Implementing Set-Oriented Production Rules as an Extension to Starburst

Abstract

. This paper describes the implementation of a set-oriented database production rule language proposed in earlier papers. Our implementation uses the extensibility features of the Starburst database system, and rule execution is fully integrated into database query and transaction processing. 1 Introduction In database systems, a production rules facility allows definition of database operations that are executed automatically whenever certain events occur or conditions are met. Production rules in database systems can be used for enforcing integrity constraints, maintaining derived data, and building efficient knowledge-base and expert systems. In [WF89,WF90] we propose a syntax for specifying production rules in relational database systems and a semantics for rule execution. In keeping with the setoriented approach of relational data manipulation languages, our production rules are set-oriented---they are triggered by sets of changes to the database and may perform sets of changes....