The development of database applications comprises three different tiers: application tier, database tier and finally the middle tier also known as the data access layer. The development of each tier per-se entails many challenges. Very...
moreThe development of database applications comprises three different tiers: application tier, database tier and finally the middle tier also known as the data access layer. The development of each tier per-se entails many challenges. Very often the most difficult challenges to be addressed derive from non-functional requirements, as productivity, usability, performance, reliability, high-availability and transparency. This paper is focused on defining and presenting a model for the data access layer aimed to integrate object-oriented application tiers and relational database tiers. The model addresses situations on which users need to explicitly write down complex static Create, Read, Update and Delete (CRUD) expressions and simultaneously get advantages regarding some non-functional requirements. The model, known as CRUD Data Object Model (CRUD-DOM), tackles the following nonfunctional requirements: performance, usability and productivity. The main contributions of this paper are threefold: 1) to present the CRUD-DOM model; 2) to carry out an enhanced performance assessment based on a case study; 3) to present a tool, called CRUD Manager (CRUD-M), which provides automatic code generation with complementary support for software test and maintenance. The main outcome of this paper is the evidence that the pair CRUD-DOM and CRUD-M effectively addresses productivity, performance and usability requirements in the aforementioned context.
