Object-Oriented Database Design

using UML and ODMG

Object Oriented Databases (I) – Lecture 9

Advanced Databases
 Lecture outline
 Database Design Process
 Object-Oriented concepts
 Objects, Classes
 Attributes, Operations, Associations
 Encapsulation, Inheritance
 Object-Oriented Data Modelling
 Identifying
 Classes, attributes, and operations.
 Associations among classes
 Drawing class diagrams – conceptual model
 Introduction to ODMG 3.0 (the standard for Object-
Oriented Databases)

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 References
 Database Systems – 4th Edition (chapters 25 to 27) by Connolly
& Begg, Addison Wesley, 2005
 Database Design for Smarties using UML for Data Modelling
(chapter 13) by Robert J. Muller, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers,
1999 (specialist text in library)
 Fundamental of Database Systems – 5th Edition (chapters 20
& 21) by R. Elmasri and S. B. Navati, Addison Wesley, 2007
 Object Database Standard: ODMG 3.0 by R.G.G. Cattell,
Douglas K. Barry, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2000 (reference
in library)
 Object-Oriented Database Design clearly explained by Jan L.
Harrington. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2000 (reference in
library)

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Database Design Process
Application Domain
or Universe of Discourse

using ER model or UML

Data Modelling

Conceptual Model

using Data Model of the

target DBMS

Logical Database Design

Logical Model
DBMS specific
resource-based
optimization

Physical Database Design

Physical Model

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Logical/Physical database design

Relational Normalization & SQL

RDBMS
database design Physical design table definitions
Mapping onto
Relations
(no operations)

Mapping onto
UML class Object-Relational Normalization & Extended-SQL
Relations and Object
Physical design ORDBMS
diagram types database design table definitions

Mapping directly
onto ODL classes

Object-Oriented
database schema Optimization OODBMS
in ODL

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Object-oriented concepts
 Objects
 Objects represent real world entities, concepts, and tangible
as well as intangible things.
 For example a person, a drama, a licence
 Every object has a unique identifier (OID).
 System generated
 Never changes in the lifetime of the object
 An object is made of two things:
 State: attributes (name, address, birthDate of a person)
 Behaviour: operations (age of a person is computed from
birthDate and current date)
 Objects are categorized by their type or class.
 An object is an instance of a type or class.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Object-oriented concepts …
 Classification
 Classification is the process of grouping together objects
which have common features.
 Programming languages have type systems and database
systems have data models to classify object.
 The name used for the classificatory group of values is
usually called class.
 Class
 Provides a template for constructing objects.
 Instances of a class have the same kind of data and identical
behaviour.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Object-oriented concepts …
 An Example of a class in UML
Person Class Name

name: {firstName: string,

middleName: string, Attributes
lastName: string}
address: string
birthDate: date

age(): Integer
Operations
changeAddress(newAdd: string)

p:Person A Person object

name: {Norman, William, Preston}

address: Stockport
birthDate:11-JUN-70

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Object-oriented concepts …
 Encapsulation
 Merger of data structure and operations.
 Objects are composed of attributes (values) and operations
(behaviour).
Person
 Inheritance name: {firstName: string,
 A class can be defined middleName: string,
lastName: string}
in terms of another one. address: string
birthDate: date
 Person is super-class age(): Integer
changeAddress(newAdd: string)
and Student is sub-class.
 Student class inherits attributes
and operations of Person.
Student

regNum: string {PK}

major: string

register(C: Course): boolean

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Object-oriented concepts …
 An object system or object-based system is one that
supports the modeling of data as abstract entities,
with object identity.
 An object-oriented system is an object system in
which all data is created as instances of classes
which take part in an inheritance hierarchy.
 An object-oriented database management system
(ODBMS) is a DBMS with an object-oriented logical
data model.
 An object-oriented database (ODB) is a database
made up of objects and managed by an ODBMS.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Why ODBs?
 ODBs are inevitable when:
 Data is complex and variable in size
 Complex structural and compositional relationships
 Data is highly inter-related
 Data is evolving rapidly over time
 Richer data types
 complex objects
 inheritance
 user extensibility
 Behaviour with data
 not just a data model but also
 operations can be bundled together with data

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Complex Data

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 ODBs are more Natural & Direct

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Comparison
 RDBs vs. ORDBs
 Very easy to compare because both are based on
Relational Model.
 An RDB does not support abstract data types (ADT),
all attribute values must be atomic and relations must
be in first normal form (flat relation).
 An ORDB supports ADTs, attributes can be multi-
valued, and does not require first normal form.
 The underlying basic data structures of RDBs are
much simpler but less versatile than ORDBs.
 ORDBs support complex data whereas RDBs don’t.
 ORDBs support wide range of applications.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Comparison – continued…
 RDBs vs. ODBs.
 Not very easy to compare because of philosophical
differences.
 RDBs have only one construct i.e. Relation, whereas
the type system of ODBs is much richer and complex.
 RDBs require primary keys and foreign keys for
implementing relationships, ODBs simply don’t.
 ODBs support complex data whereas RDBs don’t.
 ODBs support wide range of applications.
 ODBs are much faster than RDBs but are less mature
to handle large volumes of data.
 There is more acceptance and domination of RDBs in
the market than that for ODBs.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Comparison – continued…
 ODBs vs. ORDBs.
 Both support ADTs, collections, OIDs, and inheritance,
though philosophically quite different.
 ORDBs extended RDBs whereas ODBs add persistence and
database capabilities to OO languages.
 Both support query languages for manipulating collections
and nested and complex data.
 SQL3 is inspired from OO concepts and is converging
towards OQL (object query language).
 ORDBs carries all the benefits of RDBs, whereas ODBs are
less benefited from the technology of RDBs.
 ODBs are seamlessly integrated with OOPLs with less
mismatch in the type systems;
 ORDBs (SQL3) have quite different constructs than those of
OOPLs when used in embedded form.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Object-Oriented Data Modelling
 Identification of objects in the system
 Use UML analysis techniques e.g. use-cases, domain object
models.
 Potential sources are:
 Things, People, Roles, Organizations, Concepts
 Events, Processes, Places, Locations, etc
 Devise an Object Model
 Refining the object model
 Grouping objects in Classes
 Identifying Attributes, Operations, Associations & Multiplicities
 Drawing class diagrams (of persistent classes)
 Reconciling classes
 Revisiting the classes for inheritance
 Considering normalization of classes into simple classes
 Producing a big picture: a class diagram (perhaps without
showing attributes and operations).
Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)
 OO Data Modelling: Example
 Universe of Discourse: TU Information System (TU-IS)
 Tribhuwan University has several academic departments.
 Each department provides one or more courses.
 Each course is composed of several modules, where a
module may be part of more than one course.
 A student enrolls on a course and every year takes a
specified number of modules. Note that several students are
usually registered for a course.
 Every student is assigned a tutor at the start of the course,
who is a lecturer in the department providing the course.
 A lecturer works for a department and usually teaches on
several modules.
 Each module has a module tutor who is a lecturer. A lecturer
may be a tutor of several modules.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Class Diagram for TU-IS

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 ODMG 3 Object Database Standard
 Object Database Management Group, formed 1991, intended to:
 provide a standard where previously there was none
 support portability between products
 standardize model, querying and programming issues
 Enables both designs and implementations to be ported between
compliant systems
 Currently on version 3.0
 Most vendor products are moving toward compliance; O2 is possibly
the closest
 Vendors
 Object Design,Objectivity, O2 Technology, POET, etc.
 URL: www.odmg.org
 We will be using lambda-DB, a freely available ODBMS.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 ODMG Components
 An architecture for OODBMS.
 An object model.
 that will act as the logical model for all OODBMS and provide a
level of interoperability.
 A data definition language (ODL).
 a concrete specification of the operations permitted over a
schema defined in the data model.
 A query language (OQL).
 for posing ad-hoc queries but not for data definition or data
manipulation.
 Language bindings to existing OOPL (C++, Java,
Smalltalk).
 the object manipulation languages are the integration of a PL
with the ODMG model, so the OOPL’s get persistence and the
OODB gets a flexible and standard DB programming language.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 An Architecture for OODBMS
Declaration in ODL or Application Source code in PL
PL ODL using ODMG language binding

Declaration
PL Compiler
Pre-Processor

Metadata
ODBMS Runtime Application Binary

Linker

Data Access
Database Running Application

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Object Model
Object identity
1. Data Model Complex objects
 state and structure of data
Types and classes
2. Behaviour model Inheritance hierarchies
 dynamics of the data Encapsulation
 operations on the data
Late binding/overriding
Extensibility
Completeness
3. Persistence model
 the way the persistent and transient data is created &
changes status
4. Naming model
 naming and accessing objects

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Object Definition Language (ODL)
 ODL is a specification language used to define the
schema of an ODMG compliant database.
 ODL supports all semantic constructs of the ODMG
object model.
 ODL is independent of any programming language,
and hence provides means for the portability of
database schema across complaint ODBMSs.
 The database schema may comprise of:
 an ODL module (i.e. a higher level construct for grouping
ODL specifications),
 some generic object types using interface,
 some concrete object types using class, and
 some literal types using struct, etc.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Components of ODL (literal)
 Literal Types
 Define values (not having OIDs)
 Cannot stand alone i.e., must be embedded in objects
 Can be simple, collection and structured
 Simple
 long, short, unsigned long, unsigned short,
float, double, char, string, boolean, enum
 Collection
 set: unordered that do not allow duplicates,
 bag: unordered that allow duplicates,
 list: ordered that allow duplicates,
 array: one-dimensional with variable length, and
 dictionary: unordered sequence of key-and-value pairs
without duplicate keys
Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)
 Components of ODL (literal) …
 Structured
 date, time, timestamp, interval, and struct
 For example

struct Name {
string firstName,
string middleName,
string lastName
};

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Components of ODL (object)
 Object Types
 interface: defines only the abstract behaviour of an object type.
 Instances of an interface type cannot be created
 For example
interface Object {
...
boolean same_as(in Object other_object);
Object copy();
void delete();
};

 class: defines both abstract state and behaviour of an object type

 Instances of a class can be created
 For example
class Person {
...
attribute Name name;
attribute date birthDate;
unsigned short age();
};

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Components of ODL (object) …
 State definition: Attributes
 An attribute is defined for each attribute in a UML class or
an ER entity type.
 An attribute belongs to a single class and is not a self-
standing object.
 The type of the values (domain) of an attribute is either object
or literal (atomic, structured or collection).
 For example:
attribute set<string> qualifications;
 Defines an attribute of Lecturer class called
qualifications the value of which is of type set<string>.
 Consider that lec represents a Lecturer object then
lec.qualifications := set(“BSc”, “MSc”, “PhD”);
 Will assign the set of strings as a value to the
qualifications attribute of the lecturer object.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Components of ODL (object) …
 Behaviour definition: Operations
 Objects may have certain behaviour that is specified as a set
of operations.
 An object type includes an operation signature for each
operation that specifies:
 name of the operation,
 names and types of each argument, and
 the type of the returned value, if any.
 For example:
unsigned short age();
 Defines the operation age without any arguments which

return a value of type unsigned short.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Components of ODL (object) …
 Extent and Keys
 Besides, attributes and operations, a class definition may specify an
extent and a unique key.
 Extent
 Defines the set of all instances of a given class within an ODB.
 Deleting an object removes the object from the extent of a
corresponding class.
 Key
 Uniquely identifies the instances of a class.
 The key concept is similar to the concept of primary key in RDBs,
however, keys are not must in ODBs and are not used to implement
relationships (as in the case of RDBs).
 A class must have an extent to have a key.
 For example:
class Student (extent Students key regNum) {...};
 Defines Students to be the extent and regNum to be a unique

key of the Student class.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Components of ODL (object) …
 Atomic object type
 Any user-defined object type e.g., Person
 Collection object types
 Set: unordered that do not allow duplicates,
 Bag: unordered that allow duplicates,
 List: ordered that allow duplicates,
 Array: one-dimensional with variable length, and
 Dictionary: unordered sequence of key-and-value pairs without
duplicate keys
 Structured object types
 Date, Time, Timestamp, Interval
 Watch out that ODL is case-sensitive e.g.,
 Set is a collection object type whereas set is a literal collection.
 Name is a type name whereas name is an attribute in the Person
class definition.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Mapping Class Diagrams into ODL
 At this stage, we are dealing with classes, attributes,
and operations.
 Different associations and inheritance will be covered next.
 Mapping (general case)
 Each UML class becomes an ODL class.
 Each attribute or method in a UML class becomes an
attribute or operation of an ODL class with appropriate types.
 Specify a suitable extent name unless the class diagram
explicitly indicates otherwise.
 Specify a unique key if one or more attributes of a UML class
are shown in bold or tagged with {PK}.
 For a composite attribute, specify a structure literal type.

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 Mapping TU-IS class diagram into ODL
module TU_IS1 {
struct Name {
string firstName;
string middleName;
string lastName; };
class Person {
attribute Name name;
attribute date birthDate;
attribute char gender;
unsigned short age(); };

class Lecturer (extent Lecturers key lecturerId) {

attribute string lecturerId;
attribute unsigned short room;
attribute float salary;
attribute date joinedOn;
attribute set<string> qualifications;
boolean teachModule(in Module M); };

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 TU-IS schema in ODL …
class Department (extent Departments key deptNum) {
attribute string deptNum;
attribute string name; };
class Course (extent Courses key courseCode) {
attribute string courseCode;
attribute string name; };

class Module (extent Modules key moduleCode) {

attribute string moduleCode;
attribute string name;
attribute unsigned short creditHours; };
class Student (extent Students key regNum) {
attribute string regNum;
attribute string major;
boolean register(in Course C);
boolean takeModule(in Module M); };
};

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)

 TU-IS
COMPLETE
CLASS
DIAGRAM

Advanced Databases (CM036) – Lecture # 9: Object-Oriented Databases (I)