RTXPS on-line Manual: A-TEAM data base structure

Release:	1.1
Date:	January 2003
Revision:	1.0

The ATEAM data base is an oracle data base installed on the server aca.ess.co.at, the user name is ateam, password is ateam. It consists of two sets of tables.

Course tables

This part consists of 5 tables.

Table functions contains list of all functions implemented in rtxps.

functions:
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
 NAME                                               VARCHAR2(255)

The current list of implemented funtions and their description can be found in: //mp1/INTRANET/milan/rtxps_fnctions

All the other tables contain course and user (teacher - course designer) specific records. Column ID is used for sorting (makes sure that sequence can not change). Table rules contains the recipe - what to do next. This table is sequence dependent. Rtxps looks for the first rule (in the sorted list) whose condition is true and that has not been fired yet. Table actions describes what is to be done - in terms of functions - which functions are to be called. Every action can call upto 3 functions. Table descriptors contains description of descriptors. Descriptors are variables which have a state of undefined at the beginning (after init call) and can be set to a symbolic or numeric value. Symbols may be associated with ranges in order to be able to compare symbols with numbers and in order to be able to do computations with symbols, Ranges are saved in the table range.

rules:
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
 ACTION                                             VARCHAR2(255)
 CONDITION                                          VARCHAR2(255)
 ID                                                 NUMBER
 COURSE                                             VARCHAR2(255)
 USERNAME                                           VARCHAR2(255)

actions:
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
 NAME                                               VARCHAR2(255)
 FUNCTION1                                          VARCHAR2(255)
 FUNCTION2                                          VARCHAR2(255)
 FUNCTION3                                          VARCHAR2(255)
 ID                                                 NUMBER
 COURSE                                             VARCHAR2(255)
 USERNAME                                           VARCHAR2(255)

range:
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
 DESCRIPTOR                                         VARCHAR2(255)
 SYMBOL                                             VARCHAR2(255)
 LOW                                                NUMBER
 MEAN                                               NUMBER
 HIGH                                               NUMBER
 ID                                                 NUMBER
 COURSE                                             VARCHAR2(255)
 USERNAME                                           VARCHAR2(255)

descriptors:
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
 NAME                                               VARCHAR2(255)
 TYPE                                               VARCHAR2(255)
 QUESTION                                           VARCHAR2(255)
 ID                                                 NUMBER
 COURSE                                             VARCHAR2(255)
 USERNAME                                           VARCHAR2(255)

Run-time tables

This part consists of 3 tables. All of them have identical structure. The purpose of these tables is to save state of individual descriptors and state of inference. All of them are user and course (knowledge base) specific. Descriptors are saved in the table called descriptors, and fired actions are saved in the table called actions. Table timestamps contains initial time specification of individual sessions which can be used to evaluate alapsed time.

rdescriptors:
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
 RUSER                                              VARCHAR2(255)
 KB                                                 VARCHAR2(255)
 DESCRIPTOR                                         VARCHAR2(255)
 VALUE                                              VARCHAR2(255)

ractions:
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
 RUSER                                              VARCHAR2(255)
 KB                                                 VARCHAR2(255)
 DESCRIPTOR                                         VARCHAR2(255)
 VALUE                                              VARCHAR2(255)

timestamps:
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
 RUSER                                              VARCHAR2(255)
 KB                                                 VARCHAR2(255)
 DESCRIPTOR                                         VARCHAR2(255)
 VALUE                                              VARCHAR2(255)