---
title: "Larry Garfield on the new database layer in Drupal 7"
url: "/podcasts/drupal-voices/larry-garfield-on-the-new-database-layer-in-drupal-7"
type: episode
date: 2009-04-30
updated: 2014-04-09
---

# Larry Garfield on the new database layer in Drupal 7

#  Larry Garfield on the new database layer in Drupal 7 

  

*Podcast episode player*

One of the more [epic changes](http://drupal.org/node/225450) to Drupal 7 is a new database layer that's based upon [PHP's Data Object (PDO)](https://www.php.net/pdo) library. Larry Garfield, being a fan of Star Trek, gave it the nickname of "Database, The Next Generation" (DBTNG) and collaborated heavily with [chx](http://drupal.org/user/9446), [Barry Jaspan](http://drupal.org/user/46413) and [Damien Tournoud](http://drupal.org/user/22211) on it.

In this podcast, Larry explains some of the new features and what they mean for Drupal developers.

**For more information:**

- ["Drupal Databases: The Next Generation" DrupalCon presentation](http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/session/drupal-databases-next-generation)
- [Database API documentation](http://drupal.org/node/310069)
- [API changes](http://drupal.org/node/224333#dbtng)
- [Initial post](https://www.garfieldtech.com/blog/drupal7-database-update)
- [Announcement after DBTNG patch got committed](https://www.garfieldtech.com/blog/database-tng-lands)
- [Follow-up post](https://www.garfieldtech.com/blog/database-7-update)

[Download](https://www.lullabot.com/audio/download/529/DrupalVoices024.mp3)