Definition
An active database (aDB) or active database (management) system (aDBS/aDBMS) is a database (management) system that supports reactive behavior through ECA-rules.
Historical Background
The term active database was first used in the early 1980s [12]. Some related active database work was also done within the area of expert database systems in the mid 1980s, but it was not until the mid/late 1980s that the research on supporting ECA rules in database systems took off, for example [10,12,18]. During the 1990s the area was extensively explored through more than twenty suggested active database prototypes and a large body of publications:
Seven workshops were held between 1993 and 1997: RIDS [12,16,17], RIDE-ADS [20], Dagstuhl Seminar [5] and ARTDB [3,4].
Two special issues of journals [8,9] and one special issue of ACM Sigmod Record [1].
Two text books [13,19] and one ACM Computing Survey paper [15].
In addition, the groups within the ACT-NET consortium (A European research...
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ACM SIGMOD Record. Special Issue on Rule Management and Processing in Expert Databases, 1989.
ACT-NET Consortium The active database management system manifesto: a rulebase of ADBMS features. ACM SIGMOD Rec., 25(3):40–49, 1996.
Alferes J.J., Amador R., and May W. A general language for evolution and reactivity in the semantic Web. In Proc. 3rd Workshop on Principles and Practice of Semantic Web Reasoning, 2005, pp. 101–115.
Andler S.F. and Hansson J. (eds.). In Proc. 2nd International Workshop on Active, Real-Time, and Temporal Database Systems, LNCS, vol. 1553, Springer, 1998.
Berndtsson M. and Hansson J. Workshop report: the first international workshop on active and real-time database systems. SIGMOD Rec., 25(1):64–66, 1996.
Buchmann A., Chakravarthy S., and Dittrich K. Active Databases. Dagstuhl Seminar No. 9412, Report No. 86, 1994.
Bültzingsloewen G., Koschel A., Lockemann P.C., and Walter H.D. ECA Funtionality in a Distributed Environment. Monographs in Computer Science, chap. 8, Springer, 1999, pp. 147–175.
Chakravarthy S. (ed.), Special Issue on Active Databases, vol. 15, IEEE Quarterly Bulletin on Data Engineering, 1992.
Chakravarthy S. and Widom J. (eds.), Special Issue on the Active Database Systems, Journal of Intelligent Information Systems 7, 1996.
Dayal U., Blaustein B., Buchmann A., et al. S.C. HiPAC: A Research Project in Active, Time-Constrained Database Management. Tech. Rep. CCA-88-02, Xerox Advanced Information Technology, Cambridge, 1988.
Dittrich K.R., Kotz A.M., and Mulle J.A. 1986.An Event/Trigger Mechanism to Enforce Complex Consistency Constraints in Design Databases. ACM SIGMOD Rec., 15(3):22–36,
Geppert A. and Berndtsson M. (eds.). 1997. Proc. 3rd International Workshop on Rules in Database Systems, LNCS, vol. 1312, Springer,
Morgenstern M. Active Databases as a Paradigm for Enhanced Computing Environments. In Proc. 9th Int. Conf. on Very Data Bases, 1983, pp. 34–42.
Paton N.W. (ed.) Active Rules in Database Systems. Monographs in Computer Science, Springer, 1999.
Paton N.W. and Diaz O. Active Database Systems. ACM Comput. Surv, 31(1):63–103, 1999.
Paton N.W. and Williams M.W. (eds.). In Proc. 1st International Workshop on Rules in Database Systems, Springer, Berlin, 1994.
Sellis T. (ed.). In Proc. 2nd International Workshop on Rules in Database Systems, vol. 905, Springer, 1995.
Stonebraker M., Hearst M., and Potamianos S. Commentary on the POSTGRES Rules System. SIGMOD Rec., 18(3):5–11, 1989.
Widom J. and Ceri S. (eds.) Active Database Systems: Triggers and Rules For Advanced Database Processing. Morgan Kaufmann, 1996.
Widom J. and Chakravarthy S. (eds.). In Proc. 4th International Workshop on Research Issues in Data Engineering – Active Database Systems, 1994.
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Berndtsson, M., Mellin, J. (2009). Active Database, Active Database (Management) System. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_502
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