Understanding EclipseLink, 2.5
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Understanding EclipseLink

EclipseLink is an open-source mapping and persistence framework for use in a Java environment, including Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) and Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE). The EclipseLink project is under the stewardship of the Eclipse Foundation.

EclipseLink completely implements the following specifications, plus extensions to those specifications:

In addition to the implementations of the standard specifications described above, EclipseLink includes the following:

EclipseLink can be used with a wide range of Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) and Java application architectures. Use EclipseLink to design, implement, deploy, and optimize an advanced, object-persistence and object-transformation layer that supports a variety of data sources and formats, including relational databases, nonrelational (NoSQL) databases, XML, JSON, and Web Services.

EclipseLink supports Java persistence in Java EE, Java SE and web containers including integration with various application servers including:

EclipseLink lets you quickly capture and define object-to-data source and object-to-data representation mappings in a flexible, efficient metadata format.

The runtime lets your application exploit this mapping metadata with a simple session facade that provides in-depth support for data access, queries, transactions (both with and without an external transaction controller), and caching.

For more information about EclipseLink, see "Key Features".

What Is the Object-Persistence Impedance Mismatch?

Java-to-data source integration is a widely underestimated problem when creating enterprise Java applications. This complex problem involves more than simply reading from and writing to a data source. The data source elements include tables, rows, columns, and primary and foreign keys. The Java and Java EE programming languages include entity classes (regular Java classes), business rules, complex relationships, and inheritance. In a nonrelational data source, you must match your Java entities with XML elements and schemas.

A successful solution requires bridging these different technologies and solving the object-persistence impedance mismatch—a challenging and resource-intensive problem. To solve this problem, you must resolve the following issues between Java EE and the data source elements:

  • Fundamentally different technologies

  • Different skill sets

  • Different staff and ownership for each of the technologies

  • Different modeling and design principles

As an application developer, you need a product that lets you integrate Java applications with any data source, without compromising application design or data integrity. In addition, as a Java developer, you need the ability to store (that is, persist) and retrieve business domain objects using a relational database or a nonrelational data source as a repository.

The EclipseLink Solution

EclipseLink addresses the disparity between Java objects and data sources. It contains a persistence framework that lets you build applications that combine the best aspects of object technology with a specific data source. You can do the following:

  • Persist Java objects to virtually any relational database

  • Perform in-memory conversions between Java objects and XML and JSON documents

  • Map any object model to any relational or nonrelational schema

  • Use EclipseLink successfully, even if you are unfamiliar with SQL or JDBC, because EclipseLink offers a clear, object-oriented view of data sources