Object-Level Transactions

This is not so much a request for help, but a feature request that I would like to post here quarterly, in the hope that someone from Oracle will see it and get it into the hands of the right individuals at Oracle for their consideration. I hope that so infrequent a posting of this request won't draw fire. I would like to send it to Oracle as well; if there's an email address where such requests are accepted, I would be grateful to know it.

REQUESTED FEATURE
With Oracle 8 user-defined objects, there is still the need to code the object interface methods. For common business objects, such as Invoice, which tend to consist of a simple one-to-many relation (e.g. InvoiceHeader and LineItem) there ought to be a way to avoid having to code the methods procedurally.

I want to be able simply to DECLARE a rudimentary object-level rule
and have the O-RDBMS enforce the rule without having to be told exactly how to go about it. Something like this:

        Sum(Lineitem.AMOUNT) = InvoiceHeader.Amount

Clearly, this rule would have to be enforced at the level of the 'object-transaction' -- it cannot be done at the row-level.
The nested relation has to be aggregated, and the aggregation has to be postponed until after the last row in the object-transaction has been inserted, updated, or deleted.

I'd like to see Oracle move in the DECLARATIVE direction where possible. The gains in productivity will be comparable to, or greater than, that achieved by declarative referential integrity.

If you think this feature request is misguided on technical grounds, feel free to let me know directly.

Thanks,
Tim Romano Received on Sun Jun 21 1998 - 11:22:43 CDT