RBE: A Rule-by-example Active Database System

Abstract

In an active database system, rules are used to monitor and respond to events that happen inside the database. This paper presents the implementation of an active database system called RBE. The system loosely couples an OPS5 production system and an INGRES database management system to efficiently monitor databases on complex conditions. In this system, atable-based Rule-By-Example (RBE) language, is designed. The internal representations of the RBE rule language are production rules; therefore, rules can be stored, managed and tested efficiently by using the well-developed pattern matching algorithm in a production system. In other words, the system applies a production system and a special production system program to the task of query rewrite trigger processing. Moreover, a user-friendly interface is used to loosely couple the OPS5 rule system with the INGRES DBMS. The architecture used in this system shows the applicability of constructing an active database system by integrating any production system and any database system. Moreover, the proposed technique could be used as an implementation method for a query-rewrite rule system inside a DBMS server, not using a layered approach. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.