Lifecycle reference partitioning for database objects

A system for reference partitioning database objects by lifecycle state, the system comprising:

• at least one hardware processor;
• at least one database environment, the database environment supporting triggers and partitioning;
• at least one application program;
• and
• memory storing:
• a lifecycle metadata framework that:
• identifies classes in a ragged hierarchy of database objects,
• identifies at least one class as a root of the hierarchy,
• identifies, for each non-root class, a lifecycle inheritance function for the class, and
• identifies, for each parent class-child class pair in the hierarchy, a relation-join query, the relation-join query being a join between tables in the database environment onto which the parent class and child class are persisted, and
• triggers that use the framework to maintain lifecycle states for non-root database objects, including at least a first trigger invoked after a lifecycle state of a database object in a root class is changed, a second trigger invoked when a non-root database object is inserted, and a third trigger invoked when a non-root database object has a change in parent.

A method of database object lifecycle maintenance for database objects in a ragged hierarchy, the method comprising:

• receiving a class, the class being a root in the ragged hierarchy, the hierarchy being defined through a lifecycle framework that defines classes in the hierarchy, parent-child relationships between classes, and, for each parent-child relationship, stores a join query;
• selecting a database object instance of the class;
• traversing the hierarchy downward from the database object, depth first, avoiding cycles, the traversal being accomplished via a hierarchical query generated at least by a union of the join queries for parent-child relationships related to the class;
• and
• at a leaf database object reached by traversing the hierarchy:
• determining whether the leaf database object is in a partition for deleted objects, and
• when the leaf database object is in the partition for deleted objects, issuing a partition maintenance command for the leaf database object, the partition maintenance command being a database-provided command.