Unified representation for Object Oriented and Relational models

The Object Oriented (OO) paradigm has wide acceptance among application developers while Relational Databases (RDB) are commonly used by most organizations, but the two model systems, OO and RDB, are incompatible. Developers of database applications often face the problem of an inherent mismatch between the two models. This paper proposes integrating OO and RDB models into a unifying conceptual model called the Flowthing Model (FM), instead of separately mapping OO and RDB concepts. FM encompasses both models and has been utilized to enhance understanding of required mapping and to provide a high-level framework for future development of a unifying model for OO and RDB technologies. It also provides a single way to conceptualize data representation.