US Patent 7155434 Locking mechanism employing a name lock for materialized views

A database system includes a locking mechanism for a materialized view defined on base relations. In response to updates of a base relation, a name lock is placed on the materialized view. The name lock is a type of exclusive lock and is associated with a data structure containing a first parameter to identify a base relation of the materialized view being updated, and a second parameter to indicate a number of transactions updating the base relation. With locking mechanisms according to some embodiments of the invention, transaction concurrency is enhanced by enabling concurrent updates of a materialized view by plural transactions in certain cases.