Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
longer have to be written. Temporal entity integrity rules and
temporal referential integrity rules will no longer be overlooked,
or only partially or incorrectly implemented.
Special instructions to those who will write the often complex
sets of SQL transactions required to carry out what is a single
insert, update or delete action from a business user perspective
will no longer have to be provided and remembered each time
a transaction is written. Special instructions to those who will
write queries against these tables, possibly joining them with
slightly different temporal tables designed and written by some
other project team, will no longer have to be provided and
remembered each time a query is written.
When the first set of tables is converted to asserted version
tables, seamless real-time access to bi-temporal data will be
immediately available for that data. This is declaratively specified
access, with the procedural complexities encapsulated within the
AVF. In addition, the benefits of the internalization of pipeline
datasets will also be made immediately available, this being one
of the principal areas in which Asserted Versioning extends bi-
temporal semantics beyond the semantics of the standard model.
We conclude that Asserted Versioning has value both as a bridge
and as a destination. It is a bridge to a standards-based SQL that
includes support for PERIOD datatypes, Allen relationships and
the declarative specification of bi-temporal semantics. It is a desti-
nation in the sense that it is a currently available solution which
provides the benefits of declaratively specified, seamless real-time
access to bi-temporal data, including the extended semantics of
objects, episodes and internalized pipeline datasets.
Ongoing Research and Development
Bi-temporal data is an ongoing research and development
topic within the computer science and DBMS vendor com-
munities. Most of that research will affect IT professionals
only as products delivered to us, specifically in the form of
enhancements to the SQL language and to relational DBMSs.
But bi-temporal data and its management by means of
Asserted Versioning's conceptual and software frameworks is an
ongoing research and development topic for us as well. Some
of this ongoing work will appear as future releases of the
Asserted Versioning AVF. Some of it will be published on our
website, AssertedVersioning.com, and some of it will be made
available as seminars. Following is a partial list of topics that
we are working on as this topic goes to press.
