Abstract
This research has investigated dynamic, execution-based rule analysis through the development of a Prototype Environment for Active Rule Debugging, called PEARD. PEARD simulates the execution of active database rules, supporting the Event-Condition-Action rule paradigm. Rule definition is flexible, where changes to rules can be applied immediately during a debugging session without recompiling the system. A breakpoint debugging tool allows breakpoints to be set so that the state of variables may be inspected and changed anytime a breakpoint is reached during rule execution. A rule visualization tool displays the rule triggering process in graph form, supporting different visualization granularities to help the user to understand rule execution. Color coding is also used as part of the visualization tool to help the user see where the different parts of an ECA rule are executed due to deferred coupling modes. Users can examine different parts of the rule graph display to inspect the state of a transaction at different rule execution points. Other debugging features include a means for detecting potential cycles in rule execution and a utility to examine different rule execution paths from the same point in the rule triggering process. Our experience with PEARD has helped to identify some of the useful functional components of an active rule debugging tool and to identify research directions for future active rule development environments.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aiken, A., Widom, J., and Hellerstein, J. (1992). Behavior of Database Production Rules: Termination, Confluence, and Observable Determinism. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data (pp. 59–68). San Diego.
Baralis, E., Ceri, S., and Widom, J. (1993). Better Termination Analysis for Active Databases. In Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Rules in Database Systems (pp. 163–179). Edinburgh, Scotland.
Baralis, E., Ceri, S., and Paraboschi, P. (1995). Run-Time Detection of Non-Terminating Active Rule Systems. Proceedings of the Conference on Deductive Object-Oriented Databases, Singapore. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science, December, 1995.
Behrends, H. (1994). Simulation-Based Debugging of Active Databases. In International Workshop on Research Issues in Data Engineering: Active Database Systems (pp. 172–180). Houston.
Benazet, E., Guehl, H., and Bouzeghoub, M. (1995). VITAL: A Visual Tool for Analysis of Rule Behavior in Active Databases. In T. Sellis (Ed.). Proceedings of the Rules in Databases Conference (pp. 182–196), Athens, Greece.
Booch, G. (1994). Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications, Second Edition, Benjamin Cummings.
Ceri, S. and Widom, J. (1990). Deriving Production Rules for Constraint Maintenance. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Conference on Very Large Databases (pp. 566–577). Brisbane.
Ceri, S., Fraternali, P., Paraboschi, S., and Tanca, L. (1996). Active Rule Management in Chimera. In J.Widom and S.Ceri (Eds.). Active Database Systems: Triggers and Rules for Advanced Database Processing (pp. 151–176). San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
Chakravarthy, S., Tamizuddin, Z., and Zhou, J. (1995). A Visualization and Explanation Tool for Debugging ECA Rules in Active Databases. In T. Sellis (Ed.). Proceedings of the Rules in Databases Conference (pp. 197–209). Athens, Greece.
Díaz, O., Jaime, A., and Paton, N.W. (1993). DEAR: A Debugger for Active Rules in an Object-Oriented Context. In Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Rules in Database Systems (pp. 180–193). Edinburgh, Scotland.
Harrison, J. and Dietrich, S. (1993). Integrating Active and Deductive Rules. Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Rules in Databases (pp. 288–305). Edinburgh, Scotland: Springer-Verlag.
Jähne, A. (1995). A Prototype of a Run-Time Debugging Environment for Active Database Rules. M.S. Thesis, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Arizona State University.
Karadimce, A. and Urban, S.D. (1991). Diagnosing Anomalous Rule Behavior in Deductive Object-Oriented Databases with Integrity Maintenance Production Rules. Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Foundations of Models and Languages for Data and Objects (pp. 77–102). Aigen, Austria.
Karadimce, A. and Urban, S.D. (1993). A Framework for Declarative Update and Constraint Maintenance in Object-Oriented Databases. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Data Engineering (pp. 391–398). Vienna, Austria.
Karadimce, A. and Urban, S.D. (1994). Conditional Term Rewriting Systems as a Formal Basis for Analysis of Active Rules. In International Workshop on Research Issues in Data Engineering: Active Database Systems (pp. 156–162). Houston.
Karadimce, A. and Urban, S.D. (1996). Proving Termination of Active Rules in OODBs. Proceedings of the International Conference on Data Engineering (pp. 384–391). New Orleans.
Lamb, C., Landis, G., Orenstein, J., and Weinreb, D. (1991). The Objectstore Database System. Communications of the ACM, 34(10), 50–63.
Montesi, D. and Torlone, R. (1994). A Rewriting Technique for Implementing Active Object Systems. In E. Bertino and S. Urban (Eds.). Object-Oriented Methodologies and Systems. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 858, pp. 171–188, Springer-Verlag.
Stonebraker, M. (1992). The Integration of Rule Systems and Database Systems. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 4(5), 415–423.
Urban, S. and Delcambre, L. (1992). Constraint Analysis: Identifying Design Alternatives for Operations on Complex Objects. In IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 2(4), 391–400.
Urban, S., Karadimce, A., Dietrich, S., Abdellatif, T., and Chan, R. (1996). CDOL: A Comprehensive Declarative Object Language. Revised manuscript under review for Data and Knowledge Engineering, 1996.
Visual Works Users Guide. (1992). Version 1.0, ParcPlace Systems, Sunnyvale, California.
Widom, J. (1994). Research Issues in Active Database Systems: Report from the Closing Panel at RIDE-ADS 94. Sigmod Record, 23(3), 41–43.
Widom, J. and Ceri, S. (1996). Active Database Systems: Triggers and Rules for Advanced Database Processing. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was partially supported by NSF Grant No. IRI-9410993.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jähne, A., Urban, S.D. & Dietrich, S.W. PEARD: A Prototype Environment for Active Rule Debugging. J Intell Inf Syst 7, 111–128 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00127778
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00127778