Modern Databases Software

Mahesh Bane

In This Lecture
'Modern' Databases
Distributed DBs Web-based DBs Object Oriented DBs Semistructured Data and XML Multimedia DBs

For more information

Connolly and Begg chapters 22-28 Ullman and Widom chapter 4
'Modern' Databases

Other Sorts of DB
We have looked mainly at relational databases
Relational model SQL Design techniques Transactions

There are several other types of DB in use today

Distributed DBs Object DBs Multimedia DBs Temporal DBs Logic DBs

Many of these topics relied on relational concepts

'Modern' Databases

Distributed Databases
A distributed DB system consists of several sites
Sites are connected by a network Each site can hold data and process it It shouldnt matter where the data is the system is a single entity
'Modern' Databases

Distributed database management system (DDBMS)

A DBMS (or set of them) to control the databases Communication software to handle interaction between sites

Client/Server Architecture
The client/server architecture is a general model for systems where a service is provided by one system (the server) to another (the client) Server
Hosts the DBMS and database Stores the data

Client
User programs that use the database Use the server for database access

'Modern' Databases

Distributed Databases
Client(s) Server Client(s) Server

Network
Client(s) Server Client(s) Server Client(s) Server

'Modern' Databases

Web-based Databases
Database access over the internet
Web-based clients Web server Database server(s)

Typical operation
Client sends a request for a page to the web server Web server sends SQL to database The web server uses results to create page The page is returned to the client

Web server serves pages to browsers (clients) and can access database(s)

'Modern' Databases

Web-based Databases
HTTP request

Client (Browser)

SQL query

Web Server

HTML page

Database Server SQL result

'Modern' Databases

Web-based Databases
Advantages
World-wide access Internet protocols (HTTP, SSL, etc) give uniform access and security Database structure is hidden from clients Uses a familiar interface

Disadvantages
Security can be a problem if you are not careful Interface is less flexible using standard browsers Limited interactivity over slow connections

'Modern' Databases

Object Oriented Databases

Relational DBs
The database cant see datas internal structure so cant use complex data Relational model gives a simple, and quite powerful, structure - but is quite rigid

Object Oriented DBs

Use concepts from object oriented design/programming OO concepts
Encapsulation Inheritance Polymoprhism

OODBMS

'Modern' Databases

Object Oriented Databases

An object oriented database (OODB) is a collection of persistent objects
Objects - instances of a defined class Persistent - object exist independently of any program

An object oriented DBMS

Manages a collection of objects Allows objects to be made persistent Permits queries to be made of the objects Does all the normal DBMS things as well

'Modern' Databases

OODB example
In lecture 10 we had a store with different sorts of products
Books CDs DVDs

OODB solution
We make an abstract Product class Book, CD, and DVD are each a concrete subclass of Product The database is a persistent collection of Products

This lead to missing data among the various types

'Modern' Databases

OODB Example
Product
Price Title Shipping

Product is abstract
You cannot make a Product directly You can, however, make a Book, CD, or DVD, and these are Products DVD
Producer Director

Book
Author Publisher

CD
Artist

'Modern' Databases

Object Oriented Databases

Advantages
Good integration with Java, C++, etc Can store complex information Fast to recover whole objects Has the advantages of the (familiar) object paradigm

Disadvantages
There is no underlying theory to match the relational model Can be more complex and less efficient OODB queries tend to be procedural, unlike SQL

'Modern' Databases

Object Relational Databases

Extend a RDBMS with object concepts
Data values can be objects of arbitrary complexity These objects have inheritance etc. You can query the objects as well as the tables

An object relational database

Retains most of the structure of the relational model Needs extensions to query languages (SQL or relational algebra)

'Modern' Databases

Semistructured data
Semistructured Data : A new data model designed to cope with problems of information integration. XML : A standard language for describing semistructured data schemas and representing data.

'Modern' Databases

The Information-Integration Problem

Related data exists in many places and could, in principle, work together. But different databases differ in: Model (relational, object-oriented?). Schema (normalised/ not normalized?). Terminology: are consultants employees? Retirees? Subcontractors? Conventions (meters versus feet?). How do we model information residing in heterogeneous sources (if we cannot combine it all in a single new database)?
'Modern' Databases

Example
Suppose we are integrating information about bars in some town. Every bar has a database. One may use a relational DBMS; another keeps the menu in an MS-Word document. One stores the phones of distributors, another does not. One distinguishes ales from other beers, another doesnt. One counts beer inventory by bottles, another by cases.
'Modern' Databases

Semistructured Data
Purpose: represent data from independent sources more flexibly than either relational or object-oriented models. Think of objects, but with the type of each object its own business, not that of its class. Labels to indicate meaning of substructures. Data is self-describing: structural information is part of the data.

'Modern' Databases

Graphs of Semistructured Data

Nodes = objects. Labels on arcs (attributes, relationships). Atomic values at leaf nodes (nodes with no arcs out). Flexibility: no restriction on: Labels out of a node. Number of successors with a given label.

'Modern' Databases

Example: Data Graph

root bar beer manf name servedAt name Joes addr Maple The bar object for Joes Bar
'Modern' Databases

beer manf name Mlob prize year 1995

Notice a new kind of data.

A.B.

Bud

award Gold

The beer object for Bud

XML
XML = Extensible Markup Language. While HTML uses tags for formatting (e.g., italic), XML uses tags for semantics (e.g., this is an address). Key idea: create tag sets for a domain (e.g., bars), and translate all data into properly tagged XML documents. Well formed XML - XML which is syntactically correct; tags and their nesting totally arbitrary. Valid XML - XML which has DTD (document type definition); imposes some structure on the tags, but much more flexible than relational database schema.

'Modern' Databases

XML and Semistructured Data

Well-Formed XML with nested tags is exactly the same idea as trees of semistructured data. XML also enables non-tree structures (with references to IDs of nodes), as does the semistructured data model.

'Modern' Databases

Example: Well-Formed XML

<? XML VERSION = 1.0 STANDALONE = yes ?> <BARS> <BAR><NAME>Joes Bar</NAME> <BEER><NAME>Bud</NAME> <PRICE>2.50</PRICE></BEER> <BEER><NAME>Miller</NAME> <PRICE>3.00</PRICE></BEER> </BAR> <BAR> </BARS>

'Modern' Databases

Example
The <BARS> XML document is: BARS BAR NAME BEER Joes Bar NAME Bud PRICE 2.50 NAME Miller PRICE 3.00 BAR BEER BAR ...

'Modern' Databases

XPATH and XQUERY

XPATH is a language for describing paths in XML documents. Really think of the semistructured data graph and its paths. Why do we need path description language: cant get at the data using just [Link] expressions. XQUERY is a full query language for XML documents with power similar to OQL (Object Query Language, query language for object-oriented databases).

'Modern' Databases

Multimedia Databases
Multimedia DBs can store complex information
Images Music and audio Video and animation Full texts of books Web pages

They can be used in a wide range of application areas

Entertainment Marketing Medical imaging Digital publishing Geographic Information Systems

'Modern' Databases

Querying Multimedia DBs

Metadata searches
Information about the multimedia data (metadata) is stored This can be kept in a standard relational database and queried normally Limited by the amount of metadata available
'Modern' Databases

Content searches
The multimedia data is searched directly Potential for much more flexible search Depends on the type of data being used Often difficult to determine what the correct results are

Metadata Searches
Example - indexing films we might store
Title Year Genre(s) Actor(s) Director(s) Producer(s)

We can then search for things like

Films starring Kevin Spacey Films directed by Peter Jackson Dramas produced in 2000

We dont actually search the films

'Modern' Databases

Metadata Searches
Advantages
Metadata can be structured in a traditional DBMS Metadata is generally concise and so efficient to store Metadata enriches the content

Disadvantages
Metadata cant always be found automatically, and so requires data entry It restricts the sorts of queries that can be made

'Modern' Databases

Content Searches
An alternative to metadata is to search the content directly
Multimedia is less structured than metadata It is a richer source of information but harder to process

Example of content based retrieval

Find images similar to a given sample Hum a tune and find out what it is Search for features, such as cuts or transitions in films

'Modern' Databases

Content-Based Retrieval
QBIC (Query By Image Content) from IBM - searches for images having similar colour or layout

'Modern' Databases

[Link]

Content-Based Retrieval
Image retrieval is hard
It is often not clear when two images are similar Image interpretation is unsolved and expensive Different people expect different things
'Modern' Databases

Do we look for?
Images Images Images Images Images of of of of of roses red things? flowers? red flowers? red roses?

Other Topics
Temporal DBs
Storing data that changes over time Can ask about the history of the DB rather than just the current state System time vs real time

Logic DBs
A database is a set of facts and rules for manipulating them (like a Prolog program) The DBMS maintains and controls these facts and rules A query is made by applying the rules to the facts

'Modern' Databases