Apache Derby (previously distributed as IBM Cloudscape) is a

relational database management system A relational database (RDB) is a database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a type of database management system that stores data in a structured for ...

(RDBMS) developed by the

Apache Software Foundation The Apache Software Foundation ( ; ASF) is an American nonprofit corporation (classified as a 501(c)(3) organization in the United States) to support a number of open-source software projects. The ASF was formed from a group of developers of the ...

that can be embedded in

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

programs and used for

online transaction processing Online transaction processing (OLTP) is a type of database system used in transaction-oriented applications, such as many operational systems. "Online" refers to the fact that such systems are expected to respond to user requests and process them i ...

. It has a 3.5 MB disk-space footprint. Apache Derby is developed as an

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

project under the Apache 2.0 license. For a time,

Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

distributed the same binaries under the name Java DB. In June 2015 they announced that for JDK 9 they would no longer be doing so.

History

Apache Derby originated at Cloudscape Inc, an

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, start-up founded in 1996 by Nat Wyatt and Howard Torf to develop Java

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

technology. The first release of the database engine, then called JBMS, was in 1997. Subsequently, the product was renamed Cloudscape and releases were made about every six months. In 1999,

Informix Informix is a product family within IBM's Information Management division that is centered on several relational database management system (RDBMS) and multi-model database offerings. The Informix products were originally developed by Inform ...

Software, Inc., acquired Cloudscape, Inc. In 2001

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

acquired the database assets of Informix Software, including Cloudscape. The database engine was re-branded to IBM Cloudscape and releases continued, mainly focusing on embedded use with IBM's Java products and middleware. In August 2004, IBM contributed the code to the Apache Software Foundation as Derby, an incubator project sponsored by the Apache DB project. In July 2005 the Derby project graduated from the Apache incubator and is now being developed as a sub-project of the DB Top Level Project at Apache. Prior to Derby's graduation from incubation, Sun joined the Derby project with an intent to use Derby as a component in their own products, and with the release of Java 6 in December 2006, Sun started packaging Derby in the JDK branded as Java DB. In March 2007, IBM announced that they would withdraw marketing and support for the Cloudscape product, but would continue to contribute to the Apache Derby project. The Java DB database is Oracle's supported distribution of Apache Derby.

Technologies

Derby embedded database engine

The core of the technology, Derby's database engine, is a full-functioned relational embedded database-engine, supporting

JDBC Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is an application programming interface (API) for the Java (programming language), Java programming language which defines how a client may access a database. It is a Java-based data access technology used for Java ...

and

SQL Structured Query Language (SQL) (pronounced ''S-Q-L''; or alternatively as "sequel") is a domain-specific language used to manage data, especially in a relational database management system (RDBMS). It is particularly useful in handling s ...

as programming APIs. It uses IBM Db2

syntax.

Derby Network Server

The Derby network server increases the reach of the Derby database engine by providing traditional client server functionality. The network server allows clients to connect over TCP/IP using the standard

DRDA Distributed Relational Database Architecture (DRDA) is a database interoperability standard from The Open Group. DRDA describes the architecture for distributed relational databases. It defines the rules for accessing the distributed data, but ...

protocol. The network server allows the Derby engine to support networked JDBC,

ODBC In computing, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a standard application programming interface (API) for accessing database management systems (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and operating systems. An ...

CLI CLI may refer to: Computing * Call Level Interface, an SQL database management API * Command-line interface, of a computer program * Command-line interpreter or command language interpreter; see List of command-line interpreters * CLI (x86 instruc ...

Perl Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Though Perl is not officially an acronym, there are various backronyms in use, including "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language". Perl was developed ...

Embedded Network Server

An embedded database can be configured to act as a hybrid server/embedded RDBMS; to also accept TCP/IP connections from other clients in addition to clients in the same JVM.see Embedded Server Example i
http://db.apache.org/derby/docs/10.4/adminguide/
/ref>

Database utilities

* ij: a tool that allows SQL scripts to be executed against any JDBC database. * dblook: Schema extraction tool for a Derby database. * sysinfo: Utility to display version numbers and class path.

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Internals of Derby, An Open Source Pure Java Relational Database Engine
deployable in an embedded

OSGi OSGi is an open specification and open source project under the Eclipse Foundation. It is a continuation of the work done by the OSGi Alliance (formerly known as the Open Services Gateway initiative), which was an open standards organization fo ...

environment
Oracle Java DB SiteWhy IBM is open sourcing Cloudscape as Derby
IBM developerWorks site
Compliance matrix with SQL 2003Configure and Install Derby Database
{{IBM FOSS

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

Free database management systems Free software programmed in Java (programming language) IBM software Software using the Apache license