[Kudos] db4o: the answer to all my prayers

When I first found db4o a year ago, I was, and still am, convinced that it answered all my prayers regarding the true object-oriented model.

Brian Blockhart in "Pushing the db4o Limits"

[Kudos] Turn your back on Hibernate and all things RDMS and go ahead developing with db4o

Well, I've finally decided to turn my back on, at least for the present time, Hibernate and all things RDMS, and go ahead developing with db4o and OODB.

So, why the switch? Lets just say that I like having as little between me and my objects (of desire) as possible. I like being able to store my objects in one line of code, and retrieve them almost as cleanly. Plus, DB4O is it's own API and DB in one jar - which goes a long way towards avoiding the jar bloat you'd face if you wanted to ship your app as a standalone ear / war, especially compared to Hibernate (even more so if using Annotations  > Validator > Entity Manager).

Charles Burrell

[Kudos] With db4o's LINQ support the DB looks as an advanced collection in memory (in Norwegian)

Through Linq, I can express exactly what I want. I can work with the database as if it were an advanced collection in memory, and get back my own domain objects without having to make some form of mapping. Working with persistert data has never been easier!
(in Norwegian)

http://blog.kjempekjekt.com/2009/02/27/objekt-orienterte-databaser-del2-db4objects
(automatic translation to English)

[Kudos] db4o: non-intrusive, very simple to learn

db4o is a popular object database available both for Java and .NET. I have used it sporadically over several years and can highly recommend it. It is a non-intrusive, very simple to learn, object persistence system that stores any complex object with one single line of code. Unfortunately Db4o is still not as popular with Java developers as we thought it would be. So we thought of giving you a very easy and useful guide to learning db4o.

http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/how-to-learn-db40-java-and-net-object-database-in-5-minutes

[Kudos] db4o is extremely portable

After all of the griping that I have done regarding DB4O, I would now like to say a few positive things about it. I am planning on replacing Hibernate with it, due to the fact that I just don't like "Jar Bloat" which can turn into "Dependency Hell" if not managed carefully. DB4O is a neat tool, It is extremely portable. Unlike Hibernate, there is only a single jar file (no dependencies), and you don't need an external DB, even a Java Based one such as H2 or HSQL It makes saving objects an almost trivial affair. Retrieving objects is (depending upon the method you use) is not that much harder, and updating and deleting objects are very easy operations too - in line with Hibernate. I prefer to use Native Queries for my updates and deletes because I can match my objects exactly a bit easier, and SODA for retrieving my objects. Lastly, it's fairly fast. Not nearly as fast as straight SQL (but then again, what is?), but on par with Hibernate for simple CRUD, and a bit slower for mass stores / retrievals. Charl ... Read the rest of entry »

[Kudos] db4o on shared hosting love

I'm tired of fighting the ORM battle, L2S, SubSonic, NHibernate, Lightspeed, etc. They're all great products but painful to use because they are all "bandages" on the problem of object-relational impedance. So I thought I'd try something different, db4o. db4o is an object database. No tables, no ORM, nada. Just POCO love, it's like the repository pattern on steroids (but not the shrink your package kind, the good kind). My big concerns were licensing costs and the fact that I deploy on a shared host. Both of which were misplaced. The licensing cost for an In-Process database for commercial use was comparable to a standard ReSharper license. So it's within the reach of "normal" developers who'd like to use the database for their web application. If you're writing an open-source application or one that is not for redistribution, then the GPL license will be fine for your purposes. Honestly, I was expecting thousands of dollars for the licensing, as the technology is so impressive. After finding out that the p ... Read the rest of entry »

[Kudos] My final bonus for using DB4Objects is how elegant it is

"But the major benefit of starting with Db4Objects is it takes 3 lines of code to save a object and not much more to query one allowing me to worry about my tests and my application and not worry to much about my data store and as long as the data store is under a repository this can be switched out at a later date this is even more simple if we are using IOC / DI.

My final bonus for using DB4Objects is how elegant it is, on a personal basis i love to work with it ,  to me it makes persistence into what it should be a seamless simple operation that in no way impacts development progress"

Neil Martin