Integrity Constraint Enforcement by Means of Trigger Templates

摘要

The specification of data integrity controls in DBMS, and particularly support for triggers, is one of the most important features for database developers and administrators. However, it is recognized that the specification of a correct set of triggers is a difficult and error-prone task. Our proposal aims to facilitate such a task by suggesting a different method for determining constraints and triggers that check constraints when database updates take place. Specifically, the method proposes to define trigger templates in order to enforce constraints imposed in a schema pattern and to store them in a database. When the analyst specifies a particular conceptual schema (which matches the schema pattern) the associated triggers are automatically generated from the information stored in the trigger template database.