A Theorem Prover-Based Analysis Tool for Object-Oriented Databases

Abstract

Abstract. We present a theorem-prover based analysis tool for object-oriented database systems with integrity constraints. Object-oriented database specifications are mapped to higher-order logic (HOL). This allows us to reason about the semantics of database operations using a mechanical theorem prover such as Isabelle or PVS. The tool can be used to verify various semantics requirements of the schema (such as transaction safety, compensation, and commutativity) to support the advanced transaction models used in workflow and cooperative work. We give an example of method safety analysis for the generic structure editing operations of a cooperative authoring system.

Compensation methods to support cooperative applications: A case study in automated verification of schema requirements for an advanced transaction model

“…Our tool was initially developed to verify consistency requirements. In [19], we have shown that the tool can be used to verify that a method preserves a number of static integrity constraints. The compensation analysis discussed in this paper uses the same automated proof procedure, which is based on standard machinery provided by the Isabelle theorem prover.…”

“…no subtyping on 'struct' types); the subtyping relation is fully induced by the class inheritance hierarchy. We do not consider relationships [18], although some relationships can be expressed as constraints, using quantifiers (see [19] for examples of OASIS constraints). Figure 2 gives class declarations for an example database, with operations for editing a generic graph structure.…”

“…The constructors of type object provide run-time type information. Type decisions are encoded using case splits to examine the type tag (for details, see [19]). As for the generic object store, rules are also derived for the database-specific store, namely for the introduction and elimination of the eval predicate.…”

Verifiable Object-Oriented Transactions

“…A pragmatic goal has been static automatic verification which completely hides the prover technology from the users. Automatic static verification of the object-oriented constraints is a major distinction with respect to our previous work [3,4] as well as with respect to other work [8,23,25,6]. Our goals are object-oriented schemas with general integrity constraints, transactions written in a mainstream object-oriented language, and their static verification that guarantees ACID properties in an implementation based on an object-oriented database management system.…”

“…The idea of static verification of transaction safety with respect to the database integrity constraints has been considered in previous research [8,23,25,6] but it has not been implemented at a very practical level so that it can be used by typical object-oriented database programmers. The first problem is that object database technologies such as ODMG [9], Db4 [10], and Objectivity [20] are not equipped with general constraints, and even have difficulties in specifying keys and referential integrity [17].…”