What are the pros and cons of object databases?

Asked 2008-09-14T18:04:57.543

10

There is a lot of information out there on object-relational mappers and how to best avoid impedance mismatch, all of which seem to be moot points if one were to use an object database. My question is why isn't this used more frequently? Is it because of performance reasons or because object databases cause your data to become proprietary to your application or is it due to something else?

database oop rdbms relational object-oriented-database

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10

I've been using db4o which is an OODB and it solves most of the cons listed:

Familiarity - Programmers know their language better then SQL (see Native queries)
Performance - this one is highly subjective but you can take a look at PolePosition
Vendor support and maturity - can change over time
Cannot be used by programs that don't also use the same framework - There are OODB standards and you can use different frameworks
Versioning is probably a bit of a bitch - Versioning is actually easier!

The pros I'm interested in are:

Native queries - Db4o lets you write queries in your static typed language so you don't have to worry about mistyping a string and finding data missing at runtime,
Ease of use - Defining buissiness logic in the domain layer, persistence layer (mapping) and finally the SQL database is certainly violation of DRY. With OODB you define your domain where it belongs.

I agree - OODB have a long way to go but they are going. And there are domain problems out there that are better solved by OODB,

answered 2008-10-05T07:01:38.350

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