Update Rewriting and Integrity Constraint Maintenance in a Schema Evolution Support System: PRISM++

Supporting legacy applications when the database schema evolves represents a long-standing challenge of practical and theoretical importance. Recent work has produced algorithms and systems that automate the process of data migration and query adaptation; however, the problems of evolving integrity constraints and supporting legacy updates under schema and integrity constraints evolution are significantly more difficult and have thus far remained unsolved. In this paper, we address this issue by introducing a formal evolution model for the database schema structure and its integrity constraints, and use it to derive update mapping techniques akin to the rewriting techniques used for queries. Thus, we (i) propose a new set of Integrity Constraints Modification Operators (ICMOs), (ii) characterize the impact on integrity constraints of structural schema changes, (iii) devise representations that enable the rewriting of updates, and (iv) develop a unified approach for query and update...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: PVLDB
• Authors: Carlo Curino, Hyun Jin Moon, Alin Deutsch, Carlo Zaniolo
• Keywords: Database Schema, Integrity Constraints, Integrity Constraints Evolution, PVLDB 2010