JDO 2.0 Preview: Java Object Persistence Made Easy

he Java Data Objects (JDO) 1.0 specification, accepted in May 2002, was the first standard, data store-neutral specification designed specifically for Java object persistence. Java developers already had many persistence options available to them at the time, including serialization, JDBC, entity beans, object databases, and O/R mapping tools, but these solutions all lacked features, ease-of-use, or standardization. So JDO rapidly gained acceptance among developers and IT managers.

At the JDO 2.0 Specification kickoff meeting held in Washington DC in August, the JDO Expert group, which consists of commercial and open-source JDO vendors, JDO consultants and trainers, end customers, and vendors with alternative technologies, identified a number of topics as critical to continuing the success of Java Data Objects. This article explores some of these topics and discusses the value of each to Java developers and JDO customers.

Author's Note: The JDO 2 JSR is currently under active development, so some of the features discussed in this article may change between now and the final version.