Complex model-defined constraints for database access with the entity container

  • Authors:

  • Gernot Schmoelzer;Christian Kreiner;Zsolt Kovács;Egon Teiniker;Reinhold Weiss

  • Affiliations:

  • Institute for Technical Informatics, Graz University of Technology, Austria, Inffeldgasse, Graz and Salomon Automation GmbH, Friesach bei Graz, Friesach, Austria;Institute for Technical Informatics, Graz University of Technology, Austria, Inffeldgasse, Graz and Salomon Automation GmbH, Friesach bei Graz, Friesach, Austria;Salomon Automation GmbH, Friesach bei Graz, Friesach, Austria;Salomon Automation GmbH, Friesach bei Graz, Friesach, Austria;Institute for Technical Informatics, Graz University of Technology, Austria, Inffeldgasse, Graz

  • Venue:
  • DBA'06 Proceedings of the 24th IASTED international conference on Database and applications
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

Data modeling is a well known mechanism describing data structures at a high level of abstraction. Such models are often used to automatically create database structures, and to generate code structures used to access databases. This has the disadvantage of losing data constraints that might be specified in data models for data verification. In this paper we follow an approach using the Entity Container (EC), an object-oriented and model-based data cache, for accessing Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMs). The EC provides data access based on entity classes defined in a data model, and transparently supports several persistency mechanisms. A Database Access Layer (DBAL) provides an Object/Relational (O/R) mapping converting data objects to the relational model of a RDBMS and vice versa. In order to ensure data consistency and to improve quality of data intensive systems, we discuss the concept of strong model constraint checking at the level of a data cache, the EC. Data modeling, constraint checking, and the atomicity problem as a consequence of constraint checking is elaborated. Analog to databases, a mechanism for grouping multiple actions to a single unit of work is required, here referred as Microtransaction (MT). Properties, combination with database transactions, and intended use of such MTs are presented.