Dynamic relationships and their propagation attributes in object oriented databases

Object-oriented databases is an emerging technology which can be used to model complex and dynamic applications. Its rich semantics enables the definition of various relationships among objects. Sharing levels and composition types necessitate the definition of whether, and to which extent, should a composed object propagate a message it receives, to its composing objects (propagation rules). Current solutions refer to a system with stable connections, so propagation values can be set at the design stage. The information system described here contains complex relations among objects. These relations can vary on a daily basis. The paper examines the various update operations from relations creation point of view, and suggests an approach for defining these new relations and updating the propagation values dynamically. Thus, the system maintains a behavior that reflects the changing nature of relations