a Database for Detector Conditions Data of Current and Future HEP Experiments

This paper presents the Conditions Database, a C++ library (currently based on Objectivity/DB) developed by the Database group of the CERN IT Division, for use in the current and future (LHC) experiments at CERN. The package can be used to manage conditions data of a detector into a database; these are the conditions that vary with time and are necessary for the reconstruction and analysis of raw data. The library provides an abstract interface, independent of the underlying DBMS, which means that moving from an implementation based on a certain DBMS to another one would have very little impact on the user code.