I`d like to inform you of an interesting workshop which will take place in conjunction with ECOOP 2009, on July 6th 2009, Genova, Italy:
XOODB – 1st Workshop on The Marriage of XML and Object-Oriented Database Technologies and Their Future
The purpose of this workshop is from one side to identify the points for which the relational model is unbeatable to handle XML data, and those for which it is not good enough. From the other side, we wish to discuss interesting object-oriented concepts and technologies that can be successfully applied in the management of XML data, and to discuss future trends in XML data management, either in native or object-relational hybrid models, that can take advantages of developed object technologies. The challenge is thus to set up a strong synergy of OO and XML to solve the issue of the management of data in a heterogeneous environment as the Web.
Important Dates
Paper Submission Deadline: 8 April 2009
Notification of Acceptance: 8 May 2009
Camera Ready Copy: 22 May 2009
For more info: Click Here
ODBMS.ORG Useful Links
Since we started up in September 2005, ODBMS.ORG has grown quite a bit. A lot of free resources have been added in the course of the years.
I thought it could be useful to give you a few links to easy your search for useful resources….
Here we are:
If you are interested in Lecture Notes:
Object Databases – Lecture Notes
OO Programming – Lecture Notes
Database in General Lecture notes
If you are interested in testing some vendors software and/or download some free software:
Object Databases – Free Software
OO Programming – Free Software
If you are interested in standards, and in the Object Data Management Group -Past Resources in particular:
Object Data Management Group -Past Resources (ODMG Version 1-3)
If you would like to read user reports on how persistent objects are handled in various domains.
If you are interested in dedicated articles from ODBMS.ORG’s Panel of Experts
And plenty more of Articles and Papers on Object Databases
If you are looking to know more about Commercial and Open Source Object Database Vendors
Last but least if you are looking for books
Hope it helps….
RVZ
Perhaps some of you has an interesting proposal for a half day tutorial for ICOODB 2009.
Here are the details:
ICOODB 2009 Call for Tutorial Proposals.
International Conference on Object Databases (ICOODB 2009)
1-3 July 2009
Zurich, Switzerland
We solicit proposals for tutorials for the ICOODB 2009
conference. Tutorials must provide an in-depth survey of a
well-defined topic with the option of describing a particular
technology or system in detail. We would also encourage
presenters to provide a summary of open issues.
Proposals for tutorials should be a maximum of 5 pages (typicaly
using 11pt font and single column format). Sufficient details
should be provided to allow the evaluators to determine the scope
and depth of the material to be covered. It should also indicate
the structure of the tutorial in terms of how the time of 3 hours
will be allocated to the material. While it is not required that
tutorials be original, the proposers should also include
information about other events where they have presented all or
part of the material and explain how this tutorial will differ.
Tutorial proposals must also clearly identify the target audience
and any prerequisite knowledge for attendees.
A brief professional biography (no more than 3 sentences) should
also be provided.
The deadline for submissions is 9 February 2009.
For More info: Click here
I have published the fourth series of user reports on using technologies for storing and handling persistent objects.
The fourth series includes 6 new user reports from the following users:
-Martin F. Kraft
-Serena Pizzi at Banca Fideuram
-Dan Schutzer at FSTC
-Peter Fallon at Castle Software Australia
-Benny Schaich-Lebek at SAP
-Stephan Kiemle at German Aerospace Center
The new 6 reports and the complete series of user reports are available for free download.
I have also published a new paper by ODBMS.ORG panel member William Cook on Interprocedural Query Extraction for Transparent Persistence.
Transparent Persistence promises to integrate programming languages and databases by allowing programs to access persistent data with the same ease as non-persistent data. The work is focused on programs written in the current version of Java, without languages changes. However, the techniques developed by Cook and his colleagues may also be of value in conjunction with object-oriented languages extended with high-level query syntax.
ICOODB 2009 call for papers
I would encorage you to consider submitting a paper and/or a tutorial to the second International Conference on Object Databases (ICOODB), which will take place on July 1-3, 2009, at ETH, Zurich, in Switzerland.
As you may know, ICOODB 2009 is the second in a series of international conferences aimed at promoting the exchange of information and ideas between members of the object database community. (Last year ICOODB was in Berlin).
A key feature of this year conference is its goal to bring together developers, users and researchers. At the same time, the conference aims to meet the needs of the different sub-communities. The conference therefore consists of three different tracks offered as a tutorial day, an industry day and a research day.
The conference will offer presentations on a wide range of issues related to object databases, including topics such as applications, methodologies, design tools, frameworks and standards as well as core object database technologies.
ICOODB 2009 invites contributions in any of the following categories: tutorials, industrial presentations, research papers
and demonstrations.
Important Dates
Submissions: 30 Jan 2009
Notification of acceptance: 06 Mar 2009
Camera-ready copy of papers: 27 Mar 2009
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Happy New Year!
In 2008, ODBMS.ORG had 302,306 visitors.
I wish the ODBMS.ORG community a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful 2009!
RVZ
You probably noticed a news in the object database market: On December 1, 2008 “Versant acquired the assets of the database software business of privately-held Servo Software, Inc. (formerly db4objects, Inc.)”.
What`s the meaning of this acquisition? I asked a few questions to
Robert Greene who is responsible for defining Versant’s overall object database strategy ….
Q1. What`s the meaning of this acquisition for Versant? db4o is an open source object database, but Versant had no open source strategy until now.
[RCG] This acquisition recognizes the value the db4objects team created, by bringing visibility to software developers, the relevance of object database technology in the software development toolkit.
Incidentally, this is not Versant’s first initiative in the open source space. In 2006, Versant open sourced a JDO/JPA based ORM driver and initiated an open source JPA project within Eclipse, at the time known as Eclipse JSR220-ORM. Eclipse had managed to use this project to get Oracle to commit a similar open source project. In the end, both projects merged into what is the Eclipse Dali project and Oracle became the project lead.
This open source activity by Versant was aimed at making developers more aware of object based transparent persistence and fostering such an API approach in their development. We view this as a tremendous success, as now a substantial portion of the Java community uses Hibernate (or TopLink) and Eclipse Dali to develop applications.
Those ORM API’s which have flourished since the early 2002 timeframe, are in essence the Versant database API’s which have existed since the mid 90’s in our object database technology. It was an ex-Versant product manager who went to Sun and drove those standards through the Java JSR process. Ultimately, it was open source Hibernates’ flavor which gained the most acceptance, but the similarity of the approach is undeniable.
Due to the power of open source, anyone who knows ORM technology, has in essence, become an expert in the use of object databases. They can simply get rid of the mapping portion of the ORM work and then everything else is nearly the same as long as they point connections to an object database. In fact, Versant plans to release a compatibility version for Eclipse Dali.
Q2. Will you keep db4o as a separate product or will you merge it into Versant Object Database?
[RCG] Versant plans to continue to operate db4o in the same manner, continuing to foster the community and improve the technology in the traditional open source fashion. It will remain a separate product.
Q3. How do you plan to manage/support the db4o open source community?
[RCG] one of the nice things about db4o is the extended community of supporters it’s developed over the years. Versant plans to simply join that community, following the same open form which has worked for db4o in the past. Of course, that being said, Versant has a long history and extended expertise in the OODB technology space. In that regard, we have opened our technology stack to the db4o core team and where it makes good technology sense, we can contribute significant forms of functionality that otherwise take a long time to create.
Q4. db4o is targeting the embedded device market. Is this a market for Versant as well?
[RCG] Versant technology has many successes in the embedded space. However, our real commercial success, comes from the many large scale systems developed using our technology to overcome limitations in traditional database systems. So, in this regard, db4o will dominate the embedded side of the Versant business and the Versant commercial object database will exist to help those who want the simplicity of the OODB programming model, but require greater scaling capabilities.
Q5. Are there going to be any changes in the db4o business model?
[RCG] No. The db4o brand will continue to offer the dual licensing model common to open source businesses, along with professional levels of subscription based support.
TechView Product Reports
Most of the time it is difficult to gather good technical information on products, without marketing or sales hype.
I therefore decided to create a series of product reports on some of the leading Object Database Systems around.
For that, I have prepared 23 questions which I sent to four vendors: db4objects,Objectivity, Inc.,Progress Software and Versant Corporation.
I asked them detailed information on their products, such as: Support of Programming Languages, Queries, Data Modeling, Integration with relational data, Transactions,Persistence,Storage, Architecture,Applications, and Performance.
The result are four TechView Product Reports, which contain detailed useful information on the respective products:
-db4o
– Objectivity/DB
– ObjectStore
– Versant Object Database
I hope these will be useful resources for developers and architects alike.
As always you can freely download the reports.
OMG ODBTWG next steps
This is a short note related to the OMG ODBTWG meeting, on December 9, 2008.
During the meeting there was a consensus that the OMG’s Semantic Meta Object Facility (“semantic MOF” or “S-MOF”) would be a good place to start for the object model in the Object Database Standard RFP.
Mike Card is planning to publish a rough draft of an OMG RFP for the new database standard in advance of the March 2009 OMG meeting in Washington DC.
RFP stands for Request for Proposals; the OMG technology adoptions revolve around the RFP.
More info on the OMG Technology Adoption Process.
I have received a note from Mike Card that I would like to share with you.
“The OMG is hosting an Object Database Standard Definition Scope meeting in Santa Clara, CA at the Hyatt Regency on Tuesday afternoon, December 9th.
The purpose of this meeting will be to define what the scope of the new object database standard should be.
We have already done some work in this area but more remains to be done.
Our goal is to complete the definition of what will and will not be included in the scope of the new standard at this meeting. Once we have defined what will and will not be included, I can begin work on a draft OMG Request For Proposal (RFP).
The RFP is important because this is the mechanism by which the OMG generates standards – an RFP is put out there and a group of vendors who intend to implement the final standard responds to the RFP with a standard.
So, we cannot get the ball rolling until we get the RFP out there, and we are getting close. Once the RFP is put out by the OMG, then the “real work” begins where object database vendors intending to submit and other interested parties begin working together to develop a response to the RFP.
It is this response that will become the successor to ODMG 3.0.
The agenda for this meeting will be as follows:
1300-1310 Welcome and introductory comments (Mike Card)
1310-1330 Review of scoping consensus thus far and db4o comments from last meeting (Mike Card)
1330-1630 Discussion of scope areas to be included or excluded (all participants)
1630-1700 Wrap-up and discussion of next steps (Mike Card)
We got some excellent feedback from db4o at our last meeting on these topics and we would like input from other vendors as well.
We very much hope to see you there! There is a $150 registration fee for this event, to register please visit the registration page
There should be a link there soon to register for this event. Thanks!
Michael P. Card
Syracuse Research Corporation “
For a summary of the work done until now by the OMG on the definition of a new object database standard, pls see my interview to Mike Card
