Over the years, in application software and dynamic websites development, the relational database model has been widely used. However, with the growing popularity of OOPS or the Object-Oriented Programming concept, a new type of database management system has evolved. The database model based on object oriented programming is known as ODBMS (Object Database Management System) and the databases are simply known as Object Databases.
In an object database, information is stored in the form of objects as represented in object oriented programming. In situations where there is a business need for precise processing with highly complex data, object databases are very helpful. In large-scale custom web development projects, object databases can be used which may dramatically reduce the time utilized in coding.
Object database, although support some kind of a query language, the processing data retrieval is fast as ‘joins’ (extensively used in relational database model) are not required. An object can be retrieved directly using pointers and without a normal search operation. Also, the programming language and the database both share the same schema definition, thereby making it useful in complex website development services.
Advantages of object databases are:
- Objects in an object database can store an arbitrary number of atomic types with other associated objects.
- A query language is not always required to access data.
- No primary key is used for unique data definition.
- The database model and the application model are defined in the form objects with similar characteristics.
Disadvantages of object databases are:
- Change database schema involves a complete change of objects associated with the database and the front-end interface.
- Objects databases are not language independent.
- Lack of flexibility in creating new objects in line with creating new ad-hoc tables joining data from two different tables as done in the relational model.
Nevertheless, with an increasing use in web page development projects, relational databases will surely overcome the short-comings and provide the programming fraternity with better solutions in future.
