Newsletter :: March 2006
Back to Newsletter Archive
-- V5.2 RELEASED : IMPROVED PERFORMANCE, IMPROVED QUERYING --
db4objects is proud to announce the release of db4o production version 5.2.002, which is available for immediate, free download from the db4o Community Zone.
db4o version 5.2 comes with up to 300% improved performance as well as plenty of new APIs for Native and sorted queries to improve developer productivity -- and thus underlines db4o's position as the most native Java and .NET database available today.
IMPROVED PERFORMANCE: In response and cooperation with our users, db4objects has improved its insert and delete performance massively since earlier version 5 releases. The time to store 100,000 simple objects has been cut by 4x. The insert performance, which had been suffering in V5.0 (with FlushFileBuffers = on) from a design trade-off in favor of more reliable file-flushing, has not only been restored to V4.5's level (where the operating system's unpredictable file flushing sequence could have corrupted db4o database files in rare cases of power failure in the midst of a transaction), but is now better than ever -- e.g. 20% faster for deeply structured object inserts.
Storage properties are the critical factor for performance. On standard off-the-shelf hardware ( P4 3Ghz, 7000 RPM SATA ) db4o stores 14,000 objects per second. When using a memory IO adapter, the speed increases to 25,000 objects per second (see Poleposition Melbourne benchmark). And when used in in-memory mode, db4o is once again faster by orders of magnitude and has, for instance, been deployed in mission critical real-time control systems to store 200,000 objects per seconds.
NATIVE QUERIES: The widely acclaimed db4o Native Query Engine has been enhanced to provide optimized execution speed for more use-cases, such as:
- String#startsWith()
- String#endsWith()
- String#contains()
- Static member access and method calls
- Array access for non-candidate based fields
- Arbitrary method calls on non-candidate based fields
An example with #startsWith optimisation would look as follows:
IList employees = db.Query(delegate(Employee e)
{
return e.FirstName.StartsWith("P");
});
Since Version 5 db4o supports Native Queries to express database queries in native semantics of the programming language, e.g., in Java, C#, or VB.NET. This makes development significantly more productive than using incumbent string-based APIs (such as SQL, JDO, OQL), because developers have 100% typesafe, 100% refactorable, and 100% object-oriented access to their data layer.
SORTED QUERIES: We have listened to our users' most requested feature and now provide a new interface to sort query results. The interface is compatible to the standard way sorting is typically done on Java and .NET platforms: The query engines now accepts passing a normal java.util.Comparator / System.Collections.IComparer object, allowing for true object-oriented sorting with any degree of complexity. This fosters db4objects' goal to provide to most native persistence solution on the market. The new sorting mechanism can be used for both, Native Queries and SODA queries.
NEW MONO PASCAL CASE DISTRIBUTION: For our fast growing db4o for Mono user community, we have now prepared a new API with PascalCase naming for better compliance with the framework guidelines. This API is standard to the general Mono download from the db4o Community Zone with V5.2.002 or higher. An assembly with the old camelCase API is still provided, but users are encouraged to migrate to the new API as soon as possible. You find the old API in a directory labelled 'legacy' in db4o's installation folder, after you have unpacked/installed the provided tarball/RPM package of V5.2.
-- db4o REPLICATION SYSTEM (dRS) UPDATED TO V1.1 --
The dRS has been updated to incorporate the first round of user and customer feedback and is now available as a development version 1.1 for free download from the db4o Download Center.
Specifically, dRS version 1.1 can now fully support Collections and replicate them bi-directionally. Also, a series of user change requests as documented in Bugzilla has been resolved, partly by updating the underlying engine to Hibernate V3.1.2.
Thanks to the massive usage and testing through db4o's large user community on a multitude of platforms, the dRS has been made even better compatibility with the RDBMSs MySQL, Postgresql and Oracle 9i.
The db4o Replication System (dRS), first released in January 2006 and powered by Hibernate, enables users to build applications that synchronize objects bi-directionally between distributed instances of db4o's object database, all common relational databases such as Oracle or MySQL, and any combination thereof.
-- NEW WHITEPAPER : ENABLING THE MOBILE ENTERPRISE WITH db4o --
Emerging new business models and enterprise organizations break the boundaries of classic, networked computing. These trends require new levels of sophistication for distributed application architectures and the mobilization of supporting data.
Eric Falsken, technical evangelist at db4objects, has written a whitepaper - available for free download here - , in which he discusses mobile enterprise solutions in more detail. He looks at a specific use-case that describes the challenges of implementing applications in these environments and that highlights the specific benefits from using db4o's mobile database for Java and .NET.
The mobile enterprise is imperative for companies that want to use technology-enabled business processes to differentiate themselves from their competition and/or that need to contain their costs at all stages of their value chain.
A new breed of forward-thinking developers is using the benefits of object-oriented computing to build more-distributed mobile enterprise applications. They bring object-orientation to the data layer to allow for rapid application development (with the benefits of lower cost and faster time to market) and to facilitate more flexible, and hence agile, business processes in an ever-faster-changing business environment.
-- TUTORIALS NOW AVAILABLE FOR VISUAL BASIC, IN JAPANESE --
db4objects reckons that a comprehensive and easy to understand documentation is important for users, especially when they expect the persistence solution to be as seamless to deploy and easy to learn as db4o is.
db4objects has once again invested heavily into documentation by providing the acclaimed interactive tutorial with Visual Basic code (in English) or in Japanese (for Java, .NET, and Mono).
The Visual Basic tutorial is part of the V5.2 download in the distribution's doc/tutorial/vb folder.
The Japanese tutorials are available for download from the db4o Japanese Language Portal.
-- ALTANA PHARMA SPEEDS UP ITS RESEARCH PIPELINE WITH db4o --
Altana Pharma, a global-40 pharmaceutical company with sales of US$ 2.5 billion, speeds up its R&D pipeline of new drugs by using db4o to store complex scientific object models natively in its "Chemistry Information System" while running the db4o Replication System (dRS) to remain fully data compatible with the company's existing Oracle relational database.
"We were experimenting a long time with relational databases, XML serialization, Castor, and with Hibernate to get the job done, but didn't see the results in response time and flexibility we expected for our native Java environment. We selected db4o because it meets our needs exactly for native persistence of complex objects. I wish we had discovered db4o 2 years ago, because we would have easily shaved 6 months off our project time."
--Martin Kraus, Altana Pharma's CIS project lead
-- ODBMS.ORG EDUCATIONAL PORTAL WINS MORE SUPPORT --
ODBMS.ORG, a non-profit group which publishes the Internet's most up-to-date educational and research information on object database technology, received early launching aid from db4objects to meet the fast-growing need for educational resources focusing on object database technology.
The association has now won three new members to the organization's panel of industry sponsors, Progress Software, developers of ObjectStore, GemStone Systems, makers of Facets and GemStone/S, as well as Versant (Versant Object Database, FastObjects) to financially support this unique offer of free resources.
Also, the portal's expert panel has been expanded once again and now counts 75 internationally recognizable experts from academia and industry.
"The ODBMS.ORG portal is a mission-critical resource for any serious 21st century software professional. It is indispensable, and a key element in promoting state-of-the-art software craftsmanship."
--Philippe Kahn, Founding CEO Borland
L O O K I N G I N T O T H E M I R R O R
Press coverage about db4o in the last month:
"Time for an Object-Oriented Database?"
Linux Magazine, February 10, 2006, by Carl Rosenberger
"Progress and GemStone join ODBMS.ORG as Sponsors"
LinuxToday Japan, February 8, 2006, by Naoko Yamakata
(in Japanese
| in English)
"db4o - An Object Database Enthuses Developers"
dot.net Magazin, February 8, 2006, by Stefan Edlich (In German)
"db4objects announces open source replication system"
TheServerSide.com, February 1, 2006, by Carl Rosenberger
"Native Queries for Persistent Objects"
Dr. Dobb's Journal, February 2006, by William R. Cook and Carl Rosenberger
"db4o offers seamless synchronization of objects"
InfoWorld, January 30, 2006
"Java, .NET Object Database Syncs With Enterprise RDBMSs"
JDJ, January 28, 2006
"Java, .NET object database syncs with enterprise RDBMSs"
LinuxDevices.com, January 27, 2006, by Henry Kingman
"db4o, RDB Replication System"
LinuxToday Japan, January 27, 2006, by Naoko Yamakata (In Japanese)
"db4o Launches Hibernate-Enabled Object-to-Relational Database Replication"
.NET Developer's Journal, January 26, 2006
KUDOS: Here are the juiciest sound-bytes from users like yourself over the last month:
"db4o, a great, open source, OODB that can beat SQL Server anytime when it comes to persisting native objects. No mapping, no nothing, store your object model, not a flat, relational model. It supports native queries (query in native C#). Anyways, MS is still too hung up on the old RDBMS product and it shows. So 80's. :-)"
--Blogger ThomasJ, 2/2/06
"If SQL is a prerequisite, BerkeleyDB can't compete with other well-known solutions like HSQLDB, McKoi or Derby. For real nice Java integration to store and query with objects, db4o is just far more elegant."
--Posting Albert Meunier, 1/30/06
"OBJECT DATABASES: Those databases are relatively new, but right now they are rapidly gaining grounds. There are two popular object databases available for Java: db4o and Cache.
Cache is a complex and expensive enterprise level solution. I personally like db4o much better. db4o also has GPL license in case you are considering creating open source software and releasing it under GPL also.
db4o is simple to use. They have introduced native queries support not so long ago, which is when you can describe a query with native semantics of the programming language you are using through object oriented API. The big difference with Cache is that they are using SQL to query the data.
I would say db4o went all the way and created object oriented API for their object oriented database. I believe it's more consistent and potentially better performing or may be it's already better performing, I don't know.
Now db4o has database replication system, which does bidirectional synchronization between different instances of db4o database and relational databases. If they did it right, I am sure it will be a great step towards acceptance of this object database in places where only relational database could be."
--Blogger Alexei Vidmich, 1/27/06
"DB4O ROCKS: db4o is just plain good technology. db4o is an open source [caveats] object database for Java and/ or .Net. It is purposeful, cool, fun, impressive, well coded - all sorts of good."
--Blogger Chris Donnan, 1/26/06
"The native query concept is the best thing since sliced bread."
--User Dennis, 2/20/06
"You're developing the future, guys! :-)"
--User Dim, 1/26/06
Is your feedback missing? 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)