Browsing and Querying in Object-Oriented Databases

We present a new interface for Object-Oriented Database Management Systems (OODBMSs). The GOODIES 1 system combines and expands the functions of many existing interface systems, introducing some new concepts for improved browsing in an OODBMS. The implementation of GOODIES proposes a new approach to database interfaces development: instead of being strongly dependent of the underlying DBMS, GOODIES is based on the main features of the object-oriented data model. The system design is based on an internal model and on an external model. The internal model defines the relationships that bind the interface to the DBMS, and it is fully described in [Oli92]. The external model determines the possible interaction between the user and the interface system. This paper describes the concepts of the external model of the GOODIES system. Departamento de Ciencia da Computa¸c~ao, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13081-970 Campinas, SP. Pesquisa desenvolvida com suporte financeiro do CNPq --- ..