Verifiable Object-Oriented Transactions

Abstract

Abstract. Unlike the existing object-oriented and other database technologies, database schemas in the technology developed in this research are equipped with very general integrity constraints specified in a declarative, logic-based fashion. These declarative specifications are expressed in object-oriented assertion languages and they apply to transactions that are implemented in a full-fledged, mainstream object-oriented programming language. The model of transactions is based on more advanced features of object-oriented type systems, the ownership model, and very general constraints. The main distinction in comparison with other database technologies is that transactions can be verified to satisfy the schema integrity constraints. The two main contributions of this paper are object-oriented schemas equipped with integrity constraints and static verification of transactions with respect to the integrity constraints. Solutions to these open problems have been out of reach so far. Furthermore, transaction verification is not only largely static, but it is also automatic, so that the subtleties of the underlying verification technology are hidden from the users. In addition to static verification, the technology offers dynamic enforcement of the integrity constraints when necessary. The overall outcome is a significant increase in data integrity along with run-time efficiency and reliability of transactions.

Automatic versus interactive program verification

“…More recent results are [2,3,1]. In our technology an object-oriented schema is a class equipped with a variety of constraints, including the classical database constraints such as keys and referential integrity.…”