Adding Semantics for Version Propagation in OODBs

Object version propagation is a means of managing versions of complex objects automatically. Complex objects are objects linked to other objects by dependence relations such as composition, inheritance, association, equivalence, etc. The object version propagation model presented in this paper associates the version propagation capabilities, called version propagation strategies, with relations, thus making version propagation of all types of complex objects uniform. This model can be distinguished from other version propagation models by its genericity. Indeed, it allows the definition and use of multiple propagation strategies thus making the version propagation itself user-customizable. It may be applied on all types of relations. The operations propagated are those of object version creation and destruction. The model has, for now, been applied to version propagation in both the composition and inheritance graphs.