Graphical tools for rule development in the active DBMS SAMOS

Summary form only given. Active database management systems (active DBMS) support the definition, management and execution of event/condition/action rules specifying reactive application behavior. Although the advantages of active mechanisms are nowadays well known, there is still no wide use in practice. One main problem is that especially for large rule sets, defined by different persons at different points in time, potential conflicts and dependencies between rules are hard to predict and rule behavior is difficult to control. Therefore, tools are needed to assist the development and maintenance of rule bases. These tools should provide for graphical interfaces supporting both, “static” activities (performed during rule specification) such as rule editing, browsing, design, rule analysis, and “dynamic” activities (performed at runtime, during the execution of an application) such as testing, debugging and understanding of rule behavior. The aim of the article is to show the use of three of these tools, namely the rule editor, the browser and the termination analyzer in the process of developing applications for the active object oriented DBMS SAMOS