So, I decided that it was high time I took a look at SDO. The Service Data Object extension from IBM.
To say the least, SDO looked interesting, with the ability to access data from a Database (via PDO) and data in XML files (and potentionally any other format) from a single API is appealing.
Service Data Objects (SDOs) enable PHP applications to work with data from different sources (like a database query, an XML file, and a spreadsheet) using a single interface.
The ability to mingle all these forms of data and access them as one, well, I just like it. It appeals to my inner geek.
However, from my brief look at SDO, I’ve been sorely dissapointed.
Here are my main issues:
- The APIs are not even close to being identical for the two available Data Access Services (Relational (PDO) and XML). Just compare the SDO_DAS_XML and the SDO_DAS_Relational classes to see my point)
- You have to define the data’s structure before you can use it, be it through an Array for SDO_DAS_Relational or an XML Schema for SDO_DAS_XML
Though I must admit the amount of documentation on ext/sdo is impressive, it in itself fails to impress.
– Davey