When the Java Persistence API (API) was developed, it became popular very fast. JPA describes the management of relational data in applications using Java.
JPA (Java Persistence API) is an interface for persistence providers to implement.
Hibernate is one such implementation of JPA. When you use Hibernate with JPA you are actually using the Hibernate JPA implementation.
JPA typically defines the metadata via annotations in the Java class. Alternatively via XML or a combination of both. A XML configuration overwrites the annotations.
JPA implementations:
- Hibernate: The most advanced and widely used. Pay attention for the
classpath because a lot of libraries are used, especially when using
JBoss. Supports JPA 2.1.
- Toplink: Only supports the basic JPA specs. (This was oracle’s free
version of the JPA implementation)
- EclipseLink: Is based on TopLink, and is the intended path forward
for persistence for Oracle and TopLink. Supports JPA 2.1
- Apache OpenJPA: Best documentation but seems very buggy. Open source
implementation for JPA. Supports JPA 2.0
- DataNucleus: Well documented, open source (Apache 2 license), is also a JDO provider. Supports JPA 2.1
- ObjectDB: well documented
- CMobileCom JPA: light-weight JPA 2.1 implementation for both Java and Android.
Other approaches are:
- Plain JDBC
- ORM with Hibernate: Hibernate is now also very supportive for JPA
- iBatis: The project moved to MyBatis (link)
- JDO
Motivation for Hibernate as my JPA choice:
- Mature project:
- Most advanced
- Well documented
- Useful Hibernate sub projects
- Hibernate tools: automatic generation of code and database generation
- Hibernate validation: bean specification capabilities. Integrates with JPA2
- Hibernate search: powerful full-text search on domain objects
- Active community
- Big development community
- Widely used
Hibernate became an open source implementation of JPA very fast after the final specification was published. It has a rich feature set and generates new features fast, because an open-source development process tend to be faster then a Java community process.
