General

The JDK includes a persistence API, the JPA.

Features

• Mapping persistence entities (annotations or XML)

• Query language (DSL or domain objects)

Implementations

As it is an API, it requires an implementation. Some of the most popular are:

• Hibernate

• Eclipselink

Example

To test and remember how to work with JPA use the JPA Example.

API Version

There are several version of the Java Persistence API v2, which causes a lot of problems. But luckily the version 2.2 of the API has an official release:

<dependency>
   <!-- JPA API -->
   <groupId>javax.persistence</groupId>
   <artifactId>javax.persistence-api</artifactId>
   <version>${javaee.api.version}</version>
</dependency>

Whenever possible use the version 2.2 or higher of JPA to avoid possible incompatibilities between API implementations.

More Information

• ObjectDB JPA Manual