The Pioneer of True Object Databases.
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B A C K G R O U N D
The Object Data Management Group (ODMG) completed its work on object data management standards in 2001 and was disbanded.
While the ODMG group may not have explicitly acknowledged their failure to solve the problems of object databases, the historical context and the challenges faced, particularly in terms of schema maintenance and query language, strongly suggest that these technical difficulties played a significant role in the group's disbandment.
Object databases were desired about a quarter of a century ago, but the software technology and capabilities needed to tackle such a demanding problem were not yet sufficiently developed. This complex challenge has been the focus of deep research in the RootDB/RQL project, which persisted without giving up until reaching the point where it is now possible to declare the mission accomplished.
RootDB and RQL offer an Object Oriented Programming (OOP) system for creating and modifying object databases, storing objects, manipulating data structures, and querying objects.
RootDB with RQL replaces the SQL command language in all tasks related to database programming and usage.
RootDB and RQL provide uniquely advanced data management features, having excellent and predictable query performance compared to relational databases and SQL.
The production use of RootDB databases provide significant added value, as improved performance is achieved automatically.
Users benefit from faster interactions and responses within applications that utilize databases.
Even when other databases become unresponsive, RootDB consistently delivers results with remarkable efficiency and execution times.
Database programming costs are enormously reduced (up to 90% or more) in both development and maintenance.
Java classes (POJOs) are used to define an object model that specifies the structure of the object database (schema).
Object database operations are programmed with RQL, which utilizes the same Object Oriented Programming (OOP) concepts as Java.
RootDB is designed from the ground up to handle hierarchical and recursive data structures effortlessly.
Unlike traditional databases, RootDB's architecture inherently supports nested and tree-like data models, making it an ideal choice for applications that require complex hierarchical object models.
Programmers do not need to interact with the actual database schema (never needed), as everything in programming adheres to Object Oriented Programming (OOP) concepts.
RQL includes ALTER commands (similar to SQL's ALTER, CREATE, and DROP commands) that, for the first time in the history of object databases, can be used to modify object models according to OOP concepts. These commands alter the database schema, which includes the Java classes of the object model, and the database content is automatically updated to reflect these changes.
Objects are inserted, updated, and deleted as complete data structures, reducing these operations to a single line of code, regardless of the data structure's complexity.
For the first time, the database features a full-fledged Garbage Collector (GC) that automatically removes all unnecessary objects. This provides complete freedom to modify object data structures, as the GC cleans up any objects no longer included in the data structures.
The new features of RootDB and RQL make database programming significantly simpler and more efficient, even for very complex object models. Additionally, the resulting object database offers superior search efficiency compared to other current databases, including relational databases.
Based on these benefits, it is reasonable to claim that all database-related costs will be reduced by 90% or more.
RootDB and RQL can be used with all types of databases and are not limited to relational databases.
To validate and demonstrate the strong claims above, implementations have been developed for both a traditional relational database and a basic key-value storage that lacks support for features like SQL.
At present the supported databases are MariaDB and JetBrains/Xodus.
MariaDB is a relational database that uses the SQL command language.
Xodus is a key-value storage that operates without a predefined database schema.
To add support for a new database product, implement the IDatabase interface.
RootDB and RQL offer enormous potential for modernizing existing data management systems, the benefits of which are summarized below.
The conceptual level of database programming is raised to align with modern Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) languages.
RQL replaces SQL for programming applications that use databases.
Database ALTER commands in SQL are elevated from schema-level operations to high-level object model modification commands in RQL.
RQL revolutionizes database searches by introducing a new category of queries that efficiently resolve the data structures of search results.
The RQL query language natively supports object-oriented principles, including recursion in both queries and result objects, while delivering exceptional performance. This makes RootDB and RQL the ideal choice for developing modern database applications.
RQL queries require no optimization, even for the most complex queries, representing a significant improvement over SQL, which often requires optimization tailored to each database product.
Indexing is not necessary to achieve good performance in database queries.
Complex queries are intuitive to write and read, with good to excellent performance - depending on the indexing strategy - guaranteed without the risk of stalling.
Current database products will become obsolete without adopting RootDB and RQL, as they are costly to program and deliver poor performance.
Object databases have historically lacked widely accepted standards, largely due to the difficulty of defining them without concrete implementations. RootDB and RQL now offer a solid foundation for developing standards in this field.
After dominating for over 50 years, relational databases and SQL can now take on a new, less problematic role in databases and data management.
FYI:
The content presented on this site covers only a fraction of the features, methods, and capabilities that RootDB and RQL offer for data management and databases.
This is because:
RootDB and RQL are not intended to be open source, despite being developed in Finland, a country with a strong tradition of open source databases.
However, we welcome any comments or constructive criticism regarding the content presented on these pages. You can find the email address in the footer.
In the end, it's clear that databases urgently require a new, far more efficient solution than the ones currently available.
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RootDB and RQL are much more than just a proof of concept. They provide fully developed, out-of-the-box database and data management solutions that can be applied to a wide range of existing commercial and open-source databases.
Any database product implementing RootDB with RQL will be superior in both concept and performance compared to its current capabilities
If your company has the interest and resources to successfully bring this technology to market, please contact us.
A brief list of technical features can be found in the link An Object Database that Challenges Relational Databases (RDBMS), ORM, Graph Databases, and More
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