Co-ODB: Integrating support for collaborative information systems into an object database

Abstract

Many modern information systems require some form of collaboration among peers. To address these needs, existing approaches tend to build a layer on top of traditional database technologies that implements a specific distribution model. In contrast, our aim was to integrate concepts into a database that would provide native support for data sharing while allowing developers the flexibility of configuring their own distribution models and collaboration logic. As proof of concept, we present Co-ODB, an object database that can be used to support a wide variety of architectures and modes of sharing. We describe how Co-ODB has been implemented and illustrate how it can be used to implement applications with different collaboration logics.