Summary

In summary I wish to briefly cover the advantages and disadvantages of the OODB approach and consider future developments for approach.

Advantages of OODB Approach
In covering OODB we have seen that there are a number of advantages and benefits to be gain from the approach. Key amongst them are:

q Objects do not require re-assembling from their component tables each time they are used, reduces overheads by increasing access speeds.
q Paging reduced
q Versioning is easier
q Navigation through database is more natural
q Relationships are stored within the objects in the database, pointers
q Data model representative of the real world
q Suited to client/server and distributed architectures

Disadvantages of OODB Approach
In covering OODB's we have focused upon the areas of benefit to the approach. It should be noted that there are a number of disadvantages and limitations to the OODB approach. Key amongst them are:

q Present lack of standards
q Navigational queries have well documented limitations
q No formal semantics for ODBMS
q The simplicity of relational tables is lost
q The object-oriented paradigm makes converting from relational database to OODB difficult
q Doesn't scale up to high transaction volumes and user counts as well as relational database systems

Future Developments
Future developments for OODB's should include a query language that provides for OODB's what SQL provides for relational databases. Additionally, universally accepted standards need to be reached over design, notation and implementation.
Future developments for the OODB could include an easier accessing method from the Internet and integration of ideas such as XML or something similar. One such initiative is the W3QL or the World Wide Web Query Language. This initiative would allow one to query the web as if it is a database. Because of the vast amounts of information, an object-oriented approach may prove useful [Manion 01].

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