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Jul 3 09

BEST Pattern Award to Query Visitor by Adrian Marriott

by Roberto V. Zicari

Greetings from Zurich.

The BEST Pattern Award is….

Pattern: Query Visitor (download .PDF)
Author: Adrian Marriott,Principal Consultant, Progress Software Inc.

2nd Place:
Pattern: Schema Builder (download .PDF)
Author: Richard Lingeh,Principal Consultant, Versant.

3rd Place:
Pattern: Bespoke Indexes (download .PDF)
Author: Adrian Marriott,Principal Consultant, Progress Software Inc.

The Awards ceremony took place on July 2, 2009, at the ICOODB 2009 conference in Zurich, during the evening reception.

All 25 persistent patterns submitted are available for free download (LINK).

Jun 24 09

3 Most Voted Persistent Model Patterns…

by Roberto V. Zicari

We now have the results of the Public Voting for choosing the most valuable Persistent Model Patterns!

The 3 most voted patterns are…

Pattern: Bespoke Indexes. (download .PDF)
Author: Adrian Marriott,Principal Consultant, Progress Software Inc.
Intent: For programs that require the absolute maximum of performance and scalability it is necessary to write programs that utilize novel data structures and new algorithms designed with detailed knowledge of the specific problem context. Support the most critical use-cases of your system directly with bespoke persistent index structures that optimize read and write operations across the objects used by those use-cases.

Pattern: Query Visitor. (download .PDF)
Author: Adrian Marriott,Principal Consultant, Progress Software Inc.
Intent: Represents a query to be performed on the elements of a persistent object structure. Query Visitor allows you to define new result set formats without changing the underlying persistent object model, and avoids polluting the persistent classes with rendering logic.

Pattern: Schema Builder.(download .PDF)
Author: Richard Lingeh,Principal Consultant, Versant.
Intent: This pattern allows any further evolution of a database after a complete modification of the client application model to be done by a separate schema process and not by the client application or by the schema it generates. This separate process generates a database schema that matches the complex evolving client application model.

The Awards ceremony will take place on July 2, 2009, at the ICOODB 2009 conference in Zurich.

All 25 persistent patterns submitted are available for free download (LINK).

Jun 15 09

25 free seats for Students for Tutorials at ICOODB 2009

by Roberto V. Zicari

If you are a BA or a MSc student, and you are interested in attending one or more tutorials at the International Conference on Object Databases (ICOODB) on July 1, 2009, at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, then there are some good news for you…

25 free seats for BA and MSc students are available on a first come first serve base for the following tutorials:

– Full Day Tutorial (10:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00): Introduction to Object Databases.
Rick Cattell together with speakers from db4o, Objectivity, ObjectStore and Versant

– Half Day Tutorial (morning 10:00-12:00): Learn CouchDB.
Jan Lehnardt, CouchDB

– Half Day Tutorial (afternoon 14:00-17:00): Converting EERM into ODMG’s ODL Constructs.
Joseph Vella, University of Sheffield

– Half Day Tutorial (afternoon 14:00-17:00): Using C# for .Net with an ODBMS.
Nic Caine and Leon Guzenda, Objectivity Inc.

If you wish to qualify for this offer, please e-mail (Subject: ICOODB Tutorials), your name, contact details and name of your University to:
editor AT odbms.org
The first 25 will receive a free registration, which will enable you to attend any of the above tutorials.

The offer is valid for students only.

Hope it helps.

RVZ

May 28 09

Public voting is open! Awards for the most valuable Persistent Model Patterns.

by Roberto V. Zicari

Here we are.. the Public Voting for choosing the most valuable Persistent Model Patterns (among the submissions received to ODBMS.ORG by May 29, 2009 ) is now open!

WHAT WILL BE AWARDED?

The ODBMS.ORG Awards is for the 3 patterns which will receive the highest votes.

WHICH PATTERNS?

25 patterns comprise the set of submissions received by May 29, 2009:

Matthew Barker, Director of System Engineering, Versant Corp.
Pattern: Large Persistent Collection.

Robert Greene , Vice President, Versant Corp.
Pattern: Persistent Versioned Graph Pattern.

Lenny Hoffman, Todd Stavish, Dr Nic Caine, Brian Clark. Objectivity, Inc.
Pattern: Dynamic Schemas in object database management systems (ODBMS).

Derek Laufenberg, Versant Corp.
Patterns: Back-Pointer Managed Collection; Split Class Pattern.

Richard Lingeh, Principal Consultant, Versant
Pattern: Schema Builder.

Adrian Marriott , Principal Consultant, Progress Software Inc.
Patterns: Bespoke Indexes, Compress Persistent Data, Database Manager, Evolver, Frame, Head/Body, OO Anti-Pattern: Frame (Meta-Type System), Persistent Mutex, Persistent Queue, Persistent Singleton, Query Visitor, Small Object Pool Allocator, String Table, Transaction Memento.

Eugenia Stathopoulou, Panos Vassiliadis.
Patterns: Querying, Schema Modifications, Storage, Updates.

Takenori Sato
Pattern: Probabilistic Graph Model.

HOW TO VOTE?

Simple:

1) First please Read the patterns.
All persistent patterns submitted are available for free download.

2) Then Vote…
To vote visit the ODBMS.ORG Public Vote site.

Please note: You can vote only one time. You can choose only one pattern.

Public Voting takes place between June 1 and June 20, 2009.

Good readings …and good vote!

RVZ

May 21 09

14 new Persistent Object-Oriented Patterns published!

by Roberto V. Zicari

I have published several new resources in ODBMS.ORG.

One of our expert, Adrian Marriott, has written a paper with 14 Persistent Object-Oriented Patterns. The paper outlines a series of common OO patterns (13 patterns and 1 anti-pattern) that have been encountered in the past decade working with ObjectStore based systems on major projects across all industry sectors.

You can download the 14 Persistent Object-Oriented Patterns at the “Persistent Patterns” Section.

Another of our expert, Peter Baumann, has made available a free downlowd to an open-source array DBMS, he developed called Rasdaman, with an OQL-style query language and ODMG-conformant C++ and Java APIs for retrieving and manipulating multi-dimensional arrays (rasters) of unlimited size.

You can find the link to the free download of Rasdaman at the Object Databases – Free Software.

I have also added a few new resources in the Book Section:

Ina Brenner has made available several chapters (Chapters 2 to 10) for free download of the English translation of her book on “Database Development with db40”.
Sample chapters for free download are now available for the following books: V. Mehta, Pro LINQ Object Relational Mapping in C#, Apress, August 2008 , and J. C. Rattz, Jr., Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008 Apress, 2007.

Hope you`ll find these resources useful!

RVZ

May 19 09

International Conference on Object Databases (ICOODB)

by Roberto V. Zicari

I`d like to inform you that the ICOODB 2009 registration has opened. The conference will take place on 1-3 July 2009 at ETH Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland.
“Registration can be done at the conference Web site.

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.

A key feature of the 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.

Here are some highlights:

One Day Tutorial Introduction to Object Databases by Rick Cattell together with leading technical experts from vendors: Robert Greene (Versant), Leon Guzenda (Objectivity), Adrian Marriott (Progress/ObjectStore) and Patrick Roemer (Versant/db4o).

3 Half-Day Tutorials on Couch DB (Jan Lehnardt), Converting EERM into ODMG’s ODL Constructs (Joseph Vella), and Using C# for .Net with an ODBMS (Nic Caine and Leon Guzenda).

Keynote: “How Far OODBMS’s Have Come and a Look into their Future” by Jochen Witte and Robert Greene, Versant

Industry Day with 14 presentations and a Panel “A New Renaissance for ODBMSs ?”

Research Day including 9 research presentations

Demo Session

Awards for the best persistent patterns on July 2.

May 8 09

New Section to ODBMS.ORG: Persistent Patterns

by Roberto V. Zicari

I have added a new Section to ODBMS.ORG called “Persistent Patterns”. It lists Common Persistent Model Patterns.

You can already download the first Patterns at the “Persistent Patterns” Section

Hope you`ll find the patterns interesting and useful!

If you wish to take part to the Awards for the best Persistent Patterns, the deadline for sending your submissions is May 29, 2009.
After that there will be a Public Voting between May 30- June 20, 2009.
The Awards for the patterns which receive the highest votes will be announced on June 25, 2009, and the Awards ceremony will take place at Icoodb2009 in Zurich, on July 2, 2009.

RVZ

Apr 27 09

Call for Submissions /deadline May 29, 2009: Common Persistent Model Patterns

by Roberto V. Zicari

We invite both vendors and Application architects, Enterprise architects, Developers who use databases to submit implementation techniques (database design patterns) which are generally useful for all adopters.

The best submissions will be published in a new series of reports in ODBMS.ORG. All submissions will be published under free software licenses.

Moreover, ODBMS.ORG will give an Award for the most valuable pattern as voted by the ODBMS.ORG community.

Submission modalities:
Submissions should be sent as reports in .pdf only.

Submissions will be considered only if indicating the name of the auhor(s) (or team), affiliation, complete address, and e-mail.
If the submission includes some actual software, you should *before* contact me to verify the modality of the submission.

Please send your submission by e-mail to: editor at odbms dot org

Deadline for submissions: —-> May 29, 2009

Apr 21 09

SUN and Oracle

by Roberto V. Zicari

As you have heard, Sun Microsystems and Oracle Corporation announced on April 20, 2009 they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun common stock for $9.50 per share in cash. The transaction is valued at approximately $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of Sun’s cash and debt.

What impact will this acquisition have on the database market? What will happen to MySQL?

I asked these questions to some of our experts.

Here is what Leon Guzenda , CTO Objectivity have to say on this:

Q1.What impact will this acquisition have on the database market?
Leon Guzenda: “I found this very interesting. There are multiple facets to the acquisition. In many ways this is just another consolidation of traditional database technologies. MySQL is hugely popular in the web site market but wasn’t generating enough revenue to put a serious dent in Oracle’s, IBM’s and Microsoft’s domination of the medium and high end market. It will increase Oracle’s competitiveness, particularly against SQL Server. EnterpriseDB, based on the open source PostgreSQL engine, has been aggressively pursuing Oracle customers with a product that is a cheaper, plug compatible alternative to Oracle. I thing that Oracle will now be able to remove EnterpriseDB’s price advantage with a similar offering based on MySQL.”

Q.2 What will happen to MySQL?
Leon Guzenda:“I’m sure that Oracle will not want to lose the huge base of loyal MySQL users, many of whom aren’t database experts but merely use it in support of other web tools, such as Moodle, Movable Type and WordPress, or shopping carts. I think they’ll maintain the open source community, in the same way that Sun supported OpenOffice and then MySQL. I also think that they’ll build better integration with their core database product to provide a smooth migration path as sites grow. They might inhibit some of the scalability of MySQL to encourage this, but it will be hard if there are open source alternatives.

Larry Ellison has placed a lot of emphasis on being able to provide complete solutions. He has now added the server, networking, storage, virtualization, cloud computing and open source DBMS components to his current Linux and application solutions. That puts Oracle in an even stronger position than before, particularly against Microsoft, but also against IBM, which was the only one-stop provider before. I suspect that he may sell the server, desktop and microelectronics business, perhaps to Fujitsu, but if he can overcome user resistance to being locked in to a single supplier, IBM will have a new kind of competitor to worry about.”

Rick Cattell , who used to work for several years at SUN, comments:

Q1. What impact will this acquisition have on the database market?
Rick Cattell: “Good question! I believe the impact will depend on how Oracle handles the acquisition, and how the other players react. MySQL users may be nervous that Oracle won’t be motivated to market against its flagship product with an open source product. Hardware vendors like Dell, HP, and IBM may be nervous that Oracle will be less motivated in their porting and tuning for other platforms. Open source contributors who were nervous that one vendor (MySQL) controlled what went into new
releases may now be more nervous with Oracle in control… more of their effort may go to PostgreSQL, JavaDB, and other alternatives. My guess is that short-term people will play wait-and-see.”

Q.2 What will happen to MySQL?
Rick Cattell:” The answer to this question will determine the answer to the previous one. I will point out that Oracle did not kill InnoDB or SleepyCat’s BerkeleyDB when they acquired these open source products. Oracle could use MySQL as a way to get market share at the low end that they can steer to Oracle at the high end. I believe that Oracle has been outstandingly smart in their acquisitions over the past 5 years: they are expanding their control and their revenue in every layer of the stack. With the Sun acquisition, they now have everything from the CPU up through applications. In many ways their story is now looking better than IBM’s.”

Robert Greene , V.P. Open Source Operations at Versant Corporation, adds:

Q1.What impact will this acquisition have on the database market?
Robert Greene: “I think this will have a relatively immaterial impact on the database market. I think the acquisition made a lot of sense for Oracle and frankly I was surprised about the IBM announcement ( which did not materialize ) as I was thinking it should have been Oracle’s move. Software is under constant pressure of commoditization and the future resides in a competitive hardware and software stack where margins although tight, cannot be undermined. In many ways we are seeing the final consolidation of a market to the traditional 3 big players. IBM, HP and now Oracle with complete hardware, software and professional service stacks. I hear a lot of concern about the impact of this acquisition to Java, more so than to databases. I think whether in Oracle or IBM’s hands, Java is safe to remain as the primary software platform competition to the Microsoft .NET stack. Java is in safe haven with Oracle. ”

Q.2 What will happen to MySQL?:
Robert Greene:” It’s anybody’s guess, but I think the most reasonable expectation for the impact to MySQL would be to look at the impact to BerkeleyDB after it’s acquisition by Oracle. Is the adoption of BerkeleyDB up or down? Is the support and community of BerkeleyDB up or down? Is the price of BerkeleyDB up or down? If one looks at the answers to those questions, it is likely you will find the future of MySQL. Perhaps it would be good to hear from the BerkeleyDB community in order to get the best first hand reaction. I do know the Java version of BerkeleyDB costs $5,800 per CPU, which is significantly more than it’s cost in the days prior to Oracle. That observation alone tells me that traditional database technology just got more expensive. Of course, BerkeleyDB did not represent a direct assault on Oracle database revenues as has MySQL in the past. As an ODB guy, I can only see this news as a positive for the uptick of alternative database solutions. “

Apr 17 09

Do we really need a standard for Object Databases?

by Roberto V. Zicari

If you recall, in February 2006, the Object Management Group (OMG) has decided to develop the “4th generation” standard for object databases in order to facilitate broader adoption of standards-based object database technology.

To this end, the OMG had set up the Object Database Technology Working Group (ODBT WG) and acquired the rights to develop new OMG specifications based on the works of the disbanded Object Data Management Group (ODMG), which issued the last ODMG 3.0 standard in 2001.

However, no significant progresss has been made until now…

This despite some interesting discussion who took place in 2008.

This is the result on a first analysis, of a luck of active participation from vendor companies.

So the question to address at this point is: Do we really need a standard for Object Databases?