CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2007/wiki2 2 d4

Topic

Object-relational mapping. Ruby's ActiveRecord is one attempt to allow an object-oriented program to use a relational database. The Crossing Chasms pattern is another. Look up several approaches to mapping relational databases to o-o programs, include hyperlinks to all of them, and explain how they differ. Report on the strengths of various approaches (making sure to credit the authors for their insights)

Approaches

= Limitations

1. No Foreign Key Support: Although RoR lets you define has_many relationships, it makes no effort to create foreign key constraints in the underlying database to ensure relational integrity.
2. No Multi-column Primary Key Support: Multi-column primary keys are a staple of relational database schema definition.

Data Mapper

Popular Products

Hibernate

Oslick

References

1. ORM articles
2. Active Record was mentioned in this book
3. A video from RailsEnvy giving a quick and clean introduction to Active Record
4. A comparison of datamapper and Active Record implementations in Ruby