News

Versant Boosts Object Database with ANSI C++, Java Interface

• By Kathleen Ohlson
• September 27, 2005

Versant has enhanced Java support, including an Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0 application programming interface, in the new version of its object database.

The Object Database 7.0 features a preview of the EJB 3.0 programming interface and supports the ANSI standard C++ programming language. EJB 3.0 and the Java Data Objects 2.0 offer transparent persistence of plain old Java objects. These POJOs include Java 2 collection classes, interfaces and any defined user class. State changes are automatically tracked behind the scenes, and associated transaction commits automatically push all these changes to the database.

It also includes JDOQL, an object-based query language. JDOQL offers developers the power of SQL queries, yet retains the object relationship that exists in the application model.

The object database supports lazy schema evolution, which means objects are converted from an old schema to a new one as they touch. Developers don’t need to map these objects. It uses object-level locking, ensuring conflict only happens when two applications try to update the same object.

“The use of object-oriented techniques has become mainstream,” says Robert Greene, Versant’s VP of product strategy. “And with it, there has only recently been a standardization of how to relate object-oriented programs and relational storage systems. Instead of thinking in SQL to solve business problems, programmers will increasingly think in terms of objects. The Versant database leverages the new EJB standards and the new thinking to offer easy performance upgrades to applications written in this style.”