Interoperable databases: a programming language approach

Even though federated multidatabase systems solve most of the issues in integrating heterogeneous data sources, they do not solve what we call data access heterogeneity: i.e., they do not allow users to structure and manage in the same way persistent, volatile and distributed data with the tools that match their needs. To solve this problem, we propose to add generic MDBS management facilities into a general purpose object oriented programming language. This extension is mainly based on new transactional and view approaches and the resulting system can be completely customized in order to match the needs of its users. An implementation of this system for Java, named JavaViews, currently allows us to integrate ODBC as well as Versant or Poet databases