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Newsletter :: September 2005
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  -- db4objects' FALL 2005 GLOBAL ROADSHOW --

- Meet db4objects' team, local partners, and users in person
- Hear local speakers: E. Falsken (SF), T. Satoh (Tokyo), M. Sunderarajan (Bangalore), Prof. S. Edlich (Munich), Prof. J. Paterson (London)
- Learn about "The db4o Business Case," presented by CEO Christof Wittig
- Experience an exclusive live presentation of db4o Version 5.0 by Carl Rosenberger
- Meet attendees from Bosch, Sharp, HP, Siemens and many more...

- August 24, 2:00pm - San Francisco*, db4objects' San Mateo HQ, Suite #350
- August 29, 1:30pm - Tokyo, Roppongi Academy Hill, #49/5 (in Japanese)
- September 8, 10:00am - Bangalore, Le Meridien Hotel, Dominion Hall
- September 23, 10:00am - Munich Airport Center, Municon #K20 (in German)
- September 29, 10:00am - London Imperial College, Skempton Bldg., #301

Attendance is FREE, but seats are limited! Register now to secure a seat!
*Additional events are planned in fall throughout the US and Canada.

 
-- FREE db4o WEBINAR FOR ADVANCED USERS --

Are you currently evaluating db4o or already using it for your projects? If so, then db4objects invites you to attend our new Webinar (web-based seminar)! Targeted at developers with advanced knowledge of db4o, this session provides an opportunity to interact directly with members of our development team, with the convenience of participating from your desk!

Topic: "How to get the most out of db4o for your applications"
- Exploring the power of db4o APIs
- Speeding up your database, and keeping it fast
- Implementing advanced db4o features such as indexing, translators, and more

Select a date you wish to attend and follow the respective link to REGISTER:

Wednesday, September 14 at 14:00 UTC (7:00am PT, your timezone here)
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Tuesday, September 20 at 00:00 UTC (9/19 5:00pm PT, your timezone here)
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

 
-- db4o V 5.0 NATIVE QUERIES TAKE SHAPE, NEW NQ WHITEPAPER --

db4o is moving fast towards the planned release of its upcoming Version 5, due in October for development and early November for production purposes.

A major initiative of V5 is the implementation of ground-breaking Native Queries (NQ), a new, additional API which uses the programming language itself - Java or .NET - to query the db4o database. Native Queries are based on Safe Queries as proposed by William Cook, Prof. at University of Texas, at the 27th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE).

William Cook and Carl Rosenberger have joined forces to release a new whitepaper on NQs, available for immediate and free download. This paper describes a minimalist way of expressing queries directly in the implementation languages using the semantics of Java and C#, and discusses advantages and disadvantages as well as implementation issues.

In addition, the db4o core team has just released a second preview release, dubbed Milestone 2 (M2) of Version 5, available for download from the db4o Download Center. The purpose of our previews is to spark discussion and gather feedback from the user community, especially about the API enhancements of NQ. (This is still not a runnable or optimized implementation of the API, i.e. not for use in development and production.)

The V5 Milestone 2 features improved type safety with new support for Native Queries using .NET 2.0 generics. This means developers can be more productive and reduce software defect yields because code is syntax-checked when typed, not when compiled or executed. The release also features out-of-the-box support for .NET 2.0 with the new installer package. Previously, users had to manually compile db4o's source code against .NET 2.0 to make use of the new API.

db4o V5 is 100% backward compatible to V 4.x -- meaning you will not need to change a single line of code when you switch from Version 4.x to Version 5.0. While the upgrade of existing database files is seamless, we strongly recommend creating backup copies before upgrading since we do not test downgrading back to previous versions.

Due to overwhelmingly positive feedback to our 5.0 preview, we've decided to make the compatibility of query results (ObjectSet) to java.util.List and System.Collections.IList available in version 4.6 also, so that development and use of this feature is possible immediately. We strongly encourage users to use the new 4.6.010 build, now available for download from the db4o Download Center. This build is only just short of being labeled "Production-Ready" within the next weeks.

 
-- db4o ObjectManager V1.5 RELEASED, PROVIDES DATA EDITING, XML EXPORT --

This month db4objects released ObjectManager 1.5, which not only supplies an easy way for customers to browse stored data, but also allows easy editing of data stored in databases.

"Editing was the number one request we received after the release of Object Manager 1.0," says ObjectManager lead developer Dave Orme. "We have listened and acted on your requests."

In addition, ObjectManager 1.5 can now export databases to an XML file. This new XML export feature provides a standard way for customers to use commodity third-party tools and programming language libraries to process data stored in db4objects databases. This helps make db4objects the safe, conservative choice for data storage as well as the radical, cool, new way to store and retrieve data manipulated by object-oriented languages like Java and C#.

(Note that running 4.6 is a requirement for using ObjectManager 1.5, which is now available for free download from the db4o Download Center.)

 
-- IDC SPOTS BILLION-DOLLAR EMBEDDED DBMS MARKET, NEW REPORT --

Coinciding with db4o's first-year anniversary of incorporation, leading analyst firms IDC, VDC and RedMonk recently commented on the embedded database market and the prospects of db4o's open source object database offering.

According to IDC's estimates, the embedded DBMS market grew 15% to $1.86 billion in 2004, and is expected to blossom to $3.18 billion in 2009 ("Worldwide Embedded Database Management Systems 2003 Vendor Shares," IDC# 32468, December 2004). IDC has just released a new report, sponsored by db4objects and titled "Embedded Databases: The Invisible Engine That Could," August 2005, which is available for free download.

Carl Olofson, research director at IDC, says: "Object-oriented DBMSs could well enjoy a second growth period as embedded DBMSs due to the efficient and flexible data management they offer object-oriented applications, and open source DBMSs are also attractive as embedded DBMSs because of the technological control they offer ISVs as well as flexibility in licensing." He adds that: "db4objects is in the interesting position of offering the benefits of object-oriented DBMS technology and open source licensing, making its value proposition appealing on two fronts."

Chris Lanfear, director at Venture Development Corporation (VDC), says: "Especially on the client side, such as in stand-alone devices and other zero-administration environments, engineers look for innovative persistence solutions that meet their immediate specifications and help them outrun the competition. As a result, more than 50% of embedded and device software developers still build their own database tools today. With the advent of standardized object-oriented platforms, such as embedded Java and the .NET CompactFramework, we expect object databases to become a universal solution for OO persistence - with db4o's open source offering leading the charge."

Redmonk director Stephen O'Grady was recently quoted in eWeek stating that people are starting to question the relational model's aptness for particular jobs. "There's an increasing recognition in the open source world that other, non-relational models are called for," he said, citing db4objects' OO open source database as "an early indication of what we may see coming from open source database vendors in the future."

db4objects continues to build on its technological leadership and its fast-growing user community. CEO Christof Wittig strictly focuses on object database technology that meets the exact requirements of Java and .NET developers for embeddable persistence. Backed by rapid user adoption, Wittig sees the company as ideally positioned to be the clear leader in the embeddable OO database market segment in the long run.

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We appreciate your feedback, you can email us. Please let us know what you are thinking, and how we can help you. And please don't forget to share your db4o success stories with us!

With best regards

The db4objects team.

www.db4o.com
newsletter@db4o.com
Phone +1 (650) 577-2340
1900 S Norfolk Street, Suite 350
San Mateo, CA 94403 (USA)



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