An active database approach to integrating black-box software components

Active database technology uses active rules, called Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules, as an integral feature of application development. Active rules specify an event that the database monitors, a declarative condition to evaluate when the event occurs, and an action to execute when the condition is true. This paper motivates the use of active rules to develop a software application that is the result of integrating black-box software components. This approach focuses on integrating black-box JavaBeans^TM components, which generate Property Change Events when the values of its properties are modified. The changes in property values are known as deltas in the database community. DeltaBeans are introduced as a mechanism to monitor the changes or deltas to the properties of a black-box JavaBeans^TM component. This paper illustrates DeltaBeans in a simple application example and motivates the use of deltas to trigger active rules that specify application integration