Things to Watch Out in db4o
Written on Monday, November 26, 2007 by Edwin Sanchez
Since I started my project using db4o, I get to encounter things that I was not accustomed to do. I used to do Visual Basic 6 on MS SQL Server, then VB.Net 2003 on the same database product and lastly C#(still on MS SQL Server). I would like to list the things out here that might help new entrants in the object-database world and C# with similar experience as mine:
1. db4o/C# is case-sensitive
I'm used to SQL Server's case-insensitiveness (although you can make it case-sensitive too by changing the settings. See SQL Server 2000 Books Online under the topic How to create a case-sensitive instance of SQL Server 2000 (Setup)). When comparing strings, take note of this or your going to have lunch and dinner dates with the debugger. So those migrating from VB/SQL tools, expect this since Java and C# are case-sensitive.
2. Get out of the relational mind-set
There are many posts on this so I won't go any further explaining.
3. Good performance depends on YOU
Some people may not agree with me but db4o may not perform properly if your code is slow. db4o is very fast as proved by the pole position survey. If you quickly jump to coding, process tons of objects and not reading the documentation on the best practices to ensure performance, then your code will crawl like a snail. I sometimes make my own mistakes by forgetting that performing connections and executing queries inside a while loop is a bad news. This is not in the docs but the db4o core team need not to put it there since this is a bad practice even in the relational world.
4. Missing Features?
Check the documentation or the community forum on specific things that you need. If it's not there, do a work around for a while and much better, contribute to the community if you have great ideas. Things will get better soon, and the core team is very agile. And this is open source. Features will get better by community contributions.
That's it for now. I'll try adding some more as I move on to my quest.
Good day to all
