A USER-INTERFACE MANAGEMENT APPROACH FOR OBJECT-ORIENTED DATA-BASE APPLICATIONS

This article discusses the development and management of object-oriented data base applications by use of an approach in which the user interface management is abstracted from the underlying data base, but nevertheless encapsulated in general purpose software: a user interface management system (UIMS) module. We identify a list of requirements that this application domain introduces and then present the LINCKS object-oriented data base system and the UIMS, which was designed to meet these requirements. After introducing the architecture of the system, we illustrate by means of an example how an application is built and executed. Finally, we discuss our approach and identify several features stemming from the specialization of the UIMS to the area of object-oriented data bases. These features include multiple views of application objects and encapsulated run-time behavior on the task level. Our conclusion is that the design of specialized UIMS for different application domains is a valuable alternative to the maximally general UIMS approach.