Modularity in databases

Abstract

Modularization can be sought for as a technique to provide context-dependent perspectives over a given shared information repository. This chapter presents an approach to database modularization where the modules represent application-specific perspectives over the shared database. The approach is meant to support the creation/definition of the modules as part of the conceptual schema definition process, that is to say the modules and the database they are a subset of are simultaneously defined. This is similar to Cyc's approach to ontological microtheories definition. The chapter develops both intuitive and formal definition of the proposed approach. It also shows the basics of how the modules are used by user transactions and of how the overall multiperception database can be implemented on a commercial database management system. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.