Fundamentals of Database Management Systems, Second Edition

CHAPTER 9

OBJECT-ORIENTED DATABASE MANAGEMENT

Traditional information systems and the applications within them have always maintained a clear separation between their programs and their data. Programs and data structures are designed separately, implemented separately, and stored separately on disk. Relational databases fit very well into this arrangement. For a long time the emphasis was on the programs, with the data structures and ultimately the data stored in them being a secondary consideration. From a managerial point of view, the concept of data as a corporate resource has made significant inroads into changing the IS environment from this program-centric mentality into a more datacentric one.

On the technical side, an alternative approach to information systems and IS development, which comes under the broad heading of “object orientation,” began during the 1980s. This approach is, by its nature, more datacentric. It began with object-oriented programming, then object-oriented systems analysis and object-oriented systems design, and finally object-oriented database management, complete with object-oriented database management systems (OODBMS). A variety of OODBMSs have been developed and marketed commercially. We will take a brief look at the essential points of object-oriented database management in this chapter, but, as we do, it is important to bear in mind that the commercial OODBMSs vary widely in the OODBMS features that they support either partially or fully.

OBJECTIVES ...