ODMG

The Object Data Management Group, commonly known as ODMG, was an industry consortium formed in 1991 by leading object database vendors. Its primary goal was to establish a standard for object database management systems (ODBMS). This standardization aimed to promote interoperability between different ODBMS products and to simplify the development of applications that utilized object databases.

The ODMG defined a comprehensive object model, an object definition language (ODL), and an object query language (OQL). The ODMG Object Model provided a common conceptual framework for representing and managing data as objects, drawing inspiration from object-oriented programming languages. ODL served as a data definition language, allowing developers to describe the structure of object databases, including classes, attributes, relationships, and methods. OQL was designed as a declarative query language for object databases, enabling users to retrieve and manipulate data in a manner similar to SQL for relational databases but with support for object-oriented concepts.

The ODMG standards, particularly ODMG 2.0 released in 1997, played a significant role in the development and adoption of object databases. They facilitated the creation of more portable and robust object-oriented applications. However, as the database landscape evolved and object-relational database management systems (ORDBMS) gained prominence, the influence of ODMG gradually waned. While the direct impact of ODMG as a consortium has diminished, its contributions to the conceptualization and standardization of object data management principles continue to be relevant in the broader field of database technology.