Download Now

Newsletter :: June 2007


Back to Newsletter Archive


K U D O    O F    T H E    M O N T H

"We needed a fast and simple way to store all the URLs that OSG crawls. To achieve this result, db4o was the best solution: it's fast, we added it to our code in minutes and we didn't need to design a database structure and write a lot objects-to/from-tables functions."
               --Mike (Open Sitemap Generator project)

 

A R T I C L E S

 
-- VERSION 6.3 INTRODUCES TRANSPARENT ACTICATION AND MORE --

We are very pleased to announce version 6.3, which is available for free download. Version 6.3 is a development (beta) version to test these upcoming exciting new features:

  • Transparent Activation
  • A very efficient and robust BTree-based FreespaceManager
  • Completed runtime exception hierarchy

db4o 6.3 introduces the first implementation draft for Transparent Activation (TA). TA will automagically load not-yet-activated objects from database into memory as needed, thus relieving the developer from the burden of having to manually specify the activation depth of persistent object graphs. Read more about this feature here. Rodrigo has also written a great blog entry on the topic.

db4o has implemented a very efficient Freespace Management System based on BTrees that is specifically designed for low-resource environments and devices that are frequently turned off without giving the system time to shut down correctly (hand-helds, mobile phones). This new Freespace Management System is characterized by very low memory consumption at runtime and zero space-loss on abnormal terminations while it still provides excellent performance. 
For more details please read the product blog.

In response to user demand, db4o introduced some significant changes to how exceptions are handled within the db4o core in 6.2. In version 6.3 Public Exception Handling is now completed and all expected exceptions have been added to the API documentation.

The free download of development version db4o 6.3 is available at the db4o Download Center.

Version 6.3 is intended for evaluation purposes only. Version 6.1 stable is recommended for production and shipment.

 
-- NEW TED NEWARD ARTICLE ON VIETNAM, O/R MAPPING AND db4o --

Ted Neward is an independent consultant and an authority in Java and .NET technologies. Last year's most widely discussed article on the world's most popular Java portal, TheServerSide, was Ted's paper titled “The Vietnam of Computer Science”, which compared the inherent problems of object/relational mapping to the quagmire in the Vietnam war.

Ted has now released a follow on article titled: Avoiding the Quagmire - Offering solutions to the problems of Object/Relational-Mapping.

In this article he examines object databases, which don't translate to a relational form at all, highlighting db4o as an example of a successfully deployed object database, and discusses the strengths and weaknesses as compared to object/relational systems.

The article is published at ODBMS.ORG which is a vendor-independent, not-for-profit educational program on object database technology and the integration between object-oriented programming and databases.


-- GLOBAL db4o USER CONFERENCE 2007 (dUC) POSTPONED --

Due to unforeseen circumstances we are forced to postpone the dUC 2007 to the second week of November.  We will confirm the date in a newsletter closer to the event.


-- db4objects ESTABLISHES KOREAN PRESENCE, ADDS KOREAN AND THAI FORUMS --

We are proud to announce the cooperation with Haejun Yi as new representative of db4objects in Korea. Haejun also represents Prosyst Technology Korea, Inc., a db4objects partner, and is the President of the OSGi Requirements Committee.

Haejun is a respected member of the Korean business community and very experienced with Java technology. We look forward to a very fruitful cooperation.

The Korean and Thai community will be happy to hear that we have created Korean and Thai language forums. Our forums now provide the opportunity to read local comments about db4o matters in 11 languages!

 
-- db4o COMMUNITY PROJECT SPACES NOW HOSTS MORE THAN 50 PROJECTS --

The Projects section in our Community Site is more active than ever: since its inception members of the db4o community have registered more than 50 db4o projects!

We provide Project Spaces for open source tools and add-ons to db4o or open source products built with db4o. The owners can customize project related content (description, links, etc) and host files for download.

Recently registered projects are:

Go ahead, point your browser to projects.db4o.com and check out all the projects!

 
-- db4o NOW APACHE LUCENE'S PERSISTENCE COMPONENT --

db4o has been incorporated into the Apache Lucene GData Server project as a persistence component. As some of you might already know GData is the Google Data API which aims to provide a simple standard protocol for reading and writing data the web (using either of two standard XML-based syndication formats: Atom or RSS).

Lucene GData Server is an extensible syndication format server providing CRUD actions to alter feed content, authentication, optimistic concurrency and full text search based on Apache Lucene.

The range of applications for this technology is huge: basically any information that can be displayed and/or organized as xml can be served on a GData server and, on top of that, the server makes all the content searchable with a customized index / search schema. Generally speaking GData provides a general interface to make information available even beyond the browser context by providing a single API that can be used to query, update, and index structured data anywhere on the web.



L O O K I N G    I N T O    T H E    M I R R O R

Selected press coverage about db4o since the last newsletter:

"Products and Partnerships Rolled Out at JavaOne '07"
Application Development Trends, May 11, 2007, by John Waters

"Mixing Data & Data Structures in an Object Database"
Enterprise Opensource Magazine, May 9, 2007, by Rick Grehan

"Object database plays well with NAND"
LinuxDevices.com, May 9, 2007, by Henry Kingman

"Ted Neward: Tech Talk on object databases"
TheServerSide, May 8, 2007, by Joseph Ottinger

"db4objects demos car navigation system with NAND drive at JavaOne"
LinuxToday Japan, May 8, 2007, by Naoko Yamakata (In Japanese)

--------

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)