Simulation-based debugging of active databases

Active databases allow the rule-based specification of activities using languages like ADL (Activity Description Language) for the definition of complex, application specific events and reactions thereof. Although a number of such languages for active databases have been published, there is an obvious lack of suitable mechanisms to examine whether the described active behaviour designed for an application corresponds to the intended one. As a possible solution for this problem we suggest the concept of debugging active databases with simulated event schedules. In particular, we map the events of the activity description into different event schedules for an asynchronous simulator. We briefly introduce the AIDE architecture, the activity description language ADL and motivate the necessity of a simulation tool. Then we focus on the description of extended debugging with simulation especially on a mapping algorithm and a simulation execution mechanism supported by user interactions