7 Understanding Mappings

EclipseLink can transform data between an object representation and a representation specific to a data source. This transformation is called mapping and it is the core of EclipseLink projects.

A mapping corresponds to a single data member of a domain object. It associates the object data member with its data source representation and defines the means of performing the two-way conversion between object and data source.

This chapter includes the following sections:

• Common Mapping Concepts

• Object-Relational Mapping Concepts

• Object-XML Mapping Concepts

• Object-JSON Mapping Concepts

• About JPA Mapping Types