Constraint analysis: a design process for specifying operations on objects

A design process for an object-oriented database design environment, known as constraint analysis, is presented. Given the increased level of semantics associated with an object-oriented database schema, constraint analysis makes use of semantics expressed as database constraints to support the flexible specification of propagation actions for operations on objects. Constraints are formally represented using Horn logic. The constraint analysis process then reasons about constraints at design time to help the designer understand the effects of constraints on object manipulation, identifying possible constraint violations as well as design alternatives for handling violations. An advantage of constraint analysis is that both inherent and explicit schema constraints are included in the analysis process. A formal representation is given that supports the analysis of constraints and the automatic identification of design alternatives for responding to constraint violations