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I've been reading on Wikipedia and it seems that NeXT developed an object-relational mapping framework for Objective-C called Enterprise Objects Framework. And then Apple absorbed NeXT and EOF became WebObjects. And then WebObjects became Java.

Is there any part of the EOF or Objective-C based WebObjects lying around? An object-relational mapping framework for Objective-C would be immensely useful to me.

UPDATE: I'm looking for a database agnostic ORM system that can connect to MySQL and SQLite at least, Oracle and PostgreSQL would be nice. I need to be able to update the database separately from the ORM, something CoreData does not allow.

Ethan Reesor
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  • Core Data was derived quite directly by EOF, but dropped the support for arbitrary database schemas. For arbitrary schemas, it kind of depends on what your target deployment environment might be. – bbum Jul 23 '13 at 23:56

4 Answers4

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I'm pretty sure you're looking for Core Data.

From wikipedia:

On computer systems running Mac OS X and mobile devices running iOS, Core Data is an object graph and persistence framework provided by Apple. It was introduced in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and iOS with iPhone SDK 3.0. It allows data organised by the relational entity–attribute model to be serialised into XML, binary, or SQLite stores. The data can be manipulated using higher level objects representing entities and their relationships. Core Data manages the serialised version, providing object lifecycle and object graph management, including persistence. Core Data interfaces directly with SQLite, insulating the developer from the underlying SQL.

DrummerB
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  • Sorry, I should have specified, I'm looking for something that will allow me to interface with an existing database such as MySQL. I'll update my question to that effect. – Ethan Reesor Jul 24 '13 at 17:13
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There is also the GNUstep GDL2 and SOPE GDL1, two related EOF look-a-likes. Not sure how much work would be involved in porting them to OSX.

hnh
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There are a lot of companies still using WebObjects. EOF is WebObjects' ORM layer which virtually eliminates the need to manually write SQL. Unfortunately WebObjects, and therefor EOF, were ported to Java years ago.

I know you are looking for an Objective-C (or now, Swift?) solution but for RDMSs like MySQL, Oracle or Postgresql, anything that will run them will be capable of running Java as well and WebObjects will run on any platform that supports Java 1.4 or later, including "Cloud" deployments on Amazon, Azure, etc.

Java WebObjects 5.4.3 is available as a free download from Apple. There is an active developer community that has picked up where Apple's development left off and even holds yearly developer conferences.

Bug fixes and new features are being added regularly to WebObjects via Project Wonder, an open-source set of frameworks built on top of WebObjects.

Apple itself does not offer support and has not released any new versions to the public since 2008, however you can see by the URLs used by many of Apple's services such as the App Store, iTunes Store, etc (...apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/...), it's still alive and well inside Apple.

David Avendasora
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EOF has become CoreData and CoreData doesn't support arbitrary schemas or backing stores. So I made a couple of frameworks that do.

ORDA, the Objective-C Relational Database Abstraction framework, is a 'standard' interface for creating Objective-C database drivers. The goal is to build a system for Objective-C that serves the same purpose of the JDBC.

CORM, the Objective-C Object Relational Mapping framework, leverages Cocoa technologies to provide a powerful, dynamic, and extremely simple to use ORM for Objective-C. It is currently under development.

Ethan Reesor
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