Browsing a la carte in object-oriented databases

Abstract

In this paper we present a user interface to the KIWI object oriented database system. The system combines ease of use with a powerful customisation facility which greatly simplifies the development of end-user applications. This is achieved by using the underlying object-oriented language (OOPS+) features such as inheritance to define a consistent and orthogonal set of graphical object classes that can be used to attach a tailor-made external representation of (a view on) objects and/or classes. In addition, using the same tools, it becomes a simple matter to define general purpose browsing and manipulation tools which otherwise would have to be developed separately.