Thesis

This dissertation is based on the thesis that:

Functionality of Relational Databases can be significantly extended towards solving recursive queries and searching for admissible solutions through integrating the proposed Jelly View technology into a database. Moreover, using this technology enables general rule-based processing within Relational Databases.

In particular, Jelly View technology can be applied to solve problems belonging to C1 and C2 classes. Detailed presentation of the technology and its implementation is the main focus of the dissertation. Application of the technology is illustrated with representative example problems.

The main problem solved in this dissertation consists in developing a methodology of embedding Logic Programming into Relational Databases with some minimal overhead concerning software technology. All the data and knowledge necessary for computations are stored using the Relational Database paradigm; no external knowledge base is required. The proposed methodology consists in dynamic generation and evaluation of logic programs on demand. It is implemented as an external module independent on specific RDBMS; this makes the technology be extremely portable and applicable to practically any database system.

The inference capability is provided by integrating a Prolog rule-based inference engine with the database. The results of the inference process are perceived as a regular database relation (an SQL view) by the end-user.