Worry-free database upgrades: automated model-driven evolution of schemas and complex mappings

Authors: 
Terwilliger, JF; Bernstein, PA; Unnithan, A
Author: 
Terwilliger, JF
Bernstein, PA
Unnithan, Adi
Year: 
2010
Venue: 
Proc. SIGMOD 2010
URL: 
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1807167.1807316
Citations: 
9
Citations range: 
1 - 9
AttachmentSize
Terwilliger2010Worryfreedatabaseupgradesautomatedmodeldrivenevolution.pdf589.97 KB

Schema evolution is an unavoidable consequence of the application development lifecycle. The two primary schemas in an application, the client conceptual object model and the persistent database model, must co-evolve or risk quality, stability, and maintainability issues. We present MoDEF, an extension to Visual Studio that supports automatic evolution of object-relational mapping artifacts in the Microsoft Entity Framework. When starting with a valid mapping between client and store, MoDEF translates changes made to a client model into incremental changes to the store as an upgrade script, along with a new valid mapping to the new store. MoDEF mines the existing mapping for mapping patterns which MoDEF reuses for new client artifacts.