Integrating Hypermedia Functionality into Database Applications Anirban Bhaumik * +, Deepti Dixit *, Roberto Galnares *, Manolis Tzagarakis **, Michalis Vaitis **, Michael Bieber *, Vincent Oria *, Aparna Krishna *, Qiang Lu * / ***, Firas Aljallad *, Li Zhang * * Collaborative Hypermedia Laboratory, CIS Department, NJIT, USA ** Computer Technology Institute, University of Patras, Greece *** Suzhou University, Peoples Republic of China

Outline (research agenda) Motivation DHE - Dynamic Hypermedia Engine Basic DB query interface Schema support DB application support Integrating multiple database applications Data warehousing Data mining Database Design: Relationship Analysis current future

Motivation Most database applications have few links Each element could have multiple links (relationships) Each element is a potential starting point for exploring Research Goal: automatically adding links and services to database applications

Dynamic Hypermedia Engine Automatically generate links and other “hypermedia” services for applications: comments, guided tours, etc. Automatically integrate applications through external linking

Main Application Frame List of LinksMetadataMenus

Dynamic Hypermedia Engine Links generated based on application structure, not search or lexical analysis –You cannot do a search on the display text “$127,322.12” to find related information… –But you can find relationships for the element Sales[1997] $85,101.99$127, Expenses1997 Sales

Dynamic Hypermedia Engine Architecture

Relationship Manager

Dynamic Hypermedia Engine Architecture

DHE Contributions Only tool that providing automated linking, metadata, and hypermedia services –based on the application structure (not lexical analysis) –without altering applications –for analytical and technical applications that generate display contents dynamically

Basic DB Wrapper Provides a simple query interface Allows users to make SQL queries directly to a database Parses the results Passes results to the Relationship Manager to automatically add links

Uses a persistent pool of JDBC Connection Objects to execute SQL statements and retrieve metadata. Currently uses physical schema for metadata Future: dedicated metadata repositories, data dictionaries Basic DB Wrapper Provides a simple query interface Allows users to make SQL queries directly to a database Parses the results Passes results to the Relationship Manager to automatically add links

MenusMetadata List of Links Main Application Frame

Database Element Types Any instance of these types can be uniquely identified, have metadata, and relationships.

Database Element Types Any instance of these types can be uniquely identified, have metadata, and relationships. Each type has its own set of generic database relationship links. For example, an element will be related to a column, its tuple’s key field & foreign keys, a table, etc. The DB Wrapper generates these links automatically.

Schema Manager Automatically generates DB-specific links from a machine-readable E-R schema (e.g., courses taught by a professor)

DB Application Wrapper: identifies elements in application screens Links: DB Wrapper: basic links & DB Access Schema Manager: E-R links Appl Wrapper: appl-specific links Existing applications can access database directly as before; New applications could let the DB wrapper provide all database access

Outline (research agenda) Motivation DHE - Dynamic Hypermedia Engine Basic DB query interface Schema support DB application support Integrating multiple database applications Data warehousing Data mining Database Design: Relationship Analysis current future

DHE can integrate multiple database applications Each wrapper handles its own application. Research questions in specifying related objects across applications in mapping rules...

Data Warehousing The DB Wrapper could also load data into and give other applications access to a data warehouse

Data Mining DHE relationships are pre-specified in mapping rules in the Relationship Manager and dynamically generated A data mining tool could dynamically mine relationships for DB application elements. But how?

Database Design: Relationship Analysis (RA) A systematic approach to finding the implicit or “hidden” relationships in an information domain Relationships can be implemented as links RA is a brainstorming technique for domain experts based on a taxonomy of relationship types

Database Design: Relationship Analysis (RA) Research Questions: How does RA contrast with standard database analysis? Can RA supplement standard database analysis

Outline (research agenda) Motivation DHE - Dynamic Hypermedia Engine Basic DB query interface Schema support DB application support Integrating multiple database applications Data warehousing Data mining Database Design: Relationship Analysis current future