Supporting Flexible Object Database Evolution with Aspects [chapter]

Awais Rashid, Nicholas Leidenfrost
2004 Lecture Notes in Computer Science  
Object database management systems (ODBMSs) typically offer fixed approaches to evolve the schema of the database and adapt existing instances accordingly. Applications, however, have very specialised evolution requirements that can often not be met by the fixed approach offered by the ODBMS. In this paper, we discuss how aspect-oriented programming (AOP) has been employed in the AspOEv evolution framework, which supports flexible adaptation and introduction of evolution mechanisms -for dynamic
more » ... evolution of the schema and adaptation of existing instances -governing an object database. We argue that aspects support flexibility in the framework by capturing crosscutting hot spots (customisation points in the framework) and establishing their causality relationships with the custom evolution approaches. Furthermore, aspects help in information hiding by screening the database programmer from the complexity of the hot spots manipulated by custom evolution mechanisms. They also make it possible to preserve architectural constraints and specify custom version polymorphism policies.
doi:10.1007/978-3-540-30175-2_5 fatcat:4bxjieyndjgqnhcih5upx7k5ju