The implementation and evaluation of integrity maintenance rules in an object-oriented database

The authors describe an approach to the declarative representation of integrity constraints in an object-oriented database and the use of integrity maintenance rules for the active maintenance of constraints. A semantic data model is used to automatically generate class definitions and state-altering database operations with constraints represented as objects in the database. Integrity maintenance production rules are automatically generated from constraints and stored as extensions to class operations, hiding the details of constraint checking and rule triggering. High-level transactions call state-altering operations and invoke the integrity maintenance process at commit time. Integrity constraints are declaratively represented in the database system, with operations encapsulating rules about how to respond to constraint violations. An analysis of problems associated with cyclic and anomalous rule behavior