Model driven generation and testing of object-relational mappings

Object Relational Mapping Tool for C#.NET Framework

“…The management logic is necessary to read an Entity Definition Instance (which is the data) from the database into an instance of an instance of a class and storing it back into the database, together with the entity definitions, is called an O/R Mapper framework [7]. In the Object Relational mapping designer, these are called Target Frameworks.…”

“…Due to the popularity of relational data storage with its broad installation base and the use of object-oriented concepts for software development, application objects inevitably need to be stored into (object) relational databases [7].…”

Towards a Metrics Suite for Object-Relational Mappings

“…Philippi [11] therefore suggests a model-driven generation of O/R mappings. In his approach, the developer defines mapping requirements in terms of quality trade-offs.…”

“…In the case where a developer creates the object model first and then creates the relational schema by mapping the object model to relations, the so-called forward engineering approach, the developer is faced with the challenge of choosing from a variety of mapping strategies for class associations and inheritance relationships. These mapping strategies have different impacts on the non-functional properties of application systems, such as performance and maintainability [9,11].…”

“…The mapping tool then automatically selects mappings that fulfill the specified requirements based on general heuristics regarding the impacts of mapping strategies. However, mapping impacts strongly depend on concrete object schema characteristics such as inheritance depth and the number of class attributes [9,13], properties not considered in [11]. Furthermore, while model-driven generation of O/R mappings is said to ease mapping specification for the developer, such an approach reduces the developer's control over the mapping process and may result in a sub-optimal mapping for a given application.…”