Enterprise Objects Framework

Abstract

Today's information system executives desperately need to improve programmer productivity and reduce software maintenance costs. They are demanding flexibility in frameworks and architectures in order to meet unforeseen changes (see [Yankee 94] ). Adaptability is a major requirement of most company's information systems efforts. Management of change is one of the key computing concepts of the 1990s.Object-oriented tools and development frameworks are starting to deliver the benefits of increased productivity and flexibility. These next-generation products now need to be combined with relational databases to leverage investments and facilitate access to business data. Object-Relational Enablers automate the process of storing complex objects in a relational database management system (see [Aberdeen 94] ).The Enterprise Objects Framework product is a second generation product bringing the benefits of object-oriented programming to relational database application development. Enterprise Objects Framework enables developers to construct reusable business objects that combine business logic with persistent storage in industry-standard relational databases. Enterprise objects are first class citizens in the NEXTSTEP and OpenStep developer and user environments. They can be geographically distributed throughout heterogeneous servers within an enterprise using the Portable Distributed Objects product (see [NeXT-DO 94] ).In this extended abstract we first describe the enterprise object distribution model and then give a brief synopsis of how relational data is mapped into objects. We then present an outline of the system architecture, explain how objects are mapped to multiple tables, and summarize the transaction semantics as well as the application development life-cycle. We conclude with an outlook on future development.