The Benefits of Open Hypermedia Systems Using Advanced Database Concepts

Large engineering enterprises are just one application area of open hypermedia systems (OHS), which are characterized by both, open hyperbase and link server functionality. An open hyperbase allows besides others to store and retrieve an extensible set of hypermedia objects. A link server allows to store and retrieve connectivity information and supports consistency management thereof. To provide these functionalities, open hypermedia systems have to tackle several important issues such as interoperability, extensibility, and computation. Using advanced database concepts as OHS baseline architecture these issues can be elegantly resolved. In particular, this paper proposes an OHS architecture based on an active object-oriented database system as well as SGML/HyTime as standardized interchange formats. By using active object-oriented database systems extensibility and computation including consistency management are ensured. By using international standards interoperability of hypermedia information systems is reached. The proof-of-concept prototype TriGSSGML based on the commercial object-oriented database system GemStone and its active extension TriGS is currently under development. 1. This research has been partly supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts under grant GZ 140 1/4-I/A/8/95. Informatik ‘96, GI/OCG Jahrestagung, Klagenfurt, Austria. Oldenbourg, September 1996.