Mohammad A. Ketabchi

Modeling application domains

Abstract Modeling the interactions among the objects in an application domain and the activities in the domain are necessary extensions of modeling the structure and behaviour of objects in the domain. Object models capture the structure and behaviour of components in the application domains. Interaction models describe how the components in the domain interact to realize the activities in the domain. Activity models are used to describe the functionality of the domain. The integration of object, interaction and activity models is essential for producing complete domain models which we refer to as Component-Interaction-Activity (CIA) models. The CIA model of a domain simplifies the development of applications in that domain because it makes extensive reuse of the elements of the domain possible. Concepts for developing the CIA models of application domains are described. A Domain Modeling Language (DML) which provides constructs for expressing the concepts in CIA models is introduced. The DML provides: (i) a class construct to define components, (ii) rule, trigger, event and relationship constructs to define interactions among components, and (iii) process and task constructs to define the activities in the domain. A Domain Modeling Tool which provides a graphic interface to DML and makes the CIA domain models expressed in DML executable is introduced. An example of using CIA models in developing applications is presented.

Mathemtical model of composite objects and its application for organizing engineering databases

The authors introduce a clustering concept called component aggregation which considers assemblies having the same types of parts as equivalent objects. The notion of equivalent objects is used to develop a mathematical model of composite objects. It is shown that the set of equivalence classes of objects form a Boolean algebra whose minterms represent the objects that are not considered composite at the current viewing level. The algebraic structure of composite objects serves as a basis for developing a technique for organizing composite objects and supporting materialization of explosion views. The technique provides a clustering mechanism which partitions the database into meaningful and application-oriented clusters, and allows any desired explosion view to be materialized using a minimal set of stored views. A simplified relational database for design data and a set of frequent access patterns in design applications are outlined and used to demonstrate the benefits of database organizations based on the mathematical model of composite objects. >

Comparative analysis of RDBMS and OODBMS: a case study

The underlying hypothesis of the case study described is that the development, implementation, operations, and maintenance of large, complex, data-intensive applications, such as computer-integrated manufacturing, can be simplified through the use of object-oriented database management systems (DBMSs). The objective of the case study is to verify this hypothesis. The approach is to prototype selected representative components of a computer-integrated-manufacturing system; these components have been developed on top of a relational DBMS, using an object-oriented DBMS, called Iris. The fundamental elements of the data model of Iris are objects, types, and functions. An Iris object is represented by a unique identifier. Each object is associated with at least one type. This association supports classification. An object is said to be the instance of the types with which it has classification associations. The results of the study illustrate that the object-oriented prototype has a superior schema, is capable of providing convenient access to information, and is easier to extend and maintain.<<ETX>>

An object-oriented semantic data model for CAD applications

Abstract The database management requirements of design applications are inherently different than those of business applications. These requirements can be met by database management systems based on object-oriented semantic data models rather than record-based data models. An object-oriented semantic data model called odm is described which integrates functional data models, semantic data models, and the actor model of computation. odm attempts to increase the productivity of computer-aided design operations by providing facilities which are needed for effective management of design data. odm supports the composite nature of design objects, the iterative and tentative nature of the design process, and the object-oriented nature of design operations.

An integrated software testing system based on an object-oriented DBMS

It is generally believed that the testing phases of software development consume one-third to one-half of the entire software development time and resources. To increase the productivity of the software development process, the cost and time of testing should be reduced. The integrated software testing system described in this paper allows the structural and functional description of software systems, test data and their expected results, and bug reports to be generated and stored in a software database implemented using an object-oriented database management system. The objects in the database and their relationships with each other are used to facilitate local testing and to integrate structural and functional testing approaches. The high-level, uniform user interface of the system increases the productivity of the test engineers, and reduces the cost of developing reliable software systems. The software testing system together with an existing software analysis and maintenance system together cover the software analysis, maintenance, debugging, and testing phases of the software product lifecycle.<<ETX>>

A systematic approach to corrective maintenance

A process-driven, model-based solution to corrective maintenance is described. The solution approach starts by identifying the st of ordered steps that should be performed to complete a corrective maintenance task. Once the steps in the process are clearly defined, the information needed at each step is organized into maintenance information models. A set of tools that operate on the models and provide the capabilities needed for the process of corrective maintenance are then identified. Realizing the models and providing the tools through a uniform interface lead to a software maintenance system that supports effective and reliable corrective maintenance. An overview of SAMS, a Software Analysis and Maintenance System developed based on this approach, is presented. SAMS integrates various tools that are needed to support maintenance processes including the corrective maintenance process. SAMS tools are developed on top of an object model of maintenance information realized using an object-oriented database management system

Applying object technology to software analysis and maintenance system development

Object-oriented database management system (DBMS) technology promises to meet the requirements of software systems in which large amount of complex stored and computed data with rich interconnections are shared by multiple interactive tools. Software analysis and maintenance is such a software system. Analyzing and maintaining a large amount of code is an essential but very expensive and time-consuming activity in large corporations. A software analysis and maintenance system called SAMS is being developed to apply object-oriented DBMS technology to provide a solution to the problem of analysis and maintenance of a large amount of code. SAMS is a system with an object-oriented model-based architecture. SAMS tools semiautomatically construct an object-oriented model of software from the specifications of programming languages and software domain models. This object-oriented model is realized by a commercial object-oriented DBMS and is automatically populated by objects that compose the software systems under maintenance. Various analysis and maintenance tools are implemented as the methods of the persistent objects in the database and therefore are fully integrated. The approach, architecture, and an overview of the functionality of SAMS are presented. Experiences in using object-oriented DBMS technology to develop large sophisticated systems such as SAMS are discussed.

Modeling activities of application domains

Modeling the activities of an application domain is a necessary extension of modeling the structure and behavior of objects in the domain. Object models capture the structure and behavior of components in the application domains, whereas activity models are used to describe the functionality of the domain. The integration of object and activity modeling is essential for producing complete domain models in which the objects and activities are mutually consistent. Realization of such domain models simplifies the development of sophisticated applications. Using a DBMS simplifies the realization of the model and further facilitates the development of multiuser applications.

External relationships of objects

External relationships of objects represent semantic dependencies between objects that enable inter‐object communication and augment the services the objects provide with role‐specific behaviors. Most of the object‐oriented design methodologies support the notion of external relationships at the conceptual level, but OO programming languages have no language construct to directly implement the external relationships, which are implemented as containment relationships with embedded pointers resulting in the semantics of the relationships being buried in code. Moreover, object‐oriented programming languages lack a mechanism to allow a dynamic classification of objects according to the roles they play in external relationships. This paper describes a technique to treat an external relationship as a conceptually useful abstraction at the specification stage and a separately identifiable structure at the implementation stage, by providing a declarative specification and an implementation in C++ with special focus on the implementation of object roles.

An Object-Centered Application Development System

Recent advances in object technology have given rise to a set of powerful tools that are referred to as application builders. Application builders attempt to raise the level of abstractions in application development process from programming to composition of predefined components. To achieve this, application builders provide a set of components and facilities to compose these components. However, the composition facilities of the current application builders are primitive and the set of predefined components they provide can only be extended by programmers. Application builders that allow developers to build applications using domain specific components, semantics and primitives are needed. This article presents an Object-Centered Application Development System which provides a set of flexible high-level modeling and composition constructs and supports domain specific application development.