GDL
GNUstep Database Library 2 (GDL2) is a set of libraries to map Objective-C objects to rows of relational database management systems (RDBMS). It aims to be compatible with Enterprise Objects Framework (EOF) as released with WebObjects 4.5 from Apple Inc and is used in conjuction with GNUstepWeb.
Current Version: 0.10.1
- Released September 14, 2006
Features
GDL2 consists of the following components:
- EOControl (gnustep-db2control)
- The fundamental abstraction library which includes many non RDBMS related extensions such as KeyValueCoding extensions and other categories. Most importantly it contains the classes which handle the coordination of object graphs namely EOEditingContext.
- EOAccess (gnustep-db2)
- This library implements the underlying mechanism to retrieve and store data in RDBMS. It defines the abstract classes like EOAdaptor which are subclassed to interface with concrete RDBMS implementations.
- EOInterface
- This library implements classes used to synchronize UI components such as NSTextFields, NSButtons and NSTableViews with the state of objects which an EOEditingContext contains.
- EOAdaptors
- This is a collection of concrete EOAdaptor projects needed to connect to specific databases. GDL2 currently only supplies an Adaptor for the PostgreSQL database. Even though the Adaptor is still called Postgres95 we aim to support PostgreSQL 7.2 and higher API. In fact the Adaptor may very soon be renamed to PostgreSQL.
- DBModeler
- GDL2 offers an alpha version of DBModeler to create and maintain .eomodel(d) files.
State
Currently GDL2 is meant for developers who can help test and contribute to the current code or are willing to test the interface. It is not ready for general purpose production code. Having said that, it should be mentioned that GDL2 is being used in production environments and has been much tested in those contexts.
Expect the current interface to change especially with respect to functions and methods not documented in EOF 4.5. Even the library names themselves may change.
We currently do not support the EOSchemaSynchronization methods yet. But you are likely to find many more missing implementations within the source. If you identify something that you need, please let us know at or even better get copyright assignment for the FSF and post a patch.