Heterogeneous data integration and presentation in multimedia database management systems

Integration of multimedia data, which might be of different types or from different sources, still requires huge and tedious effort. To support effective management of multimedia information, management of information content should be separate from management of the data which specify the parameters of the presentation form. Moreover, adequate support of the structural and behavioral extension of multimedia objects would be crucial as multimedia authors frequently change or extend their objects from one form to another. This paper presents the support of dynamic extension and multi-facet modeling of multimedia objects in an object-role database system called DOOR. Structural and behavioral extensions of multimedia objects are achieved by dynamic role playing. Type information and conversion functions can be encapsulated in roles such that type heterogeneity can be handled transparent to end-users. Finally presentation interfaces are modeled by means of views