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MILK - Java database framework

Welcome to the MILK wiki! Here you will find all the information you need about the MILK database framework. If you want to see it in action just now, go to the cheatsheet or to the examples page

So, what is MILK?

MILK is a Java database framework, focused on:

• API simplicity.
• The use of convention over configuration.
• Simple customization without the use of configuration files (no XML).
• The minimization of external dependencies.
• Providing a lightweight library.

What are MILK main features?

The main features of MILK are:

• Connection managing transparent to the user (open and close operations are done by the framework).
• Resource managing. No resources are created by the user, so there will never be leaks.
• Transaction support.
• Simple way to execute queries and updates.
• Simple way to manipulate ResultSets.
• Simple but flexible ORM with logical deletion support.

Why should I use MILK?

First of all, YOU DON'T HAVE TO. There is a lot of database frameworks on the market. Much of them are open source and free, so you have tons of options. MILK is just one of them.

I wrote MILK because I found that the frameworks I tried where too complex and fat for my taste (Hibernate, JPA, etc) and hid a lot of details about database interaction (in practice, making debugging harder), or too thin and make-it-yourself (DBUtils). It doesn't mean I think they are bad (at all), just that they were not suitable for my needs.

What I wanted was a library that made the execution of SQL sentences easy, managed the connections and transactions (so no resource can remain open by accident), and provided a simple ORM (in my day-to-day job, I really dind't need much more than object-to-table mapping).

So, use it if you find it easy and you want to know about your database, care about your database, but not be a slave because of it.

I don't have time. If you want to convince me, show me how to use it, NOW! :P

All right, all right, I get it. If you want a taste of it, go to the cheatsheet or to the examples page.