ConceptBase V5.2.3 User Manual

Matthias Jarke, Manfred A. Jeusfeld, Christoph Quix (Eds.)

Contributions to this manual were made by: Lutz Bauer, Rainer Gallersdörfer, Michael Gebhardt, Rainer Hermanns, Manfred Jeusfeld, Rainer Langohr, Thomas List, Hans Nissen, Christoph Quix, René Soiron, Martin Staudt, Ralf Stössel and Hua Wang.

This manual refers to: ConceptBase V5.2.3, released May 29, 2002

Abstract:

ConceptBase is an experimental deductive object base management system specifically intended for meta data management and the coordination of design environments. It integrates techniques from deductive, object-oriented, and temporal databases in the logical framework of the data model Telos. The usage environment offers an extensible palette of graphical, tabular, and textual windows conforming to the X11 standard. The communication between the windows and the object base is organized in a client-server architecture using TCP/IP.

• Contents
• Introduction
  • Background and History
  • ConceptBase Architecture
  • Hardware and Software Requirements
  • Overview of this Manual
  • Differences to Earlier Versions
• The Telos Language in ConceptBase
  • Frame and Network Representation
  • The Predicative Sublanguage CBL
  • The Query Language CBQL
  • The View Language CBVL
• The ConceptBase Server
• The ConceptBase Usage Environment
  • ConceptBase Workbench
    • Menubar
    • Smart Icon Panel
    • Telos Editor Field
    • Protocol Field
    • Statusline
  • Browsing Utilities
    • Display Instances
    • Display Queries
    • GraphBrowser
  • An Example Session with ConceptBase
    • Starting ConceptBase
    • Connecting the Usage Environment to the ConceptBase Server
    • Loading Objects from external Files
    • Displaying Objects
    • Browsing Objects
    • Editing Telos Objects
    • Storing Objects to External Files
    • Using the Query Facility
  • The ConceptBase Java User Interface
    • The Menu Bar
    • The Tool Bar
    • The Status Bar
    • Telos Editor
    • History Window
    • Display Instances
    • Frame Browser
    • Query Editor
    • Tree Browser
    • Command Line Options
• Advanced Features
  • Using the Module Features of ConceptBase
    • Definition of Modules
    • Switching between Module-contexts
    • Using nested Modules
    • Exporting/Importing Objects
  • Active Rules in ConceptBase
    • Definition of ECArules
      • ECAassertion
      • Priorities
      • Mode of an ECA rule
      • Activate and Deactivate ECA rules
      • Depth
      • User-definable Error Messages
      • Constraints
    • Examples
      • Materialization of Views
      • Counter
      • Timestamps
    • Limitations in the current Implementation
  • Functions
    • Overview
    • Examples for Usage of Functions
  • User-defined Answer Formats
    • Basic definitions
    • Simple expressions in patterns
    • Iterations over expressions
    • Calling queries in answer formats
    • External procedures
    • Expressions in head and tail
    • Conditional expressions
    • Views and path expressions
    • Parameterized Answer Format
• References
• Syntax Specifications
  • Syntax Specifications for Telos Objects
  • Syntax of the Assertion Language
  • Syntax of ECArules
  • Terminal Symbols
  • Syntax Specifications for SML Fragments
• Graphical Types
  • The Graphical Type Model
  • The Graphical Types of the Standard Graph Browser Configuration
  • Customizing the Graph Browser Layout
• Examples
  • Example Model: The Employee Model
  • A Telos Modeling Example - ER Diagrams
    • The basic model
    • The use of metaformulas
      • Example: necessary and single
      • Metaformulas defining sets of rules
    • Limitations and final remarks
• About this document ...