SARJ - Simple Active Record for Java

Overview

This is a Java implementation of the Active Record pattern described by Martin Fowler. It is intended to be a light weight, easy to use system for accessing a database within Java programs.

This implementation requires Java 5 or above

Quick Start

1. Download the latest SARJ jar file the download page
2. Download the JDBC implementation for the database you're using (e.g. oracle.jar for Oracle, mysql-connector-java-5.1.5-bin.jar for MySQL)
3. Create a file called connection.properties containing details for connecting to your database eg.

         driver-class=org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver
         connection-string=jdbc:derby:active_record_test;create=true
         username=
         password=
           

4. Create subclasses of ActiveRecord named after the database tables you're going to access eg.

         class Customer extends ActiveRecord
         {
         }
           

5. Put all of these files on the classpath of your Java application
6. From within your Java application you can now access your database using code like this,

         // Create
         Customer john = new Customer();
         john.set("NAME", "John");
         john.set("AGE", 25);
         john.save();
         Customer greg = new Customer();
         greg.set("NAME", "Greg");
         greg.set("AGE", 47);
         greg.save();
   
         // Read
         List<Customer> customers = ActiveRecord.find(Customer.class);
         for (Customer customer : customers)
         {
           System.out.println("Found customer - Name: " + customer.get("NAME") +
               ", age: " + customer.get("AGE"));
         }
   
         // Update
         john = ActiveRecord.find(Customer.class, "NAME = ?", "John").first();
         john.set("AGE", 26);
         john.save();
   
         // Delete
         customers = ActiveRecord.find(Customer.class);
         for (Customer customer : customers)
         {
           customer.delete();
         }
           

   For a full list of the operations available see the API documentation. For full code examples download a copy of the project and look in the examples directory.
7. You're done, have an orange