IBM and BEA announced the the new Service Data Object Specification (SDO).
It promises to simplify and unify several Java data access methods.
Most important it introduces support for disconnected data access scenarios.
Therewith it follows the same design principle as ADO.NET.
Below is a comparsion of the main classes (.NET – Java):
DataSet – DataGraph
DataTable – DataObject
DataAdapter – DataMediatorService
It seems that IBM/BEA favours an object centric approach whereas .NET uses a relational approach.
Interesting to see how .NET affects the J2EE development.
On the whole it’s great, as in the past nearly every enterprise level project created it’s own solution to cope with disconnected data structures.