What is ORDBMS?

Important ORDBMS Features

User Defined Types (UDTs): UDTs allow developer to define their own data type. UDTs include structure, array, text, multimedia, time-series, etc.

User Defined Functions (UDFs): UDFs allow developer to define their own functions. UDFs can be invoked independently or inside a SQL statement i.e. WHERE clause. UDFs usually operate on complex data.

Extended Search/Index Capabilities: ORDBMS allow for searching complex data type. The new ORDBMS provide to specify the “cost” for searching UDTs & executing UDFs to better optimize queries in complex data.

Predefined Extensions: The ORDBMS vendors offer a number of predefined extensions (called – Data Cartridges by Oracle, Snapins by Sybase, DataBlades by Informix) which handle complex information in particular application domain such text search, images, video, messaging etc.

Extended Support for Programming Languages: In RDBMS functions had to be written in database vendor’s native language i.e. PL/SQL in Oracle, T-SQL in SOL Server, SPL in Informix. ORDBMS are now providing support for C, C++ and Java when writing UDFs in their database.

         

Example: Most of the ORDBMS features are being included in the new SQL3 standard.  

What is RDBMS?

Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is the Database Management System (DBMS) that stores data in tabular structure & the relationship among the data is also stored in the form of tables. Edgar Codd introduced the relational database model.

Most RDBMS use SQL as database query language.

Example: The most popular RDBMS are MS SQL Server, DB2, Oracle, & MySQL.

What is ODBMS?

ODBMS stands for Object Database Management System. ODBMS is an integration of database & object oriented capabilities. ODBMS makes database objects functioning just like a programming language objects. It extends the OOP with database capabilities, data recovery as well as concurrency control.    

Object databases are created as a complement to relational database to solve the dilemma of the Object Relational (OR) mismatch.

Benefits of ODBMS

Benefits of ODBMS covers two major aspects are as follows:

-          In ODBMS it is required to write less code than RDBMS which implied a development benefit. Any complex structured data can be stored directly in an ODBMS from Java or C++ without translation into a database sublanguage such as SQL, ODBC, and JDBC.

-          Working performance in ODBMS with complex data is ten to a thousand times faster than RDBMS which implied a production benefit. The reason behind the performance cause when the data is read off the disk no translation is required since it is already in the format that Java or C++ uses.  

Limitations of ODBMS

-          Lack of tools: This is a frustrating aspect of using ODBMS is lacking of third party tools. The reason behind this issue is due in large part to the ODBMS marketplace having not yet reached equivalent to the RDBMS world.

-          Shortage of local IT Professionals with previous experience with a target ODBMS.

-          Lacking of small & inexpensive personal ODBMS.

-          Lacking of local & onsite support due to comparatively small vendor.

-          Weaker transaction processing capabilities & ad hoc data manipulation.

-          Scalability & Security issues.  

Please feel free to comment what are you think about ODBMS!

What is Database Schema?

A Schema is structure for a database. The term is often used to refer either a text oriented description or a graphical depiction of the database structure. The term is being used both in Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) & Object (Oriented) Database Management System (ODBMS). Both in RDBMS & ODBMS the Schema define the tables, the fields in each table, and the relationship between fields & tables. 

ODBMS is being used in real time systems & to power websites.

The Star & Snowflake are the example of two common types of Schema.