Composite Object Support in an Object-Oriented Database System

Abstract

Many applications in such domains as computer-aided design require the capability to define, store and retrieve as a single unit a collection of related objects known as a composite object. A composite object explicitly captures and enforces the IS-PART-OF integrity constraint between child and parent pairs of objects in a hierarchical collection of objects. Further, it can be used as a unit of storage and retrieval to enhance the performance of a database system.