Using Database Technology to Support Domain-Oriented Application Composition Systems

This research designed and prototyped an OODBMS technology base to store and retrieve various types of domain artifacts for domain-oriented application composition systems (DOACS). We developed object-oriented database schemas for a validating domain and the Object-Connection-Update software architecture. We implemented an inheritance relationship between the schemas so a domain model can inherit an architectural structure from an architecture model allowing us to isolate domain-specific knowledge from architecture-specific knowledge. We also developed a meta-model to formally define domain models in the database. We then developed a set of database methods to transform a domain model into a database schema for storing artifacts from the domain and to automatically populate the DOACS object base with the domain definition. Using an OODBMS, the structure and relationships that provide much of the power in object models are retained because the artificial flattening required for storage in traditional databases and file systems is prevented. Isolating domain and architecture models from each other has greatly increased the reusability of the domain artifacts, the domain model, and the architecture model. The inheritance relationship between domain and architecture models allows a domain to be defined once, but used in many different architectural environments and vice versa.