History and Point in Time in Enterprise Applications

First part points out the main differences between temporal and non-temporal databases. In the second part, based on identification of the three main categories of time involved in database applications: user-defined time, valid time and transaction time, some relevant solutions for their implementation are discussed, mainly from the point of view of database organization and data access level of enterprise applications. The final part is dedicated to the influences of historical data in the business logic and presentation levels of enterprise applications and in application services, as security, workflow, reporting.