Linux and Windows developers are turning to a more synergistic alternative: the object-oriented database. Among other benefits, an object-oriented database stores objects “as-is.” There’s no object-to-relational translation layer.
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Relational database management systems aren’t the only game in town. A growing number of Linux and Windows developers are turning to a more synergistic alternative: the object-oriented database. Among other benefits, an object-oriented database stores objects “as-is.” There’s no object-to-relational translation layer.
The computing world appears fixated on relational databases as a persistence technology. To most, a database such as Oracle, MySQL, or PostgreSQL is an obvious choice, even if there’s an “impedance mismatch” — conflicting philosophies, structures, and interfaces — between the tenets of so many object-oriented programming languages and traditional, tabular schemas.
But relational database management systems (RDBMS) aren’t the only game in town. Indeed, a growing number of Linux and Windows developers are turning to a more synergistic alternative: the object-oriented database. Among other benefits, an object-oriented database stores objects “as-is.” There’s no object-to-relational translation layer.
When the programming language and the database are of the same mind — think “objects” — persistence and retrieval of even the most complex objects can be as simple as three or four lines of code.
One of the most popular object-oriented databases (OOD) is db4o. db4o is open source, is available as Java or C# source code, and can be packaged as a single .jar file and a single .dll for Java programmers and .NET developers, respectively. Consequently, db4o is easily integrated and distributed with Java and. NET applications.
Better yet, the db4o application programming interface (API) isn’t overrun with complex classes and legions of methods. Most interactions occur through the db4o ObjectContainer class, which represents the actual database. The ObjectContainer interface defines only ten methods, yet provides the bulk of all common database manipulation capabilities, including inserts, searches, updates, and…
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