Database Application Programs Research Articles

JDAMA: Java database application mutation analyser

AbstractDatabase application programs are ubiquitous; hence, good techniques for testing them are needed. Several approaches to testing database applications have been proposed recently, including test generation techniques and adequacy criteria. Tuya et al. proposed mutation‐based adequacy criteria for database queries and developed a set of mutation operators for Structured Query Language SELECT statements. This paper extends that approach by integrating it with analysis and instrumentation of the application bytecode. The design and implementation of a tool, Java Database Application Mutation Analyser (JDAMA), are described. JDAMA instruments application bytecode so as to compare the results of queries executed by the application under test to the results of mutants of those queries. JDAMA can be used to support mutation testing for Java database applications. A second, potentially more useful application of JDAMA is to support experiments evaluating testing techniques for database applications, in which query mutation is used to seed faults into subject applications. The paper illustrates these uses of JDAMA with experiments comparing two approaches to test generation and experiments evaluating coverage criteria. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An information model for building automation systems

An information model of a building automation system (BAS) was created. It encapsulates several views of the system: the device list, network topology, points list, and sequences of operation. The model allows a single persistent representation of a BAS to be maintained from system specification through design to operation and maintenance. It will also allow other applications such as energy simulations, maintenance management systems, and building commissioning applications to extract information about the BAS. The model is not intended to represent control application programs; however, it would be possible to develop a software tool to parse the information model, then create the required configuration database and control application programs as output. The model was tested by creating an experimental implementation based on a BAS installed in a medium-sized office building.

Automating workflows for service order processing: integrating AI and database technologies

We have developed an AI-based architecture that automatically manages workflows, and we have implemented a prototype that executes on top of a distributed computing environment to help a telecommunications company better provide a service that requires coordination among many operation support systems and network elements. The activities involve several database systems, user interfaces, and application programs.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Integration of object-oriented programming languages and database systems in KOPERNIK

KOPERNIK is an object-oriented database system, that allows uniform specification of database requests and application programs. The user interface is based on Smalltalk, and the object-oriented data model is represented in terms of classes and messages. Techniques are discussed for implementing such a model on top of an underlying relational database system. Those parts of application programs that cannot be translated into a relational language are handled by a Smalltalk processor. The semantics of the database requests is defined in terms of a meta-model and meta-messages, using an object-oriented approach. Hence we derive rules for translation of database requests into SQL queries over a binary relational view, introduced as an intermediate level between the underlying database and our conceptual view.

Extending the entity-relationship model to capture dynamic behaviour

The entity-relationship data model is extended by structural integrity constraints. For each entity and relationship, a list of update operations is defined, together with appropriate integrity rules. These rules are defined according to the localisation principle, which states that an update operation performed on any object in the schema should directly affect only those objects in its immediate vicinity. The update, once started, propagates through the database, respecting local integrity rules for each affected object. The integrity rules are used for algorithmic design of integrity-preserving update procedures, to be utilised in database application programs, instead of the primitive update operations supported by the DBMS itself. These procedures may be generated directly from the specification, opening the way to an automated design tool.

An approach to analyzing the information content of existing databases

Traditionally, application databases have been developed for efficiency of computer operations. The logical structure of the data is buried in the database schemas, application programs, and users' and programmers' minds. To manage information as a corporate resource the logical data structures must be made explicit. In this way organizational databases can be conceptually integrated. The magnitude and complexity of corporate databases makes a manual approach to this task infeasible. We propose a computer aided approach. The approach is based on extracting implicit functional dependencies from existing database schemas and forming an Entity-Relationship representation. Where the semantics of the schema are unclear, rules are applied and additional input sought from the Data Administrator. Because of its widespread use in production systems, we focus on CODASYL Network DBMSs in this paper. The approach also has applications in databases from one DBMS to another.