Data-oriented middleware has always been one of the most important, and troublesome areas of interoperability. When XML came around, there were very high hopes for improved data exchange among diverse systems. An interesting effort looking to spur things along is the Data Documentation Initiative. Read more »

Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) has long provided a valuable API for connectivity between the Java programming language and a wide range of databases. It provides a call-level API for SQL-based database access. As of October 2007, there were 221 drivers for different databases. The latest version: JDBC 4.0 API. Read more »

The world expresses itself in more than one language and the same is true in software, mostly to the general benefit; because diversity and progress are the results. Right? No one doubts that .NET took a lot of its direction from Java, and Java built on C++. Now there may be a bit of pollination of Java originating from the .NET side. Or maybe not. Read more »

Lost amid the general tumult that ensued when the SQL Server 2005 team released a new JDBC driver was word that Microsoft has released a new SQL Server 2005 Driver for PHP. Supported operating systems are Windows 2000 Service Pack 4; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2; Windows Small Business Server 2003 ; Windows Vista; and Windows XP Service Pack 2. Read more »

Herndon, Virginia-based McDonald Bradley, Inc. announced it has been selected to perform
an interoperability study for the Department of Defense that will “define a future information-sharing
framework to serve the needs of the armed forces”. Read more »

XML messaging using the SOAP protocol has become the lingua franca for interoperability. But it is not suited for high-performance messaging, writes GemStone Chief Architect Jags Ramnarayan on his blog. Like others, Ramnarayan sees benefits in the emergence of a language-neutral data architecture that allows applications to be built in the language that best fits their needs. Read more »

By Brent Sheets
Posted by Jack Vaughan

Hibernate is an ORM [Object-Relational Mapping] service used to develop persistent Java classes. On the back of NHibernate, it’s popularity has spread to the .NET space as well. This has proved of special interest in IT shops that are working toward interoperability strategies that leverage the skills of developers who can handle both .NET and Java problems. No matter whether you’re an old pro or just starting to investigate object relational mapping, the resources I’ve gathered should help you learn something new. You’ll find quick links to official reference material and great tutorials for gaining hands-on knowledge. Dig right in. Read more »

As with any software, individuals find their ‘mileage may vary’ when they implement ORM solutions. Things go wrong, or, more likely, things work, but they don’t work fast enough. While clearly seeking to complement and not supplement software like Hibernate/NHibernate, makers of established data access layer software tools may have a valid perspective on the issue when they say “Don’t forget the drivers!”

Read more »

By Jack Vaughan
Tool-maker Teamprise has begun work on a Java SDK for use with the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server. The pairing may seem odd, but it is not odd to a slew of enterprise development shops that support both Java and .NET. Managers at such shops would like to see their developers able to check software in and out of a common repository. 
Both big shops and third-party software vendors are interested in using libraries developed by Teamprise in order to link existing Java products with Team Foundation Server data, said Teamprise’s Scott Boesch, marketing manager.

The Java SDK, scheduled to be available by end of year, builds on Teamprise’s Client Suite cross-platform applic Read more »

db4objects provides an object data base management system. While ODBMS technology has proved a niche technology over the years, it is poised as another means of achieving interoperability. db4objects describes their object DB as native to Java and .NET. For example, the software supports class aliases that reconcile the different naming conventions so that Java and .NET db4o instances (clients or servers) can share persisted objects without the need to deploy classes to the server. Of course, there is more.

TheServerSide Interop Blog Charter Blogger Ted Neward [shown here] recently took a look at the db2objects space as part of a broader interview on TheServerSide.com. Here we provide some highpoints from that discussion, as well as a link to Ted Neward’s new TSS.com TechTalk on Object/Relational Mapping and the Vietnam of Computer Science.

As we begin our story, Ted notes that he is wearing a DB4Object shirt.

What has happened … and … I am obviously wearing their shirt, the DB4Object guys, one of the things that they have done, a couple of things that they have done differently that I find myself agreeing with, what they have done first of all is they have not stood up and said, ‘We want to replace the relational database in the IT world.’ As a matter of fact, for a long time they were aiming squarely at the embedded space where guys are still rolling their own persistence engine. Like guys are sort of writing Java object, serialization objects to disk and then folding them back up. Read more »