Object relationship notation (ORN) for database applications. Enhancing the modeling and implementation of associations (Q999160)

This book provides a comprehensive reference for Object Relationship Notation (ORN), a declarative extension that adds referential actions to UML multiplicities for the conceptual modeling of relationships in database applications. The book is intended as a text for a broad audience including researchers, developers of DBMSs and data modeling tools, database practitioners, and students. It is divided into three parts, the first of which addresses the modeling of relationships in general and ORN in particular. The second part explains how to use ORN to develop database systems. The third part demonstrates how to add ORN to a DBMS and how to extend SQL and the ODMG standard for ODMSs with ORN. Throughout this book many examples are provided and allow for a very good understanding of the covered material. Several chapters are drawn from the author's own research papers on ORN, which are extended and integrated into the first coherent ORN reference. The book does an excellent job in explaining (a) various types of relationships and their referential actions, (b) shortcomings in the support of relationships in current DBMSs, and (c) the modeling and implementation of such relationships based on ORN. In addition to the book, readers can access an ORN simulator via the Web as well as download the software tools ORN Additive, which extends Microsoft SQL Server with ORN, and Object Relater Plus (OR\(^+\)), which adds ORN to ObjectStore. To summarize, I recommend this book as a reference for ORN.