Interfaces to Database Systems (IDS92): Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Interfaces to Database Systems, Glasgow, 1–3 July 1992

463 Pages·1993·21.23 MB·English

by  Richard Cooper (auth.)

WORKSHOPS IN COMPUTING
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Richard Cooper (Ed.)
Interfaces to Database
Systems (IDS92)
Proceedings of the First International
Workshop on Interfaces to Database
Systems, Glasgow, 1-3 July 1992
Published in collaboration with the
British Computer Society
Springer-Verlag
London Berlin Heidelberg New York
Paris Tokyo Hong Kong
Barcelona Budapest
Richard Cooper, MSc, PhD
Computing Science Department
The Unive'ZSity, Glasgow G 12 8RZ
Scotland
ISBN 978-3-540-19802-4 ISBN 978-1-4471-3423-7 (eBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-1-4471-3423-7
British Ubrary Cataloguing in Publication Data
Interfaces to Database Systems (lDS92) : Proceedings of the First International
Workshop on Interfaces to Database Systems. Glasgow. 1-3 July 1992. -
(Workshops in Computing Series)
n.
L Cooper, Richard Series
004.6
ISBN 978-3-540-19802-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
International Workshop on Interfaces to Database Systems (1 st : 1992 : Glasgow)
Interfaces to database systems (IOS92) : proceedings of the first International
Workshop on Interfaces to Database Systems. Glasgow. 1-3 July 1992/ Richard
Cooper, ed.
p. em. - (Workshops in computing)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Data base management-Congresses. 2. User interfaces (Computer
systems)-Congresses. L Cooper. Richard. 1946- . D. Title.
m.
Series.
QA76.9.D31S854S 1992 93-7749
OOS.74-dc20 CIP
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study. or
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OBritish Computer Society 1993
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Typesetting: Camera ready by contributors
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Contents
Acknowledgements ............................................................................. ix
Introduction: The Interaction Between DBMS and User
Interface Research
R. Cooper................................................................................................ 1
Interfaces to OODBS I
An Interactive System for Object-Oriented Database Design
M.C. Norrie ............................................................................................ 9
Object-Oriented Database Systems: A Framework for User
Interface Development
P. Sawyer. A. Colebourne.l. Sommerville and J. Mariani ............... 25
Multi Modal Interfaces
The Problems of Integrating Interfaces to Publicly Available
Databases
J. UttlehDles and P. Hancox ............................................................... 41
An Integrated Approach to Task-Oriented Database Retrieval
Interfaces
J. Zhao. B. Kostka and A. Maller........................................................ 56
Design and Implementation of a Graphical SQL with Generic
Capabilities
H.B. Ra1I1Os ........................................................................................... 74
Visualisation, Multimedia and Versions
GRADI: A Graphical Database Interface for a Multimedia DBMS
D.A. Keim and V. Lum ......................................................................... 95
Beyond Icons: Towards New Metaphors for Visual Query
Languages for Spatial Information Systems
B. Meyer ............................................................................................. 113
vi Contents
A Browser for a Versioned Entity-Relationship Database
B. Gulla .............................................................................................. 136
Tecbniques oflnterface Generation
A Visual Database Management Interface Based on GOOD
M. Gemis. J. Paredaens and I. Thyssens .......................................... 155
Automatic Derivation of Graphical Human-Machine
Interfaces for Databases
R. Carap",a. A. Serrano and J. Farinha ......................................... 176
A Graphical Interface to a Complex-Object Database
Management System
H. SchlJning ............................................... '" ......... ..... ....... ..... ..... ....... 193
Applications
Database Query Interface for Medical Information Systems
M.H. Williams and G. Muirhead ...................................................... 211
Using a Persistent System to Construct a Customised
Interface to an Ecological Database
P.J. Barclay. C.M. Fraser and J.B. Kennedy................................... 225
Cognitive View Mechanism for Content-Based Multimedia
Information Retrieval
T.Kato ................................................................................................ 244
Interfaces to OODBS II
An Extensible Interface to an Extensible Object-Oriented
Database System
N.W. Paton. G. al-Qaimari and A.C. Kilgour .................................. 265
A Graphical Schema Representation for Object-Oriented
Databases
M. Halper. J. Geller. Y. Perl and E.J. Neuhold .............. ................. 282
Supporting a Variety of Data Models
Data Model and Query Algebra for a Model-Based, Multi-Modal
User Interface
J. Durand. H. BrUMer. R. Cuthbertson. S. Fogel.
T. McCandless. R. Sparks and L. Sylvan .......................................... 311
Reconfigurable User Interfaces for Databases
D. England and R. Cooper ................................................................ 338
An Extensible Graphical Programming Environment for
Semantic Modelling
K. Radermacher ............................................... ..... ....... ..... ....... .......... 353
Contents vii
Modelling the User
A Framework for Intelligent Visual Interface Design for Database
Systems
S.K. Chang, M.F. Costabile and S. Levialdi .................................... 377
MEDUSA - A Multimodal Database User Interface and
Framework Supporting User Learning and User Interface
Evaluation
P. Hietala and J. Nummenrnaa ......................................................... 392
A Conceptual Framework for Error Analysis in SQL Interfaces
G.N. Paulley and W.B. Cowan .......................................................... 406
HCI Issues
The Experiences of New Users of a Natural Language
Interface to a Relational Database in a Controlled Setting
J.E. Bell .............................................................................................. 433
HCI and Database Work: Reciprocal Relevance and Challenges
S. W. Draper .......................... ..................... ............ ..... ........................ 455
Author Index..................................................................................... 467
Acknowledgements
The editor wishes to acknowledge a number of contributions to the
success of this workshop:
Ms. Trish Cashen was the organising secretary and worked hard in the
background to ensure that the workshop ran smoothly.
David England, Moira Norrie and Norman Paton contributed
continuing support and useful suggestions throughout the preparations
for the workshop.
The selection of papers for such a meeting is a long and complex
business and could not have been completed without the following who
provided valuable refereeing teams:
Dr. Helen Ashman, Defence Science and Technology, Salisbury, South
Australia
Dr. Michael Jackson, Wolverhampton University, UK
Dr. Graham Kemp, Aberdeen University, Scotland, UK
Dr. Zarine Kemp, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK
Dr. Jessie Kennedy, Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Dr. John Mariani, Lancaster University, UK
Dr. Norman Paton, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Dr. Malcolm Powell, UMIST, Manchester, UK
Finally, I am sure that the attendees wish to thank the staff of Dalrymple
Hall, University of Glasgow for providing an environment within which
the research discussions could flow.
Introduction
The Interaction Between DBMS and User
Interface Research
Richard Cooper
Department of Computing Science
University of Glasgow
Glasgow GI2 8QQ, UK
[e-mail]
Advances in hardware performance and in the understanding of the human factors
involved when interacting with computers have caused a revolution in the quality of the
user interface provided to many software systems. WIMP interfaces, hypermedia
systems and WYSIWYG word processors are just three examples which appear to
increase the usability of computer systems to non-specialist users. Such interfaces
improve access by providing methods for using the facilities which seem to be more
direct and intuitive to many users.
However, many application programs are developed in the context of a database
management system (DBMS) since they require secure and efficient access to significant
amounts of structured data. Yet, to a very large extent, the revolution in user interface
(VI) quality has passed DBMS users and researchers by [Bem89]. The worlds of DBMS
research and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research have remained apart. The
result is that one of the weakest areas of DBMS architecture is the UI aspect. A typical
DBMS provides a smaller number of limited interfaces -probably a query language, a
report generator, perhaps automatic form generation, maybe a graphical schema editor
and just possibly a browsing tool.
Although the DBMS may further supply a limited ability to tailor the interface
components, the number and quality of the interfaces is likely to remain low. A DBMS is
intended to suit a wide variety of users and it is a commonplace observation that different
classes of user (and even different individuals within these classes) may be better suited
by very different interfaces. The only response to this from most DBMS providers is to
permit further interfaces to be created by ad-hoc programming usually by employing
some embedded language to connect the application to external interface routines. This
kind of work requires a highly skilled professional. As it also involves several disparate
elements (two badly matched languages, the DBMS itself and the interface package) this
approach complicates the software and makes maintenance even more difficult.
Moreover, the production of each interface involves a great deal of essentially repetitive
programming.
It seems likely that DBMS implementers need to abandon this ad-hoc and poorly
structured method of working and instead provide some kind of consistent and coherent
support for a variety of appropriate interface styles. To achieve this, it seems sensible to
begin to integrate the body of work which has been developed in the context of HeI
research. Here we find:
i) the analysis of users' needs and requirements in terms of how appropriate
concrete actions seem to be in achieving specific tasks;
2
ii) the development of integrated toolsets to provide the concrete user interaction;
iii) the development of a framework, called a User Interface Management System
(UIMS), in which these tools can be built into user interfaces, using simple
construction facilities;
and iv) the evaluation of the UIs to determine whether or not the expected user
satisfaction actually materialises.
Clearly, the UI component of a DBMS could well be improved by following these steps.
In the context of ttaditional DBMS, the possibilities in this direction seem somewhat
limited. They provide efficient and secure storage of data, but limited facilities for
manipulating the data in a conceptually direct manner. It is hard to see how the UI
component can be well integrated, firstly because the semantics of the application domain
is poorly represented [Kent79] and secondly because the application code, of which the
UI component is only a part, is poorly integrated with the rest of the DBMS, since it
consists primarily of ad-hoc add-ons. It is a necessarily complex task to represent the
meaning of the database in concrete terms if that meaning is not explicitly available. For
example, if information about a given real world object is scattered about a number of
relations, integrating all of the information in order to present a simple view, while
possible, is unnecessarily difficult. Additionally, if the application and interface code is
not subject to a specific structure nor tied in any meaningful way to the data, then again,
methods to glue the code together to form the interface will be overly complicated.
********
Advanced DBMS, including complex object databases (such as POSTGRES
[RoSt87]), object oriented DBMS (such as 02 [Deux91] or ObjectStore[LLOW91]) and
persistent programming languages (such as Napier88 [MBCD89]) completely transform
the situation. The prime motivation of all of these systems is to overcome the two
problems just stated. On the one hand, they provide data modelling facilities within
which the semantics of the application domain is more clearly expressed and, on the
other, they integrate the application code into the DBMS. In these systems, as the
semantics of the application domain is explicitly available, it is much easier to write
generic UI code. As this code can be stored in the DBMS as part of the data, it becomes
much easier to provide tools which manage it For instance, it becomes a tractable task to
create 4GL-like mechanisms with which to build a multiplicity of interfaces.
Object Oriented DBMS (OODBs) are currently the most commercially developed of
these advanced DBMS. In an OODB, the application code is stored as procedural
components of the data structure being manipulated. This permits the user interface to be
built in a coherent way with interface components being stored with class of data objects
and UI framework code to be stored as interface objects. Indeed, object orientation has
been the programming paradigm of choice amongst HCI researchers, principally using
the language Smallta1k80 [GoR083].
It might be assumed that the extension of this work to persistent data housed in an
OODB would proceed as a matter of course for OODB manufacturers. In fact, the first
front running OODB, which was built as a persistent extension to an object oriented
language (in this case Smallta1k80), provided very few UI tools at fIrSt. It took about six
years before they produced a graphical schema editor and then it was programmed in C!
[AIAn90] Umortunately, this neglect of the UI aspect of DBMS development is
altogether typical, even of advanced systems. It is therefore timely to begin to rectify this
omission.
********