restSQL, a new version of an open-source ultra-lightweight data access layer has just been released with better management of user roles.

restSQL is aimed at applications that need relatively simple data access; so long as your app doesn't want to do anything more than create/read/update/delete (CRUD), restSQL has the facilities you need. It acts as a persistence framework in the middle tier of the standard three tier architecture of client, application server and database, and can also be embedded in any middle-tier as a Java library.

The thinking behind restSQL is that for many apps, conventional ORM (object relational-mapping tools) are overkill, with objects and classes for all possible occasions and situations, whereas in most cases the requirements are pretty limited.

restSQL is just a SQL generator with Java and HTTP APIs. It uses a simple RESTful HTTP API with XML or JSON serialization, and gives you either flat or hierarchical views of relational database tables. Access is managed through database views called SQL Resources that you can query and update. It doesn't do any object-relational mapping, and there’s no object query language.

You can either have your client app connect directly to the restSQL engine using the HTTP API, or have services that use a Java API.

The new release adds resource authorization so that users of your apps are limited to the SQL resources and methods for which their roles have authorized access. You provide the user credentials and role assignments using a standard Realm plug in. This can be RDBMS-based, LDAP-based, or file-based.

You can find out more at http://restsql.org, where you’ll find an overview, documentation, and can download the framework and SDK.

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