Object-Oriented Oracle

The popularity of object-oriented concepts, design, and programming has stimulated the need for a database system that enables a straightforward process to store and retrieve object instances. Exploring object-oriented features and techniques in Oracle DBMS, this book describes the fundamental aspects of data modeling and implementation in Oracle. The implementation of structural aspects of an object model are covered, including object types, collection types, object referencing, nested tables, and inheritance structures, as well as the behavioral aspects that include encapsulated member procedures and functions. The complete cycle of database design using object-oriented concepts, implementation on object-relational Oracle, and data manipulations using member procedures/functions and object-relational queries is also addressed.


User review
Explains how to use Object-Relational features of Oracle if you really want to
This is a 300 page advanced student course book on using the SQL:1999 (aka. SQL3) object model as implemented by Oracle (including features added in Oracle9i). It starts with a brief introduction to object modeling using some example UML class diagrams, then comments briefly on some of the different approaches to storing objects in the relational databases that dominate the market today. Chapter 2 outlines the object SQL extensions in Oracle: user defined types (ie. classes) with inheritance and access control, collections, refs and clusters. Chapter 3 discusses implementing subtypes, association and aggregation, first using a traditional relational approach, then using types, refs, clusters and nested tables. Chapter 4 addresses data encapsulation, comparing stored procedures and grants in a relational environment versus member methods supported by user defined types. Chapter 5 describes patterns to use for 'generic' methods that insert and delete objects with subtypes, associations and aggregations, and Chapter 6 describes querying the resulting object hierarchies. Chapters 7 and 8 provide a pair of non-trivial example program applications, each with about 20 classes and a total of more than 50 pages of code listings. The first of these has a simple command line interface and the second uses Oracle Forms - there is no mention anywhere of SQLJ or JDBC.

This book is unique in that it focuses on an area of Oracle functionality that is relatively little understood. Object oriented development is popular amongst enterprise developers using Java or C#, but adoption has been slow amongst database developers and DBAs. It doesn't help that leading PL/SQL author Steve Feuerstein describes object oriented development as greatly over-rated. This book teaches neither object-oriented analysis and design nor PL/SQL, but it does address the specific issue of implementing and using an object design using modern SQL, and the authors deserve credit for seeking to teach the next generation of developers and DBAs. Having said that the presentation could be more polished, the formatting and layout of the listings could be improved, and section numbering would help also.

User review
A Comprehensive Book on Object Oriented Oracle
The book contains comprehensive descriptions and examples on the use of Object-Oriented concepts in Oracle Object-Relational database system.
Unlike many existing books in the area which mainly focus on Object-Relational database features independently from the design concepts, this book covers step-by-step mapping of each Object-Oriented design concept into implementation in Oracle Object-Relational database system. This book also contains a lot of sample codes, exercises, and case studies which demonstrate the practical implementation of the mapping process.
Prominent vendors in Relational database management systems such as Oracle have now introduced various features that are based on the Object-Oriented concepts. Because these features are developed on Relational DB, they are now called the new generation of Object-Relational database systems. However, there have been no real effort in ensuring database developers to understand when and where to use these new features, and so most of these useful features have remained unused in the real world. This book is aimed to provide more insight into Object-Oriented Oracle, and especially demonstrating cases where the new OO features in Oracle can be utilized.
Everyone who has any interest in Oracle or databases in general, needs to keep up with the latest development in the area. The underlying model of database systems has changed overtime, from hierarchical, network, and relational models, and now the latest Object-Oriented model. This book is useful for both database developers as well as database teaching instructors who want to gain more understanding about the design and implementation of the latest Object-Oriented model in Oracle database system.

User review
Good book, poor index and TOC
My first looks at this book give me this impression:
1) I like the coding conventions (e.g., use of upper/lower case)
2) I like the Case Studies; they implement the concepts well
3) The 2 page index is more topical than keyword (e.g. `XYZ Case study` rather than BFILE).
4) The TOC is more topical than keyword.

Like I said, my first glance, but the topic I read last night illustrated the material well. It's just tough to find any specific topic.
I normally wouldn't enter a review without a more thorough go-through of the book, but there were 0 reviews, so figured something is better than nothing!