We developed an intelligent multimedia presentation design system earlier. Based on the system, we now develop a multimedia database system that supports the reuse of multimedia presentations and resources. The database consists of two layers: the frame layer and the resource layer. A frame group in the first layer is the basic presentation unit to be reused. A resource group in the second layer is a collection of resources to be used by a frame or a frame group. In these two layers, we use four types of links in the database to group frames and/or resources. Also, multimedia resources are associated with a number of properties. Using these properties, we allow the user to search for resources via a database browser. The database is built on the top of a commercial object-oriented database server and run under a windowing system.
