A few weeks back, I worked feverishly to get an article ready for the November 2005 edition of the Sys-con's Java Developer Journal, or as many people refer to it, the JDJ. Check out your pigeon hole mailbox, or head to JDJ online to read the article.
For this article, I delve into the details of matching your JDBC driver against the many choices in the Object-Relational-Mapping (ORM) mechanisms that are so prevalent in many of today's popular architectures. You can use the figure below as a reference. This is an excellent representation we put together that shows how can assemble an application that uses an ORM mechanism, coupled with a best of class JDBC driver and layer it on top of your relational data source.
While I specifically avoid any wide ranging discussion on the pros and cons of each ORM mechanism, I do opt to peel back some of the layers to look exhaustively at the connectivity layer, something that is all too often under-discussed in many development organizations. The majority of today's ORM mechanisms live on top of relational databases, so it is a reasonable assertion to make that without an effective and informed investment in a connectivity layer from a best of breed JDBC driver, you risk loosing the productivity value-add an ORM mechanism to the disadvantage of your development organization. I am of course interested to hear your opinions and feedback, so comment below and we can continue our conversation there.