High Performance Object-Relational Mapping engine for Visual FoxPro

FoxDataObjects is a powerful and high performing object/relational persistence and query engine for Visual FoxPro.
It lets you develop persistent classes following object-oriented idiom - including association, inheritance,  composition, and collections and allows you to express queries in its own simple Object Query language, as well as in native SQL.

Unlike many other persistence solutions, FoxDataObjects does not hide the power of SQL from you and guarantees that your investment in relational technology and knowledge is as valid as always.
 

FoxDataObjects' goal is to relieve the developer from the burden of universal data access and object persistence related programming task. FoxDataObjects for Visual FoxPro maps your business classes to a relational model, generates SQL for you, relieves you from manual ODBC/Native data access handling and object conversion, and keeps your application portable to all SQL databases. It provides transparent persistence for your business objects, the only requirement for a persistent class is to have PUBLIC members. You don't even need to subclass or inherit from any other class. Development and production database schemas are created and updated automatically  as soon as you test your classes at development time or connect your application to a production database.

At development time FoxDataObjects learns from your object model changes, generating the mapping information automatically for you and assisting you on the advanced mapping options.   At runtime, the FoxDataObjects API services use the generated mapping schema to keep your database schema updated, and provides a robust application environment for your business objects to be easily saved and retrieved from the database. You can write plain SQL, object-oriented Queries (FDO Query Language), or access your database in the same way your are doing it now. FoxDataObjects optimizes object loading all the time, with intelligent and transparent lazy-loading retrieval (referenced objects are retrieved just when needed).

Powerful Concept and Design...

Easy to Use and Highly Productive...

Total Control, Flexibility and Power

Bridging the Gap Between the Object World and Relational Databases.
 

Simple, Non-intrusive, and Flexible Design

• Simple concepts; easy development steps; quick learning curve

• No need to inherit from a base class or implement any special interfaces

• No static generation and maintenance of large amounts of messy code; dynamic mapping engine

• Easy evolution of object and relational models

• Flexible usage in any tier of an application – be it standalone, or COM+ based

Smart and Elegant Mapping Process

• Automatic mapping: default mapping is automatically deduced; avoids verbosity

• GUI assisted mapping specification; no need to struggle with complex XML files

• Normalized and modular specification; no repetition of the same information

• Most mapping primitives are orthogonal to each other, avoiding unnecessary tight coupling and enabling easy evolution

• Allows cross-referencing of classes and collections no matter in which order their mappings have been defined

• Intuitive and flexible ways of mapping complex object structures

• Mappings for collections and relationships are defined at the object model, not at the relational model; makes it easier to understand and modify such mappings

Support for Complex Object Modeling including Class Hierarchies

• Associative and aggregated relationships

• Persistence-by-reachability

• 1-to-1, 1-to-many, and many-to-many relationships

• Multiple options to store class-hierarchy objects

• Powerful object queries

Small Set of Simple and Flexible APIs

• Flexible query options – deep, shallow, and anything in-between. Supports loading of partial objects, sophisticated query predicates, parameterized queries, and powerful object-streaming functionality.

• Dynamic data routing

Lightweight and Optimized Mapping Engine

• Core functionality in C++ code as an FoxPro Link Library

• Powerful API wrapping classes in a single FXP file

• Prepared statements

• Optimized SQL statements

• Minimal database trips

• All in just 2 lightweight files (fdo.fll and fdo.fxp)

Works with Most Popular Databases Engines

• Supports Native Visual FoxPro Databases and tables, MS SQL Server, Sybase, MySQL and Postgres datasources. (Oracle and DB/2 support coming soon)

• Easily reverse-engineer an object model from any existing relational schema

• APIs for SQL Pass-Trough made easy.

High-Performance and Scalable Implementation

• Short code paths

• Optimistic concurrency control

On Demand Loading

• Totally transparent Lazy-Loading mechanism for objects references

• No need to code, implement interfaces  or inherit from any class.

• All single references and collections of references are lazy loaded by default

Powerful and Intuitive GUI Tool

• Excellent packaging of all the needed functionality to simplify mapping configuration (defining and verifying OR-Mapping, creating and reverse-engineering database schema)

• Well-organized, color-coded panels for quick navigation

• Extensive online help available at every step of the way

• Easy to leverage legacy data for OR-Mapping

• Verify OR-Mapping against a live database

• QueryBrowser™ provides instant and interactive insight into your data without a single line of programming

Easy-to-learn and Easy-to-use

• Clean design – not an over-engineered framework with complex semantics

• Small Set of Simple and Flexible APIs

• Simple object query language

• Powerful and intuitive GUI tools

• Extensive documentation (Comprehensive user manual, tutorials, and online help)

• Many working examples with step by step notes

• Meaningful error and debug messages to diagnose any problem

• Optional logging of all SQL statements

Nifty Components and Facilities to Simplify Development

• Object-viewing facilities

• Support for instance callback methods

• Optional high powered base classes for  jump start business classes definition

Robust and Market-Proven Technology

• Progressively enhanced based on feedback from users over last 2 years

• Proven enterprise-class technology being used in real-world applications

• Great customer testimonials