Object-Relational Database Systems(ORDBMSs) can successfully deal with very large data volumes with great complexity. At present the vendors of all the major DBMS products have supported object-relational database management systems, but still its industrial adoption rate is relatively low.

1. Object-Relational Database
Systems(ORDBMSs)
Sahan Yasiru walpitagamage
3/13/2014

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Table of Contents
Abstract......................................................................................................................2
1. Introduction............................................................................................................3
2. Overview of the Object Relational DBMSs .........................................................4
3. Tool available for ORDBMS.................................................................................6
3.1Main Proprietary Tools Available in the Market...............................................6
3.2 Main Open Source Tools Available in Market.................................................7
4. Main Features Available in ORDBMSs Tools ......................................................7
5. Advantages of having an ORDBMS......................................................................8
6. Disadvantages of having an ORDBMS .................................................................8
7. Conclusion .............................................................................................................9
8. References..............................................................................................................9

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Abstract
Today object-relational database technology is going in direction to the future of
data management. It supports both object oriented database model and relational
database model. Object-relational DBMSs can successfully deal with very large
data volumes with great complexity. At present the vendors of all the major DBMS
products have supported object-relational database management systems, but still
its industrial adoption rate is relatively low. Hence, this report focuses on do a
short review about object-relational database. The report first reviews about the
history of databases up to ORDMSs. Then it talks about the background about the
object-relational databases. Furthermore, the report identifies object-relational
databases features and available tools in the market. Finally, it talks about the
strengths and weaknesses of the object-relational databases.

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1. Introduction
Today organizations are required to process and store increasing quantities of data never before.
On the other hand now information has become the most valuable resource in any organization.
Therefore currently it is requires more resources and modern technologies to deal with this large
amount of complex data.
Before the 1950s data were stored on paper as records which required a lot of man power and it
was time consuming matter (Dharmarathna, n.p.). During the 1950s and early 1960s data were
processed using magnetic tapes for storage which only had sequential access to those data. In the
middle of the 1960s IBM team led by Rey Johnson invented the hard disk, which allowed direct
access to data. Afterward with the availability of direct storage access the concept of the database
began.
In the early 1970s, a number of parallel research projects were conducted by IBM to deal with
relational DBMS. The idea of this relational database is to use a table of fixed-length records, with
each table used for a different type of entity. In the late 1980s, the RDBMS products were
accepted to use for high-end online transactions processing as well by earlier technologies. At
that time RDBMS technology became popular, because it was cheaper, faster, and easy to build
simple information systems (Brown, 2001). RDBMS technology made it possible to develop
information systems, which were economically desirable view despite it begin that are used for
expensive (Quickbase.intuit.com,2014). Today the global market for RDBMS software, services,
and applications that use relational databases exceeds $50 billion annually (Brown, 2001).
In the late of the 1980s, RDBMS faced some problems due to increasing the complexity of
organization data. RDBMS supports a limited set of built-in types that include only numbers and
strings, but many database applications needed to include complex objects such as geographical
locations, text and digital signal data. The second main problem was that it had some structural
problems, because relational database tables were flat and did not provide good support for
nested structures, such as arrays and sets. The third problem was that it did not support the object
oriented techniques (Brown, 2001). The main advantages of using this OO techniques are reduce
operational cost, improve system quality and to have high maintainability.

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Since the RDBMS was not pretty good for handling above mentioned common complex
database problems, in the1990s object-oriented database (OODBMS) was introduced. It is an
extension technique of object-oriented programming language in the persistent data field
management. One of the main advantages of OODBMS technique is that it can easily integrate
between OO languages and the DBMS. Therefore it supports most of the OO features available.
In OODBMS also, because of lack of a standard data model, design errors and inconsistencies in
data caused. And also it is much closer to the application design rather than database design.
Because of some the drawbacks in OODMBSs, in middle 1990s initiate the object relational
database which supported both object oriented database model and relational database (Brown,
2001). Today Object-relational DBMS is the modern trend in database technology.
2. Overview of the Object Relational DBMSs
Among modern database technologies the object relational database management system
(ORDBMS) is a new database technology which can successfully deal with very large data
volumes with great complexity.
According to the findings of the Stonebraker and Moore findings, database techniques can be
groups into four main categories which are file systems, relational DBMS, Object Oriented
DBMS and Object Relational DBMS. Based on these four categories Stonebraker and Moore
developed their Database classification matrix. Figure 1 shows database classification matrix
(Stonebraker, 2014).
Figure 1: Database classification matrix
Relational Database
management Systems
(RDBMS)
Object Relational DBMS
File Systems Object Oriented DBMS
Query
No Query
Simple Data Complex Data

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This matrix is to point out the kinds of problems which are solved by each of four parts in the
matrix and there is no one single DBMS that solves all the applications. Based on the identified
problems and the requirements, a database designer needs to select a correct database
management technique to their organization. According to this matrix ORDBMS has been the
most suitable DBMS that processes complex data and complex queries. Today since most of the
organizations need to deal with this large amount of complex data ORDBMS is the best solution
to those requirements (Saurkar, 2012). But the industrial adoption rate to RODBMS is not very
high (Wang, 2010). The main reason for that is the complexity results lose the simplicity and
purity of the relational database model. Therefore it is difficult for applications developers who
have traditional background in relational database to adopt emerging ORDB technology.
ORDBMS is similar to a relational database, but also it has object oriented database models like
objects, classes and inheritance etc. It also directly supports database schemas in the query
language. Therefore, the user can easily reuse features in object-oriented technology as well as to
map objects into relations and to maintain a consistent data structure in database. The gap
between OODBMS and RDBMS is bridged by ORDBMS (Wang, 2011).
ORDBMSs allow developers to implement new data types and functions like general-purpose
languages such as Java and C. ORDBMSs have changed query-centric approach to data
management. Therefore, data access in an ORDBMS is handled with declarative SQL
statements. There is no procedural or object at a time or no navigational interface. ORDBMSs
with the idea of a data language that fundamentally consists with declarative and therefore it can
be a mismatch with the procedural OO host languages. This significantly affects the internal
structure ORDBMS engine, and it produces implications for the developers to access the
database interfaces. And the ORDBMS architecture is implemented as a central server program
rather than distributed data architecture (Brown, 2001).
At present all the major DBMS products vendors have supported object-relational database
management systems to reflect the new SQL standards and it is already used by the industries.

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3. Tool available for ORDBMS
In order to win the challenges of complex data processing in the middle of the 1990s incorporate
IBM, Oracle and Microsoft have moved object-oriented database features into their relational
DBMSs under the name of object-relational DBMSs. Today there are many relational database
tools available for both proprietary and open source categories.
3.1Main Proprietary Tools Available in the Market
Tool Name Vendor Note
DB2 IBM Initial release in 1983 and support object
relational feather in recent years onward.
Support cross platform OS. It supports user
defined structured types and other object-
oriented features. (Ibm.com, 2014)
Microsoft SQL Microsoft Corporation Support only on Windows platform. Support
most of object-oriented features. It uses
.NET support objects. It also has freeware
version also. (Msdn.microsoft.com, 2014)
Oracle Databases Oracle Corporation It support user defined types to model real-
world entities. In Oracle g11 support for
Generalized Invocation. And support cross
platform OS. (Oracle.com, 2014)
Informix Have Alphanumeric data, Simple large
objects, Smart large objects, Complex data
types ,User-defined types, casts, aggregates.,
Type and table inheritance and many more
functions. And support cross platform OS.
(Ibm.com, 2014)
Adaptive Sever Enterprise SAP Initial release in May 23, 1980. ASE is
predominantly used on the Unix platform,
But also support for Microsoft platform also.
ASE has highest operational efficiency and
throughput on a broad range of platforms
(Sybase.com, 2014)
Valentina Paradigma Software Has advanced object-relational data model as
well as its highly optimized columnar data
store. (Valentina-db.com, 2014)
Cache Inter Systems Support multiple OS platforms such as
Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac OS. Also
support most of object-oriented features.
(Intersystems.com, 2014)

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3.2 Main Open Source Tools Available in Market
Tool Name Vendor Note
PostgreSQl PostgreSQL Global
Development Group
Initial release in 1 May 1995. Today most of the
popular companies use this for handle their business.
It has most advanced object-relational features. And
support cross platform OS. (Postgresql.org, 2014)
CUBRID NHN Corporation It has a 3-tier architecture which allows scaling out
system with a high flexibility. And it supports cross
platform OS. (Cubrid.org, 2014)
Zope Object database Zope Corporation It is a native object database for Python. It has most
object-relational features. (Zodb.org, 2014)
Giga Base Knizhnik It supports cross platform OS. It also uses
PostgreSQL codebase. Also It has all main object-
relational features. (Garret.ru, 2014)
Greenpium database Greenplum division of
EMC Corporation
Today most of the popular companies use this for
their handle business. Also It has all main object-
relational features. (Gopivotal.com, 2014)
4. Main Features Available in ORDBMSs Tools
When taking about the features about the ORDBMSs, it can store object data and methods in
databases. And also most of the features available are common in all standard ORDBMSs. Some
of the common functions in any slandered object relational database are (Wang, 2011).
Object Types: user-defined data types (UDT) or abstract types (ADT) can be referred to as object
types (Wang, 2011).
Functions/Methods: For each object type, the user can define the methods for data access.
Methods define the behavior data (Wang, 2011).
Varray: The varray is a collection type that allows the user to embed homogenous data into an
array to form an object in a pre-defined array data type (Wang, 2011).
Nested table: A nested table is a collection type that can be stored within another table. In a
nested table, a collection of multiple columns from one table can be placed into a single column
in another table (Wang, 2011).

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Inheritance: With Object type inheritance, users can build subtypes in hierarchies of database
types in ORDBs (Wang, 2011).
Object View: Object view allows users to develop object structures in existing relational tables.
It allows data to be accessed or viewed in an object-oriented way even if the data are really
stored in a traditional relational format (Wang, 2011).
5. Advantages of having an ORDBMS
The main advantage of the object relational database is its reusability and sharing. Reusability
helps to extend the DBMS server to manage standard functionality centrally, rather than have it
coded in each application. This will help to reduce the time and the cost in database designing
stage. Secondly it helps to increase the flexibility and functionality. Flexibility is probably more
valuable than performance over the long run. Another main advantage of these object relational
databases is high maintainable, because of the object oriented structure can easily maintain
database design rather than traditional relational database model (Brown, 2001). On the other
hand it is extensible easily and far more reliable than traditional systems (Ecomputernotes.com,
2014). Also it can work with complex data types based on the real world modeling. Therefore it
can be used with advance database applications with great complex data. Finally it will enhance
the system overall performances.
6. Disadvantages of having an ORDBMS
When talking about the disadvantages of the object relational data bases, it is more complex than
traditional relational databases. Therefore, it associates with costs. ORDBMS venders always try
to portray object models as extensions to the relational model with some additional complexities.
This potentiality misses the point of object orientation, highlighting the large semantic gap
between these two technologies. Object applications are simply not as data-centric as relational-
based ones (Dba-oracle.com, 2014). It has been on the market for several years, but the systems
written with object-oriented languages are less than 1% today. Therefore it is difficult to find
qualified database professionals (Dba-oracle.com, 2014).

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7. Conclusion
This report mainly focused to review the basic idea about object relational databases. The report
first reviewed that before 1950s data was stored as paper records and today it evaluated up to
object relational databases. At present all the major DBMS products vendors have supported
object-relational database management systems to reflect the new SQL standards. Also it can
successfully deal with very large data volumes with great complexity. The main advantage of the
object relational database is its reusability and sharing. Maintainability, flexibility and
functionality also another main advantages of the object relational databases.
8. References
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