computer science

OrientDB

OrientDB is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand OrientDB rather than just read about it. In short: OrientDB is an open source NoSQL database management system written in Java. It is a Multi-model database, supporting graph, document and object models, the relationships are managed as in graph databases with direct connections between records.

Key takeaways

OrientDB belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect OrientDB to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of OrientDB from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

OrientDB is an open source NoSQL database management system written in Java. It is a Multi-model database, supporting graph, document and object models, the relationships are managed as in graph databases with direct connections between records. It supports schema-less, schema-full and schema-mixed modes. It has a strong security profiling system based on users and roles and supports querying with Gremlin along with SQL extended for graph traversal. OrientDB uses several indexing mechanisms based on B-tree and Extendible hashing, the last one is known as "hash index". Each record has Surrogate key which indicates the position of the record on disk. Links between records (edges) are stored either as the record's position stored directly inside of the referrer or as B-tree of record positions (so-called record IDs or RIDs), that serves as a container of RIDs, which allows fast traversal (with O(1) complexity) of one-to-many relationships and fast addition/removal of new links. OrientDB is the 6th most popular graph database according to the DB-Engines graph database ranking, as of January 2024. The development of OrientDB relies on an open-source community. The project uses GitHub to manage the sources, contributors and versioning.

Engine OrientDB is built with a multi-model graph/document engine. While OrientDB includes a SQL layer, the support for edges effectively means that these may be used to traverse relationships rather than employing a JOIN statement. OrientDB handles every record / document as an object and the linking between objects / documents is implemented using direct pointers to the record's positions on disk. This leads to quick retrieval of related data as compared to joins in an RDBMS.

Editions & licenses OrientDB Community Edition is free for any use under the Apache 2 license. There is no commercial version of OrientDB.

Applications Banking Big Data Fraud prevention Loan management software (Floify) Master data management Non-coding RNA human interaction database Recommendation engines Social networking Traffic management systems

History OrientDB was originally authored by Luca Garulli in 2010. Luca wrote it as a Java rewrite of the fast persistent layer of Orient ODBMS database (originally developed by Luca Garulli in 1999 in C++). During 2012–2014 years storage engine was redeveloped by Andrii Lomakin. It has got a new name "plocal" which stands for "paginated local". This name implies that the new storage engine is based on the concept of the splitting of data files by pages and page is treated as a single atomic unit of change. Since 2012, the project is being sponsored by OrientDB LTD (former Orient Technologies LTD), a for-profit company with Luca as its CEO and founder. In 2013 Andrii Lomakin has joined the company as R&D lead engineer and company's co-owner. The first time the word "multi-model" has been associated to the databases was on May 30, 2012, in Cologne, Germany, during Luca Garulli's keynote "NoSQL Adoption – What’s the Next Step?". Luca Garulli envisioned the evolution of the 1st generation NoSQL products into new products with more features able to be used by multiple use cases. OrientDB was the first product to embrace documents, graphs, key-value, geospatial and reactive models in the same product, at the core level. This means that the multiple models were integrated into the core without using layers. For this reason, OrientDB is a "Native" Multi-model database. OrientDB has been covered by media outlets and is the winner of the 2015 InfoWorld Bossie award. On September 15, 2017, OrientDB LTD company has been acquired by CallidusCloud. On January 30, 2018, it was announced SAP (company) acquired CallidusCloud for $2.4 billion. and therefore OrientDB is now supported by SAP (company). On September 1, 2021, the original founder Luca Garulli left SAP (company) and created a new database project ArcadeDB with a similar data presentation model after SAP decided to stop providing commercial support for OrientDB. On December 30, 2024, author of OrientDB storage engine Andrii Lomakin has created YouTrackDB, a fork of OrientDB oriented on manipulation of the graph data and support of object-oriented concepts for enterprise application developers.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with OrientDB

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what OrientDB claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to OrientDB before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about OrientDB ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of OrientDB

In research: OrientDB appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses OrientDB in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: OrientDB is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Distributed computing architecture, Document-oriented databases, Free database management systems, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for OrientDB outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study OrientDB in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what OrientDB means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain OrientDB out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is OrientDB in simple terms?

Why does OrientDB matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study OrientDB?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on OrientDB.