Object Manager Enterprise Now Free To All Developers

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Object Manager Enterprise Now Free To All Developers

Posted in [Core Team] By Tetyana

I have great news for db4o developers - starting from version 7.8 db4o release will be completed with a new product: Object Manager Enterprise (OME). Those of you, who were following db4o events, should remember that OME is not a new product. It was first released a bit more than a year ago, but was only available for commercial users.This policy was reviewed after db4o acquisition by Versant and a new accent was put on simplicity and value to the community. It was agreed that a tool providing a graphical interface to db4o database is undoubtedly important both to new and experienced developers and open-source customers, therefore should be a part of the product and free for all db4o users.

Object Manager Enterprise - what is it?

Database browsing tool is not a new concept for db4o. Earlier we provided a java-based standalone application (Object Manager) for browsing db4o databases, however it was not equally convenient for .NET users and without integration into the development environment did not seem to satisfy developer needs. The new product - Object Manager Enterprise is a plug-in for your development environment (Visual Studio 2005/2008 for .NET users and Eclipse for Java users). OME allows you to browse your db4o database in a graphical interface. With OME you can always check which objects were stored and how the database structure looks like. Additional benefit - you can check the correctness of your queries by comparing the query result with the view in OME.

The screenshots below show a simple database view in Eclipse and Visual Studio 2008 OME versions:

Eclipse: browsing Pilot class

Visual Studio 2008: Pilot class

In addition to simple browsing OME provides the following features:

Graphical query design (drag&drop)
Database object modification and deletion
Simultaneous database view while debugging in client/server mode
Indexing
Backup
Defragment
Access to db4o developer website within the IDE and updates download.

Installation and Documentation

OME installation is included in db4o distribution.

If you are using Java version you will find OME distro in /ome folder of the db4o installation package. In order to install it, unzip ObjectManagerEnterprise-Java-[version].zip into any folder and use it from within Eclipse as a local update site (use Eclipse documentation for the exact steps). Alternatively you can copy the contents of contents of the 'plugins' and 'features' folders from the unzipped folder to the corresponding subfolders in the root folder of your Eclipse installation.

After OME is installed you might need to go to Windows/Open Perspective/Other within Eclipse and switch to OME perspective.

Visual Studio users can opt to install OME as part of db4o installation (using msi). If the OME installation was initially skipped, it can be started separately from the shortcut in the db4objects Start menu:

If you have downloaded db4o .NET release as a zip archive, you will find OME installation in the distribution omn-2005 or omn-2008 folder.

For further documentation please refer to db4o tutorial.

Don't forget to share your opinion on this new product with us. Bug reports and improvement suggestions can be filed in our Jira system: project code is OMN (OME .NET) for .NET version and OMJ (OME Java) for java version.

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Comments

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Posted by BrettM on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

Tetyana,

This is a very important contribution to the community. Thanks!
Posted by JudahGabriel on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

Thanks for making this free for the community. This looks like it will be very useful to us.

A suggestion for improvement, or for another tool altogether: DB4O analyzer. When working with relational databases, tools like SQL analyzer are invaluable for identifying performance problems. Object relational mappers for relation database have similar tools, such as NHibernate Profiler.

Since improving performance of DB4O seems to be a key focus area, a tool to identify performance problems would be a wonderful, valuable addition to the DB4O tool set.
Posted by Tetyana on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

Brett, this change is the result of the new strategy developed after db4o acquisition by Versant, and I'm also very happy that it is finally available to everybody.

Judah, very good suggestion, we were thinking about it when making specification for OME. It was not implemented yet, but I've added a Jira issue for it for the future. Please vote to make it higher in our priorities:

http://tracker.db4o.com/browse/OMN-135
Posted by que0x on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

I love you people !
Posted by tehlike on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

I observed that it corrupted my database, leading to indexoutofrange excetion in db4o code. Anybody observed this? it happend on vs2008
Posted by Twista on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

Hi,

I can't seem to get it to look at any of my database files.

Using Visual Studio 2008 I created a simple test app.

Using a database file, it stores 2 'car' objects (small class with 3 fields, driver, model, age)

When the test app starts it tells me how many 'car' objects are stored by using QueryByExample() which returns '6' objects in the IObjectSet.

After running the app I fire up the Object Manager Enterprise, point it to my "myCars.db4o" file and it opens it with no problems.

But the only thing it shows me is the size of the database (which grows each time i add more 'car' objects),

The 'number of classes' field is ZERO....

Any ideas why this doesn't show me or allow me to query for any car objects... QueryByExample on the file returns them with no errors...

Cheers,

phil.
Posted by florin on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

Ha,

So now, a year later I'm back in the game. I found db4o a great tool, used it in one project then dropped it when OM was taken away. Using db4o was like counting stars with your eyes closed.

Not that I need free stuff. But if you want me here, it did great by giving back the OM. I truly thought that Versant, the big boy with the big money will make things worse. I truly needed an embedded db for the current project and started looking elsewhere.

Now, I need to figure out why at times, the database becomes corrupt and now way to recover it.

Thanks.
Posted by Tetyana on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

2 Twista,

please check that you car class full name is satisfying the following condition:

if (!(CheckUserDefinedClasses.IndexOf("Db4objects") > -1) && !(CheckUserDefinedClasses.IndexOf("com.db4o") > -1)

&& !(CheckUserDefinedClasses.IndexOf("System") > -1) && !(CheckUserDefinedClasses.IndexOf("db4o") > -1))

I know, it looks funny, but all the classes with a name like SystemCar or Db4objects.MyProduct.Car will be filtered out. This is a known bug:

http://tracker.db4o.com/browse/OMN-128

2 florin, hope now you see that big boys with the big money can actually make things better ;-)

2 Tuna: will you please create a Jira issue and submit your database, so that we can have a look? Thanks!
Posted by Twista on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

2 Tetyana.

Thanks! :) my assembly was called db4oTest!

It works now.

Phil.
Posted by German Viscuso on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

I think the release of OME is also a way to say thanks to the great db4o community which always supported us (in good and no so good times).

So THANKS! =D
Posted by Malby on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

Any chance of it being released without the need for visual studio?

I use C# Express - So I cant use the tool, although I'd love to!

I'm seriously tempted to go get eclipse just so I can look into the db
Posted by yetibrain on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

thanks for providing the OME, i have installed it into VS2005 as well as VS2008 but it doesn't want to run. i receive a error msg that sadly pops up when i try to invoke the connect icon. seems to be a culture problem, well i run the german version of VS PE. any hints highly welcome. thank you.
Posted by Anonymous on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

As you might already know db4o's first take on database browsing tools was called "Object Manager" or
Posted by schnowboard on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

Thanks for the Tool. I've a problem with the culture (de-DE), the resource can't be found. Is there a solution? Thanks.
Posted by chris_overseas on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

This is truly great news! Can't wait to try it out. I second Malby's comment though. I'm an Intellij IDEA user and, while an IDEA plugin would be nice to see too, I think a standalone app (for both Java and .NET) would be just as useful and would reach the widest possible audience.
Posted by nigelt on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

+1 for a stand alone version of OME.

Visual Studio or Eclipse is a lot of software to install just to run OME.

Consider a corporate environment - where all software installs have to be approved, tested and packaged before they can be deployed. You want to install OME on a tester's PC so they can have a peek in a DB, the dependency on Visual Studio or Eclipse creates so much work it won't happen. A small standalone application is much simpler to package and deploy.

I'm assuming a stand alone version will appear soon, but in the meantime I've tweaked Travis' original standalone version of Object Manager so it works with db4o 7.4. I haven't yet looked at the code for OME, but maybe this is fairly easy to separate from eclipse.
Posted by Anonymous on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

In this video db4o expert Eric Falsken introduces us to db4o in a quickstart demo using Visual Studio,
Posted by rajesh63673 on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

OEM is nice, and there netbeans plugin should also be made available for java developer.
Posted by Anonymous on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

Since the announcement that Object Manager Enterprise would be added to our open source offerings we
Posted by renard23 on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

While the old Object Manager versions (the standalone versions) offered a way to really view (browse) each content - the OME which I have working as a plugin (ome_7.4) in eclipse merely offers to have a look at the kind of classes stored - the OME is outing itself as the "reduced version" - which can not do more and is asking to do an upgrade. Unless I am doing something terrible wrong (failing to use the tool properly) I believe this is rather a new company strategy to get more paying customers ? (and pay I can not - me student) - and the assignment requires to use db4o 7.4 - so I can not use the old versions. Well, I would buy if the pricing would be reasonable. Is there a way to use the new integrated OME like the old standalone versions ?
Posted by luckybob on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

Any chance of a Netbeans plugin?

Cheers,

Peter
Posted by Anonymous on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

It now the turn of the Java community! After the successful release of the .NET "Getting Started with
Posted by renard23 on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

On April 17th I complained about the limited functionality of the Object Manager: Then I was trying out the OME that came with version 7.4. Now I tried the OME that comes with 7.9.0 - and I am very pleased with how it works and it smoothly can be integrated into Eclipse.
Posted by rajesh63673 on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

OEM have very limited functionality ....sometimes it don't show data.....and is more

more focused on eclipse...instead OEM should also me made available to netbeans developer .......
Posted by stukas on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

Hi!

I have started my own "Object Manager" because I just needed to see what was going on inside my database and couldn't bear the problems with OME any longer.

It's free, open-source and anybody is invited to make improvements on it :)

So far I think it works better than either of the ones from DB4O.

One killer feature is the ability to drag fields between any two or more objects, which will set the value on the target objects field, basic type as well as references, if the type matches.

Go here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/db4oviewer/

Regards,

Stu
Posted by mudzakkirtoha on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

Please send me ome netbeans IDE plugin.
Posted by mudzakkirtoha on 3/20/2010 6:41 PM

mudzakkirtoha@gmail.com

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