Java Data Objects [Paperback]

David Jordan (Author), Craig Russell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 2003

Java Data Objects revolutionizes the way Java developers interact with databases and other datastores. JDO allows you to store and retrieve objects in a way that's natural to Java programmers. Instead of working with JDBC or EJB's container-managed persistence, you work directly with your Java objects. You don't have to copy data to and from database tables or issue SELECTs to perform queries: your JDO implementation takes care of persistence behind-the-scenes, and you make queries based on the fields of your Java objects, using normal Java syntax.

The result is software that is truly object-oriented: not code that is partially object-oriented, with a large database-shaped lump on the back end. JDO lets you save plain, ordinary Java objects, and does not force you to use different data models and types for dealing with storage. As a result, your code becomes easier to maintain, easier to re-use, and easier to test. And you're not tied to a specific database vendor: your JDO code is entirely database-independent. You don't even need to know whether the datastore is a relational database, an object database, or just a set of files.

This book, written by the JDO Specification Lead and one of the key contributors to the JDO Specification, is the definitive work on the JDO API. It gives you a thorough introduction to JDO, starting with a simple application that demonstrates many of JDO's capabilities. It shows you how to make classes persistent, how JDO maps persistent classes to the database, how to configure JDO at runtime, how to perform transactions, and how to make queries. More advanced chapters cover optional features such as nontransactional access and optimistic transactions. The book concludes by discussing the use of JDO in web applications and J2EE environments.

Whether you only want to read up on an interesting new technology, or are seriously considering an alternative to JDBC or EJB CMP, you'll find that this book is essential. It provides by far the most authoritative and complete coverage available.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Jordan founded Object Identity, Inc. in 2001 to provide JDO consulting services. He became interested in the integration of object type systems and databases while earning his M.S. in Computer Science in the early 1980s. At Bell Labs in 1985, he initiated the development of the first C++ object database. He has developed a variety of applications using C++ object models on top of network, relational, and object database systems. Bell Labs appointed him a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in 1990 for his contributions in object and database technologies. The Object Data Management Group (ODMG) asked him to serve as their C++ editor in 1993. He served in that role until 2000 and was appointed their Java editor in 1998. He coedited four books published by the ODMG. David served as a C++ Report columnist describing the ODMG standard from 1994 to 1996, at which point he stopped to write his first book, C++ Object Databases. David started using Java in late 1995. Upon his selection as ODMG's Java editor, he became a columnist for Java Report, initially covering ODMG and then JDO. David was part of the small group that initiated JSR-12, and he became one of the initial members of the JDO expert group. The JDO specification has a special acknowledgment of David's contributions to the JDO standard. When the JDOcentral.com community web site was formed, David was selected to serve as its moderator. David can be reached at [e-mail]

Craig Russell studied applied mathematics at Harvard University (B.A. '70 - '71) and acquired practical experience working as a technician repairing mainframes with the computing power of a 1997 model laptop. His early experiences in distributed computing included building applications with CICS and DL/I and designing heterogeneous network server implementations for file, print, and communications sharing among personal computers. Craig later dealt with issues of persistent object interoperability among Smalltalk, C++, and Java and integrating object and relational databases using X/OPEN XA protocols and commercial transaction processing systems. Craig served as the Java Chair of the Object Data Management Group and played a key role in the development of the ODMG 3.0 Java binding. For the next standard for database access from Java, the ODMG decided to support the Java Community Process as the delivery vehicle. With support from all major relational database and middleware vendors, Java Specification Request 12, Java Data Objects, was proposed in May 1999 and released in April 2002. Concurrent with the development of the JDO standard, Craig's primary responsibility was to lead the implementation of the object-relational database engine for several Sun products, including Java Blend and Forte for Java Transparent Persistence. Craig currently is the architect for the Container Managed Persistence implementation of Sun ONE Application Server, where he deals with the reality of implementing the high-performance, specification-compliant version of the object-relational database component of the J2EE application server.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (April 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596002769
• ISBN-13: 978-0596002763
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,720,173 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to understand and detailed information!, June 25, 2004

By 

M.S. "mtin" (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Java Data Objects (Paperback)

This book is definitely the best on java data objects! i have read the one from prentice hall and addison wesley`s. its true that the first code example doesnt work, what is a shame but if you overcome your frustration and have a look at the oreilly website you can fond the correct and again detailed information (and even reason) to get it done. short cut to the correctings is : http://examples.oreilly.com/jvadtaobj/README.txt .

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this book - and let me tell you why, November 19, 2004

By 

Dorian Gray (VA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Java Data Objects (Paperback)

I was expecting something better from the JSR lead for JDO.

Before you buy this book, go to oreilly website for this book and go through the Chapter 1 available online. That chapter could have been fit in half as many pages without loss of information.

Now refer to the errata and README available on the oreilly website, download the JDO reference implementation and see if you can run the examples.

The examples don't work even if you follow the directions from the errata and README.

By now you would have wasted a few valuable hours.

If the Chapter 1 "An Initial Tour" is a waste of time, there is no reason to expect something better in the rest of the book.

So the books sucks, but you want to learn JDO! What can you do?

Download an evaluation edition of Kodo JDO from Solarmetric. Install it and you will get a JDO Developers Guide. Go through that. It is significantly better than this book. While you are at it, you can play with Kodo and get a feel for a real implementation of JDO, rather than Sun's reference implementation.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an excellent book about Java Data Objects(JDO)!, April 29, 2003

By 

Michael Bouschen (Berlin, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Java Data Objects (Paperback)

Java Data Objects by David Jordan and Craig Russell succeeds in giving a good introduction to JDO and providing a very good overview of the standard. The book covers all the relevant aspects of managing persistent Java objects, such as creating and deleting persistent objects, identity, queries, and transaction handling.

More importantly, the authors describe how to use JDO in practice, meaning how to use JDO to write a Java application that accesses persistent data transparently. There are lots of detailed, but easy to understand code examples explaining the concepts of JDO. I like the idea that the entire book uses a single application scenario. The source code is included in the appendix.

The descriptions do not depend on a particular JDO implementation. Instead, it focuses on how to write an application in a manner that is portable among different JDO implementations. Where necessary, it explains JDO's optional features and areas where JDO implementations may differ. JDO does not specify a standard for the mapping of persistent classes to specific datastores; but this is an important aspect of developing an application with JDO. There is a chapter about datastore mappings, with the focus on relational databases.

There are chapters about defining persistent classes, enhancing them, and setting up the JDO runtime environment. It is easy to transfer the provided examples to your own application environment. I like the chapter on JDOQL; it provides a good and in-depth description of the JDO query language. There are extra chapters about the identity and lifecycle of persistent instances, as well as nontransactional access of persistent data. The last two chapters describe how JDO integrates into web- and application-server environment, especially J2EE application servers.