The object-oriented temporal approach
It is clear that despite several improvements to historical databases, referenced database concepts are unsustainable for practical use in the long run. In order to make the right decision and reflect data changes, it is not enough to store and evaluate only current valid data; historical data also needs to be defined and operated. Over the decades, several attempts have been made to create a temporal model. The object-oriented temporal approach was the basis of this. Moving conventional processing to an object-level temporal model is based on the primary key, which uniquely identifies any object in a conventional database. A conventional system uses just one object version expressing the current valid state, while a temporal model stores the whole evolution. Thus, to manage the object, several versions must be identified and processed. To do so, the original primary key is extended to reference the version. It is mostly modeled by the validity...