Extraction of Object-oriented Schemas from Existing Relational Databases: a Form-driven Approach

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Malki, Mimoun^{; ;} | Flory, André^{; ;} | Rahmouni, Mustapha Kamel^{; ;}

Affiliations: Computer Science Department, University of Sidi Bel-Abbes, Algeria | LISI Insa-Lyon, 29 avenue Albert Einstein Villeurbanne, France | Computer Science Department, University of Oran, Algeria. E-mail: malki_m@yahoo.com, flory@insa.insa-lyon.fr, rahmouni@mail.univ-oran.dz

Abstract: In this paper, we present our Form-driven approach for reverse engineering of relationa databases. This methodology uses the information extracted from both form structure and instances as a database reverse engineering input using an interaction with a user. Through a combination of forms structures and data instances analysis, forms relational sub-schemas and their constraints are derived. These relational sub-schemas are mapped to object sub-schemas, which will be merging into global object-oriented schema that presents the whole underlying databases. The resulting global object-oriented schema must be validated as a rich and correct representation of the application domain.

Keywords: relational databases, reverse engineering, object-oriented databases, forms, integration, validation

DOI: 10.3233/INF-2002-13104

Journal: Informatica, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 47-72, 2002