, e.g. [10], define a native XML database system only by its appearance to the user (“Defines a (logical) model for an XML document ... and stores and retrieves documents according to that model. ... For example, it can be built on a relational, hierarchical, or object-oriented database ...”), Software AG takes the definition further by requiring that a native XML database system has been built and designed for the handling of XML, and is not just a database system for an arbitrary data model with an XML layer on top.

PRIMA - a database system supporting dynamically defined composite objects

PRIMA is a non-standard database system developed at the University Kaiserslautern. Its major purpose is the support of engineering design applications, such as VLSI design and software engineering. The applications require tailored application-dependent interfaces which, however, all share basic notions like that of a composite object. Hence, the approach of PRIMA is to offer an application-independent complex-object interface (the moleculeatom data model, shortly called MAD model) and to provide means to easily augment this interface by application-dependent functionality. In the following, we will concentrate on the MAD model and its implementation.

Messen und Bewerten paralleler Client/Server-Architekturen - am Beispiel des kooperierenden Non-Standard-Datenbanksystems PRIMA

Mit der stetigen Verbreitung und Vernetzung von Arbeitsplatzrechnern sowie dem wachsenden Einsatz von Mehrrechnersystemen gewinnen auftragsorientierte Systemmodelle, die eine Zerlegung in auftraggebende und auftragnehmende Systemkomponenten vorsehen, zunehmend an Bedeutung. Die effektive Nutzung der verteilten Rechnerleistung erfordert geeignete Masnahmen zur Unterstutzung der parallelen Auftragsabwicklung. Neben Konzepten zur Betriebssystemeinbettung adaquater Ablaufumgebungen existiert ein Bedarf an Mesweikzeugen und Analysemethoden, die eine quantifizierbare Bewertung paralleler, auftragsorientierter Anwendungssysteme erlauben.