Management of temporal data by means of a canonical schema

A computer program for using a canonical file to persist a bitemporal history of the data created by one or more transactions written to update a non-canonical table, embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, the computer program comprising:

• logic adapted to transform the one or more transactions into one or more bitemporal transactions against the canonical file;
• logic adapted to enforce at least one of temporal entity integrity and temporal referential integrity on the one or more bitemporal transactions;
• logic adapted to update the canonical file with the one or more bitemporal transactions;
• and
• logic adapted to control a user interface to present a view of the canonical file as a queryable object whose set of rows is identical to a set of rows that would have resulted if the one or more transactions had been applied to the non-canonical table,
• wherein the canonical file is a storage structure that uses a canonical schema.

A computer program for managing at least one parent table with a valid-time period and at least one child table with a valid-time period, the at least one child table containing a temporal foreign key that references the at least one parent table, embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, the computer program comprising:

• logic adapted to persist the representation of at least one episode in the at least one parent table, the at least one episode comprising a valid-time earliest row and a group of zero or more other rows in the at least one parent table;
• wherein the valid-time earliest row and the group of zero or more other rows have the same object identifier,
• wherein the union of the valid-time period of the valid-time earliest row and the valid-time periods of the rows in the group of zero or more other rows is a valid-time period that extends continuously from the start of the valid-time earliest row's valid-time period to the end of the valid-time latest row's valid-time period, and
• wherein, if the at least one parent table and the at least one child table both have a transaction-time period, the intersection of the transaction-time period of the valid-time earliest row and the transaction-time periods of the rows in the group of zero or more other rows is not empty.

A computer program for managing at least one bitemporal table, embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, the computer program comprising:

• logic adapted to apply at least one transaction that specifies a future transaction-time period to the at least one bitemporal table;
• logic adapted to add at least one row with a future transaction-time period to the at least one bitemporal table if the at least one transaction is an insert transaction;
• logic adapted to apply at least one of temporal entity integrity and temporal referential integrity to the at least one transaction that specifies a future transaction-time period;
• and
• logic adapted to control a user interface to present rows with future transaction-time periods as queryable objects.

A computer program for creating at least one generated table definition from at least one precursor table definition, embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, comprising:

• logic adapted to create the at least one generated table definition using metadata that identifies a database that will contain the at least one generated table definition and metadata that identifies a data management system that will manage the database;
• logic adapted to ensure that the generated table definition is valid for the data management system that will manage the database that will contain the generated table definition;
• logic adapted to create, for a foreign key definition or a temporal foreign key definition in the at least one precursor table definition, a temporal foreign key definition in the generated table definition if the temporal foreign key definition in the generated table definition references a temporal table;
• and
• logic adapted to create, for a foreign key definition or a temporal foreign key definition in the at least one precursor table definition, a non-temporal foreign key definition in the generated table definition if the non-temporal foreign key definition in the generated table references a non-temporal table,
• wherein the type of the precursor table defined by the precursor table definition and the type of the generated table defined by the generated table definition are each one of a non-temporal table, a valid-time table, a transaction-time table, or a bitemporal table, and
• wherein the type of the precursor table defined by the precursor table definition and the type of the generated table defined by the generated table definition are not the same type.

A computer program for managing at least one temporal parent table and at least one temporal child table, the at least one temporal child table containing at least one temporal foreign key referencing the at least one temporal parent table, the at least one temporal parent generated from at least one non-temporal parent table and the at least one temporal child table generated from at least one non-temporal child table, the at least one non-temporal child table containing a foreign key referencing the at least one non-temporal parent table, embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, the computer program comprising:

• logic adapted to apply at least one temporal transaction to the at least one temporal child table;
• and
• logic adapted to apply the constraint of temporal referential integrity to the at least one temporal transaction,
• wherein the type of the temporal child table is one of a valid-time table, a transaction-time table, or a bitemporal table,
• wherein the type of the temporal parent table is one of a valid-time table, a transaction-time table, or a bitemporal table,
• wherein the type of the temporal child table and the type of the temporal parent table are the same type, and
• wherein the minimum cardinality and the maximum cardinality of the temporal foreign key in the temporal child table match the minimum cardinality and the maximum cardinality of the foreign key in the non-temporal child table.

A computer program for managing at least one table having a transaction-time period, embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, the computer program comprising:

• logic adapted to utilize a column in the at least one table, wherein the column contains a value indicating that the end point in time of the transaction-time period of a row in the at least one table is a past point in time, and a value indicating that end point in time of the transaction-time period of the row in the at least one table is not a past point in time;
• logic adapted to initialize the column, on all rows inserted by temporal transactions, to the value that indicates that the end point in time of the transaction-time period of the row in the at least one table is not a past point in time;
• and
• logic adapted to update the column, on all rows logically deleted by temporal transactions, to the value that indicates that the end point in time of the transaction-time period of the row in the at least one table is a past point in time.

A computer program for managing at least one table having a valid-time period, embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, the computer program comprising:

• logic adapted to utilize a column in the at least one table, wherein the column contains a value indicating that the end point in time of the valid-time period of a row in the at least one table is a past point in time, and a value indicating that end point in time of the valid-time period of the row in the at least one table is not a past point in time;
• logic adapted to initialize the column to the value that indicates that the end point in time of the valid-time period of the row in the at least one table is a past point in time, on all rows inserted by temporal transactions that specify valid-time periods that are entirely in the past;
• logic adapted to initialize the column to the value that indicates that the end point in time of the valid-time period of the row in the at least one table is not a past point in time, on all rows inserted by means of temporal transactions that specify or accept as default values valid-time periods that are not in entirely the past;
• and
• logic adapted to set the value of the column on every row in the at least one table whose valid-time period end point in time is set by a temporal transaction to the time at which the temporal transaction takes place or to a past point in time, to the value that indicates that the end point in time of the valid-time period of the row is a past point in time.