O'Reilly Open Source Convention - August 1-5, 2005

Session
How to Move Object-Relational Mapping into the Database
David Wheeler, CTO, Values of n

Track: Databases
Date: Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005
Time: 4:30pm - 5:15pm
Location: D136
Developers of database-backed object-oriented applications sooner or later run up against the impedance mismatch between relational databases and object-oriented design. The solution to the impedance mismatch is generally to create an object/relational mapper in the application space to transparently manage the serialization and deserialization of objects to the database.

This session describes a different approach: polymorphic database design. This approach advocates taking advantage of the advanced features of the database to move object/relational mapping to the database itself. While many application developers use only a subset of the functionality of their database server, most databases offer a world of advanced features just waiting to make life easier. Examples from PostgreSQL and SQLite demonstrate how to leverage database features such as update-able views and domains to greatly diminish impedance mismatch while simplifying application source code.

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