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E V E N T S
May, 17 - JavaOne 2006 - db4o Information Events - San Francisco, CA, USA
July, 10 and 11 - db4o User Conference 2006 - London, United Kingdom
Anytime - Free, archived Webinar "How to Get the Most Out of db4o for Your Applications"
K U D O O F T H E M O N T H
At Intel, "db4o will make application development much easier. The OR mapper/SQL database alternative really did not allow us to do everything we needed and forced us to contort our application designs. By comparison, implementing with db4o was seamless and worked within our existing architecture."
--Intel's Sean DeMartino, Software Engineer and XP Coach
A R T I C L E S
-- db4o USER CONFERENCE 2006 IN LONDON--
Join us at the first db4o User Conference (dUC), taking place July 10 and 11, 2006 at the Imperial College in South Kensington, London, United Kingdom.
It is the only gathering of the entire core contributor team and (hopefully many) db4o users and developers under one roof. The list of speakers include Andrew Cowie, Stefan Edlich, Ted Neward, Jim Paterson, Carl Rosenberger, and Christof Wittig - from places as far apart as Sydney, Seattle and Glasgow.
You can influence the db4o product roadmap, learn about db4o best practices such as for performance tuning or replication, be part of the db4o Valued Professional (dVP) program launch, and/or just socialize with peers and key db4o individuals.
Don't miss your chance to attend this historic event, which marks the launch of a regularly scheduled series of conferences to take place around the globe. Early bird rate, academic and non-profit discounts starting from US$ 50.00 are available. More information and registration here.
-- V5.3 RELEASED : CLASS ALIASES, OBJECT MANAGER 1.8, CF 2.0 --
db4objects has released db4o version 5.3, which is available for immediate, free download from the db4o Download Center.
db4o version 5.3 introduces class aliases which enable software developers to translate class names between running applications and db4o databases or db4o servers.
A single configuration call allows an application to store one class as another:
Db4o.configure().addAlias(
new TypeAlias("com.f1.Pilot", "com.f1.Driver"));
In addition to single class aliases it is also possible to alias complete packages, assemblies or name patterns in class names. This can be done with the supplied WildcardAlias or by creating Alias classes with more complex #resolve() methods.
Aliases open a wide range of new usecases. For instance, they are ideal for writing cross-programming-language Java and .NET applications which use the same db4o database file but obey the naming conventions of the respective platform. As an example the following configuration call allows a Java package to access all classes persisted by a .NET assembly "F1RaceAssembly":
Db4o.configure().addAlias(
new WildcardAlias(
"com.f1.*, F1RaceAssembly",
"com.f1.*"));
OBJECT MANAGER 1.8: Based on class aliases, db4o has released ObjectManager V1.8 to support connections between this Java-based GUI and db4o .NET database servers. This update of ObjectManager runs with db4o V5.3 and higher, and adds the deletion of objects to its growing functionality - a common request by many users.
COMPACT FRAMEWORK 2.0: Version 5.3 now fully supports CompactFramework 2.0, including Native Queries and Generics. Despite the CompactFramework API's limitations, optimized Native Query support is provided through an assembly instrumentation utility making db4o's CompactFramework version as powerful as the Desktop framework version.
-- WHITEPAPER UPDATE : THE DATABASE BEHIND THE BRAINS --
Downloaded more than 25,000 times, Rick Grehan's whitepaper "The Database Behind the Brains" has been extremely popular and has become somewhat of a "classic."
With db4o's product moving forward on many dimensions, especially by introducing Native Queries, we decided to update the paper to a 2nd edition, which is now available for free download here.
The paper now includes examples for a vending machine selling snacks.
-- db4objects RECEIVES ENDORSEMENT FROM VINOD KHOSLA --
Vinod Khosla, the founding CEO of SUN Microsystems, who has repeatedly been ranked #1 by Forbes on the Midas list of successful investors, has joined the selected circle of db4objects' backers, when the company raised a limited round B of funds to increase its spending in R&D.
Says Khosla: "I'm very excited to work with db4objects. I believe that the company's open source model brings many benefits to users and customers -- and is a particularly good fit to db4o's mobile and embedded software offer, a market poised for exceptional growth. db4objects is a company to watch!"
He joins ranks with Silicon Valley luminaries Mark Leslie, founding CEO of Veritas, Audrey MacLean, instrumental in founding many successful companies like Pure (Rational), Fred van den Bosch, founding CEO of Pantasys, and Diane Greene, founding CEO and now President of VMware.
-- db4o USER SURVEY 2006 AND REGIONAL COMMUNITIES --
You can win one of 5 free trips to the db4o User Conference in London by participating in the db4o User Survey 2006. This survey will help to better understand the needs of db4o users and prioritize the future product roadmap accordingly. You will receive an invitation and link to the survey in the next few days, if you are subscribed to this newsletter (check and/or change your settings here.)
RUSSIAN LANGUAGE FORUM - TOKYO USER MEETINGS
New, regional user initiatives have sprung up in Russia and Japan: For the Russian speaking community, we have launched a Russian db4o user forum, hosted by core team member Larysa Visengeriyeva.
In Tokyo, the first db4o User Group meeting has gathered on April 3 - an event which will now be hosted monthly by the db4o Japan community manager Takenori Satoh, with the next meeting scheduled for 5/25 in Omotesando, Tokyo. Watch the Japanese db4o user forum for further meeting announcements!
We invite users in other regions to follow the example and initiate local user groups. If interested, please email us!
-- ODBMS INDUSTRY ACTIVITIES: ODBMS.ORG, OMG MEMBERSHIP --
ODBMS.ORG is a non-profit group which publishes the Internet's most up-to-date educational and research portal on object database technology. The association has now won two more industry sponsors, Objectivity and Versant, who join with db4objects (the founding sponsor), Progress/ObjectStore, and GemStone, marking broad industry support for db4o's initiative.
We invite all community members from educational institutions and beyond to share their lecture notes, articles, papers and research by submitting them to the editor, Prof. Roberto Zicari. Also, we ask you to spread the word about the availability of this great, free resource on object database technology to ensure a broad reach and the emergence of a lively community.
OBJECT MANAGEMENT GROUP / ODMG STANDARD VERSION 4
db4objects has joined the Object Management Group (OMG), which has recently launched an initiative to update the ODMG 3 standard for object databases into its 4th generation edition.
More about the "ODMG 4th generation" initiative can be found here.
L O O K I N G I N T O T H E M I R R O R
Press coverage about db4o since the last newsletter:
"Agile Object to Relational Database Replication with db4o"
ONJava.com, April 12, 2006, by Jim Paterson
"An Interview with Christof Wittig: CEO db4objects and President ODBMS.org"
LXer.com, March 8, 2006, by TxtEdMacs
"db4o Part II - Access Modes, Configuration, Performance and Other Options"
Linha de Código, March 7, 2006, by Cassio Eskelsen (In Portuguese)
"db4o Releases V5.2"
Matrix China, March 2, 2006 (In Chinese)
"db4objects Replication System Keeps Objects in Sync"
SD Times, March 1, 2006, by Edward J. Correia
"Business Factors in OSS Database Companies"
OS News, February 28, 2006, by Andrew Hudson
"Users unworried by Oracle's purchase of Sleepycat"
Computerworld, February 15, 2006, by Eric Lai
KUDOS: Here are the juiciest sound-bytes from users like yourself since the last newsletter:
"For our environment, db4o offers a much better fit compared to the alternative of a relational database plus an object-relational mapper. On one application, db4o was up to four times faster persisting object data, and up to 50% faster querying for objects."
--Sean DeMartino, Software Engineer and XP Coach, Intel
"Well I have been experimenting with database's and I have decided to use db4o as the default embedded database for my product. It's easy to use, easy to integrate, and generally does what it says on the tin without complaint."
--Blogger John, 4/8/06
"I have just gotten the feeling of db4o, really helpful and extremely powerful."
--User SabbeRubbish, 3/26/06
"I've been working with db4o for a while now and find it reliable and amazingly simple."
--User Tommasop, 3/22/06
"CF Database Engine Continued... Man, that database db4o which I mentioned last post is EASY TO USE! Seriously easy. Dead simple to implement too. Even for me :-)"
--Blogger Robin, 3/15/06
"Database Choice ...By using dB4o the program only needs to access the objects (persistence: stored in a YAP file ). As the language in db40 is native to Taste they can easily work together making db4o a good choice..."
--Blogger Bikeboardsurf, 3/2/06
"I am impressed by db4objects. The way db4objects works is the way it should be. It starts up very fast no mappings no crap, great!!!"
--User Dennis, 2/22/06
"Estoy entusiasmado com db4o!!!"
--User Enric Tartera, 2/15/06
"Although I really try to break db4o with my use cases every now and then we got a huge leap forward by not messing with hibernate mappings or JDBC in the first place, so we kind of payed back for this developer time (and I still consider it a good idea. For the price db4o takes for a licence and a year of support we couldn't have payed the time we saved)"
--User Ben, 2/11/06
"db40 compared to SQL Server Express: Im in the process of picking a database for my app and initially I was just going to use SQL Server Express. However, after some surfing I came across an Object Oriented database named, db40, which makes a pretty sexy case for abandoning SQL altogether."
--Blogger Joo, 2/6/06
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!
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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)