A direct manipulation interface to an extensible object-oriented database

Thesis Abstract The aim of this work is to address two major weaknesses of existing database interfaces by: developing eeective tools for the implementation of tailorable database interfaces, and developing eeective visualisations of sophisticated data modelling constructs. The thesis introduces an integrated approach, whereby an object-oriented graphical toolkit is fully integrated with an object-oriented database, known as ADAM GKP92]. The aim of the integration is to store interface objects in the database, where they can have the same structure as normal database objects, and consequently providing a uniform scheme for describing and manipulating application and interface data. The ADAM graphical toolkit which results from the integration, known as EDEN PaD94], can be viewed as an object-oriented widget set that consists of database objects, which can be subjected to standard ADAM operations (such as create, replace, delete, etc.), but which also have behaviour with visible consequences, (such as draw, open, display, etc.). A principal feature of the underlying ADAM data model is that it can be extended with new constructs such as relationships, composite objects and versions. Such an extensible data model requires an extensible direct manipulation interface in order to provide eeective visualisations for the diierent constructs introduced to the data model. This has been achieved by using ADAM to build its own extensible interface, known as EVE PaK92], using the EDEN object-oriented widget set.