OODBMS (Object Oriented Database Management System) Basics

OODBMS System

An object database (also object-oriented database) is a database model in which information is represented in the form of objects as used in object-oriented programming.

Object databases are a niche field within the broader DBMS market dominated by relational database management systems (RDBMS). Object databases have been considered since the early 1980s and 1990s but they have made little impact on mainstream commercial data processing, though there is some usage in specialized areas.

When database capabilities are combined with object-oriented (OO) programming language capabilities, the result is an object database management system (ODBMS).

Today’s trend in programming languages is to utilize objects, thereby making OODBMS ideal for OO programmers because they can develop the product, store them as objects, and can replicate or modify existing objects to make new objects within the OODBMS. Information today includes not only data but video, audio, graphs, and photos which are considered complex data types. Relational DBMS aren’t natively capable of supporting these complex data types. By being integrated with the programming language, the programmer can maintain consistency within one environment because both the OODBMS and the programming language will use the same model of representation. Relational DBMS projects using complex data types would have to be divided into two separate tasks: the database model and the application.

As the usage of web-based technology increases with the implementation of Intranets and extranets, companies have a vested interest in OODBMS to display their complex data. Using a DBMS that has been specifically designed to store data as objects gives an advantage to those companies that are geared towards multimedia presentation or organizations that utilize computer-aided design (CAD).

Some object-oriented databases are designed to work well with object-oriented programming languages such as Python, Perl, Java, C#, Visual Basic .NET, C++, Objective-C and Smalltalk; others have their own programming languages. ODBMSs use exactly the same model as object-oriented programming languages.

Advantages:

• The main benefit of creating a database with objects as data is speed.
• OODBMS are faster than relational DBMS because data isn’t stored in relational rows and columns but as objects.
• Objects have a many to many relationship and are accessed by the use of pointers.
• Pointers are linked to objects to establish relationships.
• Another benefit of OODBMS is that it can be programmed with small procedural differences without affecting the entire system.
• This is most helpful for those organizations that have data relationships that aren’t entirely clear or need to change these relations to satisfy the new business requirements.
• This ability to change relationships leads to another benefit which is that relational DBMS can’t handle complex data models while OODBMS can.

Disadvantages:

• Slower and more difficult to formulate than relational.
• Lack of interoperability with a great number of tools/features that are taken for granted in the SQL world, including but not limited to industry standard connectivity, reporting tools, OLAP tools, and backup and recovery standards.
• Lack a formal mathematical foundation, unlike the relational model, and this in turn leads to weaknesses in their query support.

Applications:

Object databases based on persistent programming acquired a niche in application areas such as engineering and spatial databases, telecommunications, and scientific areas such as high energy physics and molecular biology. They have made little impact on mainstream commercial data processing, though there is some usage in specialized areas of financial services. It is also worth noting that object databases held the record for the World's largest database (being the first to hold over 1000 terabytes at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) and the highest ingest rate ever recorded for a commercial database at over one Terabyte per hour.

Another group of object databases focuses on embedded use in devices, packaged software, and real-time systems.