A user-oriented database system and its mapping to the relational model

Abstract

An architecture of a database system for non-expert users and capable of supporting manual document structures is described. The development of a user-oriented data model (UODM) with suitable constructs is presented. Various design strategies for generating an appropriate relational schema automatically from the UODM are presented and discussed. Finally it is pointed out that the use of a typifying attribute and a set of mutually exclusive attributes may be of use as a general data analysis tool.