Object Relationship Notation (ORN) and the software tools ORN Additive and Object Relater Plus (OR+) are discussed in Object Relationship Notation (ORN) for Database Applications: Enhancing the Modeling and Implementation of Associations, a book published by Springer in 2009 (for more information click book). The software tools are prototypes but may nevertheless prove useful in developing many database applications. They were developed to demonstrate the feasibility of adding ORN to both relational and object database management systems in order to improve the productivity of developing database applications and improve data integrity within these applications.

Both tools automatically generate code that implements associations based on the ORN specification of their semantics. This code could have been manually developed by database application programmers and should be treated as such in terms of ensuring its reliability. That is, the code must be tested to ensure it performs as required by the application before putting it into operational use.

ORN Additive adds ORN to Microsoft's SQL Server by generating an extended DBMS with SQL Server as its core. Thus, the tool requires its user to be a licensed user of this relational DBMS. The code generated by ORN Additive, which is T-SQL code, has been tested with SQL Server 2008.

OR+ adds ORN to Progress Software's ObjectStore by generating an extended DBMS with ObjectStore as its core. Thus, the tool requires its user to be a licensed user of this object DBMS. The code generated by OR+, which is Sun Solaris C++ code, has been tested with Object Store 6.0, on Solaris 8, with Sun C++ 5.2. Plans are to soon upgrade, compile, and test the tool on more up-to-date versions of Solaris, Sun C++, and Object Store.

You may contact Bryon K. Ehlmann at behlman@siue.edu for more information about these tools, including the possibility of obtaining the source code.

Click ORN Additive to download ORN Additive and related user documentation as a .zip file.

Click OR+ to download OR+ and related user documentation as a .tar file.