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Formal Semantics of Dynamic Rules in ORM

  • Conference paper
On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems: OTM 2008 Workshops (OTM 2008)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 5333))

Abstract

This paper provides formal semantics for an extension of the Object-Role Modeling approach that supports declaration of dynamic rules. Dynamic rules differ from static rules by pertaining to properties of state transitions, rather than to the states themselves. In this paper we restrict application of dynamic rules to so-called single-step transactions, with an old state (the input of the transaction) and a new state (the direct result of that transaction). These dynamic rules further specify an elementary transaction type by indicating which kind of object or fact (being added, deleted or updated) is actually allowed. Dynamic rules may declare pre-conditions relevant to the transaction, and a condition stating the properties of the new state, including the relation between the new state and the old state. In this paper we provide such dynamic rules with a formal semantics based on sorted, first-order predicate logic. The key idea to our solution is the formalization of dynamic constraints as static constraints on the database transaction history.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Groningen, The Netherlands

    Herman Balsters

  2. Neumont University, Utah, USA

    Terry Halpin

Authors
  1. Herman Balsters
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  2. Terry Halpin
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. STARLab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB),, Bldg G/10, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Robert Meersman

  2. School of Computer Science and Information Technology, RMIT University, Bld 10.10, 376-392 Swanston Street, VIC 3001, Melbourne, Australia

    Zahir Tari

  3. Facultad de Informática, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo S/N, Boadilla del Monte, 28660, Madrid, Spain

    Pilar Herrero

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Balsters, H., Halpin, T. (2008). Formal Semantics of Dynamic Rules in ORM. In: Meersman, R., Tari, Z., Herrero, P. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems: OTM 2008 Workshops. OTM 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5333. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-88875-8_94

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-88875-8_94

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-88874-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-88875-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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