Active database approach to integrating black-box software components

Active database technology uses active rules, called Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules, as an integral feature of application development. Active rules specify an event that the database monitors, a declarative condition to evaluate when the event occurs, and an action to execute when the condition is true. This paper motivates the use of active rules to develop a software application that is the result of integrating black-box software components. This approach focuses on integrating black-box JavaBeans components, which generate Property Change Events when the values of its properties are modified. The changes in property values are known as deltas in the database community. DeltaBeans are introduced as a mechanism to monitor the changes or deltas to the properties of a black-box JavaBeans component. This paper illustrates DeltaBeans in a simple application example and motivates the use of deltas to trigger active rules that specify application integration.