Article:		Using Topic Maps to Extend Relational Databases
Subject:		Suitability of Topic Maps to object-relational frameworks
Date:		2003-03-06 06:58:33
From:		Sancho Neves-Graca
This article outlines how the Topic Maps construct helps to extend the data structures of a database without modifying the schema. This construct is clearly effective for applications based on SQL. But the current trends in programming favor distancing from the SQL language. Would it be possible to use Topic Maps in the context of object-relational mapping frameworks? For these frameworks, the schema is what defines the classes that form the runtime program. Changes to the class model derive from changes to the database model. Could Topic Maps be a way to enable changes to the class model without changing the database model? If so, this would introduce a new dynamism to EJB or WebObjects object models and head towards further abstraction from the database layer. A good answer I would like to get is a strong reason why Topic Maps are incompatible with enterprise object frameworks: just as important as presenting what a technology can do, is delineating what it can't do. A reader of this article with object-oriented programming preferences would then be better informed. But if there is a strong reason why they can be compatible so much the better!

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• Suitability of Topic Maps to object-relational frameworks
  2003-04-01 04:21:28 Marc de Graauw [Reply]
  
  I guess doing the same for OO frameworks would require some research. I do not see an a priori reason why it couldn't be done, but then I'm much better at home with RDBMS's than with OO frameworks.

  
  Cheers, Marc