Method restructuring and consistency checking for object-oriented schemas

In this paper we present a framework and algorithms for method evolution handling in object-oriented databases. Two levels of granularity for method evolution are described. The first level to the evolution of methods in the context of the class inheritance hierarchy, and concerns the semantics of the polymorphism. The second level relates to the behavioural evolution in which the chain of calling relationships between methods is considered. A graph based approach is used to achieve such behavioural consistency in order to prevent the problems of run-time errors, side-effects, and to detect redundant methods and unexpected behaviours.