Oracle Integrates JavaScript Support in MySQL for Enhanced Developer Productivity

Key Points

• Oracle has introduced JavaScript support in MySQL, enabling developers to write JavaScript stored programs directly in the MySQL database server.

• This new feature improves developer productivity and broadens the range of developer talent, leveraging the widely accessible JavaScript skill set for backend development.

Oracle has announced a significant enhancement to the MySQL database - the introduction of JavaScript support. This integration allows developers to write JavaScript stored programs, such as functions and procedures, directly in the MySQL database server. The feature was revealed on December 15, 2023, and is available in a preview in MySQL Enterprise Edition and the MySQL Heatwave cloud service across Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), AWS, and Microsoft Azure.

The introduction of JavaScript in MySQL signifies a strategic move by Oracle to make MySQL a more attractive option for a broader range of developers, especially given JavaScript's simple syntax and the language's large ecosystem of reusable code modules. This integration allows for the implementation of advanced data processing logic within the database, significantly reducing data movement between the database server and client applications. This reduction in data movement can lead to decreased latencies, lower network overhead, and reduced egress costs.

Among the practical applications of this feature, Oracle highlights use cases like data extraction, data formatting, data validation, compression, encoding, and data transformation. For instance, Oracle provided an example of a function where JavaScript code is embedded directly into the SQL definition, demonstrating the seamless integration of these two technologies.

The technical underpinnings of this feature rely on GraalVM, which provides an ECMAScript-compliant runtime for executing JavaScript programs. The integration with MySQL is based on the ECMAScript 2021 standard, supporting various data types, including integers, floating point, and CHAR/VARCHAR. Notably, this integration uses a custom-built virtual machine optimized for performance, utilizing GraalVM’s ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation for fast processing.

While currently available in MySQL Enterprise Edition and the MySQL Heatwave cloud service, this feature is not supported in the MySQL Community Edition. This development represents a significant step in database technology, offering new possibilities in application design and backend development, particularly for JavaScript developers.

References

1. https://www.infoworld.com/article/3711862/oracle-introduces-javascript-support-in-mysql.html
2. https://www.infoq.com/news/2023/12/mysql-javascript-support-preview/
3. https://blogs.oracle.com/mysql/post/introducing-javascript-support-in-mysql