Integration of Information Systems Using an Object-Oriented Approach.

Czejdo, B.; Taylor, M. C.

With ever-increasing amounts of information being stored on computers, there is a growing demand for systems that will support convenient access to information that is distributed over multiple information systems. In this paper we describe a system called KOPERNIK*, which uses an object-oriented approach to define partly integrated views of a collection of autonomous information bases. These views, as well as multi-information-base queries, are described using a language-independent meta-model. We provide a classification of incompatibilities between autonomous information systems, in order to define multi-information-base classes and messages and the subclass/superclass hierarchy. KOPERNIK* uses the meta-model to simplify the decomposition of queries into subqueries for individual information systems. We illustrate the processing of subqueries by relational systems and by information retrieval systems.

Computer Journal, 1992, Vol 35, Issue 5, p501

0010-4620

Academic Journal

10.1093/comjnl/35.5.501