In my two previous article on relational database schemas I have described problems that arise when dealing with sql database schema that needs to be changed. I have also provided a quick tip on using Enterprise Manager to get the schema of your database. Those are the problems of relational world...

As described in the mentioned articles there are problems when it comes to keeping your database schema up to date etc. There are also problems when you need to keep the application code in sync with a database. Either you do a database-driven design and add fields in a database and then adjust the model to reflect this change, or you do a more model-driven design i.e.: the other way around - change the model and then adjust the database you always have the problem of synchronization. Tools are available that generate either a model or a database from eiher the database or the model, but is it perfect?

Far from it. One thing that I really appreciate when using Db4o is that I have no such problems. Simply because there is no database schema or in other words: the database schema reflects what I have in my model.

Now I'm not suggesting that object databases are the solution to all your problems. There are problems with data migration also however I haven't encountered one yet.

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