After more than 2 years since the last major db4o release (v7.0), it's time to launch the next major milestone of the db4o object database: version 8.0. Versant's db4o team have been hard at work over these last years, continuing a long tradition of delivering innovative database technology for the internet era software developer, creating yet another truly remarkable evolution in object database technology.   

Looking back, the primary theme of the 7.0 release was Ease of Use, highlighted by the release's important contribution of Transparent Activation and other important complimentary features such as handling of Runtime/Unchecked exceptions, the MTOC (multi-transactional object-container) client server implementation and pushed updates for active client scenarios. Our ever growing db4o community of over 85,000 registered users are telling us, we've got ease of use in the bag, especially when compared to those who struggle with complex mapping of native objects using band-aid style ORM technologies.   

Looking forward, the primary theme of the 8.0 release is most certainly performance, while continuing the tradition of ease of use through end to end object persistence.   In the spirit of ultimate performance and end to end objects, db4o is introducing the next generation of improvements, shaking the very foundation of it's internals. While you might not feel these from line to line, you will most definitely experience them at runtime. The db4o 8.0 release introduces a fundamental change to the identity management system which significantly changes the I/O characteristics of the db4o server. These changes reveal themselves in mind blowing advances in db4o's performance superiority as shown in Poleposition benchmarking. Further, these changes pave the way for improvements in areas such as I/O clustering, Defragmentation management, and object evolution.  

Recognizing the strength of db4o for embedded device and desktop applications, we are extending it's reach of end to end object persistence via integration with db4o's big brother technology, the Versant Object Database. The db4o replication technology will be adapted to provide the power of pure object persistence from db4o's high performance desktop to Versant's massive scale pure object database aggregation server. Along the way, the db4o core team will continue with point improvements in areas where ease of use continues to play a key role for our growing community. Improvements in areas such as transparent persistence and activation for .NET collections, security enablement features, client server optimizations and up to date support for lightweight environments such as Android and Silverlight.

While we continue to innovate on the technology side, Versant also continues to embrace the open source community, spreading the word about the power of object databases in this new era of internet computing. While the days of the 7.0 release introduced new business models and restricted per-pay product offerings, the new 8.0 release extends it's openness with open source licensing compatibility for the most popular FLOSS models and continues to offer all administrative tooling such as OME (Object Manager Enterprise) and Eclipse and Visual Studio plug-ins in the same open source fashion as the db4o database software itself. 

Keeping in mind that this release line will be formalized through the standard stabilization process for the newer features. Here is an overview of what the formalization of so much effort from the db4o team aims to produce with the final release of version 8.0 anticipated in the fall of 2010:  

  • New Major Performance Features
    • Internal Id system ( pluggable per our preferred approach ) will help with improving I/O, clustering, defragmentation, etc. *
    • Improved Memory Manager - reduces heap space by factor of 2
    • New cache options for different workloads
    • Fast Collection implementations ( BigSet )
    • Custom Type Handlers
    • Object pre-fetching for client/server optimization
  • New Major Capabilities
    • Replication from db4o to big brother Versant. *
    • TP/TA for Java and .NET collections * 
    • Silverlight and Mono support
    • .NET LINQ provider
    • Internationalization - Unicode, now also UTF-8 and other string encodings .. support Chinese, Japanese character sets
  • New Major Open Source Community Perks
    • Expanded Open-Source licensing - Microsoft (Ms-PL, Ms-RL ) , FLOSS licenses, compatibility with GPL_v3
    • Open source of OME as Eclipse and Visual Studio plugins
    • DZone RefCard and new tech videos and podcasts
    • Android demo applications like MapMe
    • Eclipse and Visual Studio TA/TP plugins available
  • New Major Usability Features
    • Secure Socket communications ( pluggable sockets )
    • Introduction of Maven snapshot repository
    • ADO .NET Data Services interface ( IQueryable, IUpdateable ) 
    • New runtime statistics gathering and visual profilers
    • mdRS - mobile dRS for Google Android users needing replication to relational database
    • Spring db4o Extension
    • Support for Array of Nullable types
    • New configuration Interfaces for simplified use
    • Support for .NET enums as value types
    •  First db in industry to support LINQ on CompactFramework
    • .NET Generic collection support
    • Commit callbacks for pushed updates to client caches 
    • TP for .NET LINQ provider
    • Collection aware dRS implementation

* not necessarily available in first release candidate, but in-progress and scheduled for the final release.
 

At Versant our goal is provide the db4o community members with the most advanced, easiest to use and yet rock solid, ACID, ultra high performance database solution.  This new db4o 8.0 release represents our ongoing commitment to you.  We look forward to hearing from you and working with you to deliver true innovation for decades to come.   

Help us spread the word, tell your friends and colleagues, "Use the right tool for the job.  An Object database, for the internet era's most challenging data management problems".

Robert Greene

V.P. Open Source Operations

Versant - The db4o team.

(Links: db4o v8 Release Notes / Download db4o v8)