Co-ODB: Integrating support for collaborative information systems into an object database

Many modern information systems require some form of collaboration among peers. To address these needs, existing approaches tend to build a layer on top of traditional database technologies that implements a specific distribution model. In contrast, our aim was to integrate concepts into a database that would provide native support for data sharing while allowing developers the flexibility of configuring their own distribution models and collaboration logic. As proof of concept, we present Co-ODB, an object database that can be used to support a wide variety of architectures and modes of sharing. We describe how Co-ODB has been implemented and illustrate how it can be used to implement applications with different collaboration logics.