This site features a number of technical papers and articles on ORM, as
well as other approaches such as the Unified Modeling Language (UML).
Permission has been obtained from the relevant publishers to reproduce
these publications on this website, and to make them freely downloadable.
If you are unfamiliar with ORM, you may want to first review the ORM in Detail section of this
site. Details about upcoming courses and conferences, as well as links to
websites with additional ORM publications may be found in the Resources section.
The editor
Dr. Terry Halpin is a Principal Scientist at LogicBlox (headquartered in Atlanta, USA) and a Distinguished Professor at INTI International University (Malaysia). Dr. Halpin formalized the Object Role Modeling approach and has authored five books and over 160 technical papers. Visit the rest of this site to explore various conceptual data modeling topics discussed in his publications.
Information on this site will grow with time, so please revisit.
If you have any feedback or suggestions, please e-mail me at t.halpin@live.com.
Happy reading!
Terry Last updated: 2010 July 9 The Resources page now includes a link to the ActiveFacts toolkit.
The abstract and paper deadlines for the ORM2010 Workshop have been extended to June 22 and July 6 respectively (see updated CFP below).
A 6-page summary of the ORM 2 Graphical notation, including examples, is now available for download on the resources page.
The Exploring Modeling Methods in Systems Analysis and Design (EMMSAD) series of annual conferences provide a forum to discuss the latest advances in information systems modeling. The EMMSAD 2010 Conference was held June 7-8 in Hammamet, Tunisia in conjunction with CAiSE 2010, and included a presentation on FORML 2 (the second generation of FORML, a formal, textual language for ORM). Details about this EMMSAD conference as well as resources from past EMMSAD presentations may be found here.
The ORM2010 Workshop will be held October 27-29, 2010 in Hersonissou, Crete, Greece. This workshop focuses on fact-oriented modeling approaches such as ORM. See the ORM2010 Call For Papers. ORM2010 is part of On The Move conferences (OTM2010).
The ORM2009 Workshop was held November 4-6, 2009 in Vilamoura, Portugal. Slides for several presentations are accessible in the ORM Foundation Library.
The first three articles in a new series on ontology modeling for the Business Rules Journal appear on the Resources page.
The Resources page now includes a link to Andy Carver's Website, and a link to a Visio stencil for drawing ORM 2 diagrams that has been significantly upgraded by Andy.
The first printing of the book included a number of errors,
as detailed in the Book
Errata.
NORMA (Natural ORM Architect) is a new modeling tool under
development that supports the next generation of ORM (ORM 2). Implemented
as an open-source plug-in to Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET, NORMA
requires at least the standard version of Visual Studio (2005 or 2008). For further
details on the ORM 2 graphical notation, see ORM 2 Technical Report
1. A technical preview of NORMA is available on The ORM Foundation as well as SourceForge. Here is an ORM Foundation link to NORMA, and here is a SourceForge link to NORMA.
Recent Updates log:
Object Role Modeling (ORM) is a
powerful method for designing and querying database models at the
conceptual level, where the application is described in terms easily
understood by non-technical users. In practice, ORM data models often
capture more business rules, and are easier to validate and evolve than
data models in other approaches.
Thanks for dropping in to the
Object Role Modeling Website. In addition to the technical papers
on Object Role Modeling and other modeling approaches, you can find
details about my book, Information Modeling and Relational
Databases, information about other resources, and interviews
with the press.
To view a PDF file you need to
install an additional piece of software called Adobe
Acrobat Reader from the Adobe site.
The 2nd edition of Information Modeling and Relational Databases (ISBN: 978-0-12-373568-3) was published on March 1, 2008. This major upgrade of the earlier edition runs to 970 pages and includes loads of new and updated content. Fully updated to ORM 2 and UML 2 and the latest developments in SQL and XML, this book reveals the true power of semantic data modeling (covering ORM, ER, and UML), as well as addressing business process modeling, relational databases, and other modeling topics such as the semantic web. Here is a link to the book on Amazon.
The NORMA software is currently in the pre-beta stage, but extensive functionality enhancements and
user-interface improvements are planned for the near future. Currently the
tool supports entry of ORM2 schemas, verbalization of of most constraints,
and code generation (for basic constraints) to a variety of DBMSs
(including SQL Server, DB2, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL) as well as class
models and XML schema. NORMA is capable of importing ORM schemas entered
in Visio for Enterpise Architects, but the diagrams need to be laid out
manually. For Part 1 of the specification for automated verbalization in NORMA, see ORM 2 Technical Report 2.
2010 July 9: Added a link to the ActiveFacts toolkit (Resouces page).
2010 June 18: Updated INTI International University details to reflect its upgrading to full university status.
2010 June 11: Updated ORM2010 Workshop CFP with extended deadlines etc.
2010 Mar 16: Added ORM 2 Graphical notation summary (Resources page).
2010 Mar 15: Added details of ORM2010 Workshop, and updated details of EMMSAD2010 Conference. Added 3rd ontology modeling article (resources page). Updated errata for information modeling book.
2010 Jan 2: Added details of EMMSAD2010 and link to ORM2009 slides (this page). Added 2nd ontology modeling article, link to Andy Carver, link to upgraded ORM 2 Visio stencil (resources page). Updated Halpin employment details. Updated errata for information modeling book.
2009 Oct 19: Updated errata for information modeling book.
2009 Oct 9: Added ORM2009 Workshop final program details; added part 1 of paper series on ontology modeling (resources page).
2009 June 24: Updated ORM2009 Workshop CFP to Final Call For Papers, including new due dates; added 7th article on temporal modeling (resources page).
2009 May 9: Updated ORM2009 Workshop CFP to Second Call For Papers, including submission site.
2009 Mar 30: Added ORM2009 Workshop First Call For Papers.
2009 Feb 3: Updated e-mail address (home page).
2009 Jan 18: Updated home page etc. regarding change in employment etc. Added encyclopedia article to ORM in Detail page, and moved an ORM2 article there from Modeling Issues page. Added 3 workshop papers to Modeling Issues page. Added 2 journal articles to Resources page. Updated conference data on Resources page.
ORM Home ORM in Detail Modeling Issues
Conceptual Queries UML and ORM Resources
All diagrams on this site were created with Microsoft Visio.