Derby vs Cloudscape Features

[Rick Strong <rs...@panix.com>]

I've been using Cloudscape since 1997 and have found it very useful. I 
was happy to see that it would become an Apache project, but I noticed 
that an IBM announcement mentioned that features not compatible with DB2 
would be pulled so as to make a hypothetical transition from Derby to 
DB2 smoother.

One of Cloudscape's unusual features was the ability to store/retrieve 
an instance of a Java object directly, and the ability to query the 
object's getters in place in the DB without having to drag the whole 
thing back into the program for inspection. Very handy! Does this 
feature disappear in Derby?

Thanks,

Rick Strong

Re: Derby vs Cloudscape Features

["Jean T. Anderson" <jt...@bristowhill.com>]

Rick Strong wrote:

> I've been using Cloudscape since 1997 and have found it very useful. I
> was happy to see that it would become an Apache project, but I noticed
> that an IBM announcement mentioned that features not compatible with
> DB2 would be pulled so as to make a hypothetical transition from Derby
> to DB2 smoother.
>
> One of Cloudscape's unusual features was the ability to store/retrieve
> an instance of a Java object directly, and the ability to query the
> object's getters in place in the DB without having to drag the whole
> thing back into the program for inspection. Very handy! Does this
> feature disappear in Derby? 

The "Migrating databases to IBM Cloudscape Version 10.0" at IBM lists
changes between Cloudscape 5.1 and Derby:

http://www.ibm.com/software/data/cloudscape/pubs/cloudscape10-migrate.html

To answer your direct question, Java data types and static method calls
to dbclasses drops out. I think this is what you're talking about, but
I'm new myself and have little experience with the earlier CS releases.
Nobody should hesitate to dive in and correct/clarify anything I say.

Derby now supports SQL functions and stored procedures implemented in Java.
 
The To Do list at http://incubator.apache.org/derby/DerbyToDo.html has
helpful mail list pointers to feature topics, including one on
supporting user defined types.

I hope this helps.

regards

 -jean