Composite object support in an object-oriented database system

Abstract

Many applications in such domains as computer-aided design require the capability to define, store and retrieve as a single unit a collection of related objects known as a composite object. A composite object explicitly captures and enforces the IS-PART-OF integrity constraint between child and parent pairs of objects in a hierarchical collection of objects. Further, it can be used as a unit of storage and retrieval to enhance the performance of a database system. This paper provides a formal definition of the semantics of composite objects within an object-oriented data model, and describes their use as units of integrity control, storage and retrieval, and concurrency control in a prototype object-oriented database system we have implemented.