At the JavaOne Developer Conference today, Oracle announced the industry's first compliant implementation of the Java Persistence API (JPA), TopLink® Essentials. Oracle, along with Sun, was the EJB 3.0 specification co-lead and delivered the JPA as part of the specification. TopLink Essentials is the official open source reference implementation for the Java(TM) Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 Software Development Kit (Java EE 5 SDK) and is also available from Oracle as a standalone implementation. By releasing the reference implementation and bringing its expertise in object-relational mapping and persistence to the Java and open source communities, Oracle continues to demonstrate its commitment to making it easier for developers to create and deploy enterprise applications.

The new JPA is the standard for object-relational persistence introduced in the Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0 (EJB) specification, which provides a simplified approach to mappings and application use of persistent entities with capabilities suitable for mission critical enterprise applications. The JPA can also be used for Java Persistence outside of EJB 3.0. TopLink Essentials integrates easily with third-party frameworks, such as Spring, helping to provide developers with the flexibility to use the development environment and tools of their choice. Further contributing to the open source community, Oracle also provided the technology to Project GlassFish, Sun's open source implementation of the Java EE 5 SDK/ Sun Java System Application Server, Platform Edition 9.0.

"Oracle has a long history of supporting open standards such as Java EE 5," said Steven G. Harris, vice president, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle. "The contribution of TopLink Essentials to the Java Enterprise Edition 5 SDK is consistent with our efforts to raise the state-of-the-art within the developer community and provide developers with technology that makes their jobs easier."

"As a leading commercial persistence architecture for Java, Oracle TopLink was a natural choice for storing Java objects in relational databases and converting between Java objects and XML documents," said Jeff Jackson, senior vice president, Java Platforms, Sun Microsystems. "By open-sourcing the technology in Project GlassFish with the release of TopLink Essentials, Oracle is making it possible for every Java programmer to benefit from its significant investment in creating superior tools for developers."

Oracle's Commitment to Java Developers

Oracle has been a leading supporter of Java since its inception in 1995 and recognizes that a key element in driving the adoption of the next generation Java Platform, Java EE 5, is simplification of development around EJB 3.0 and JavaServer Faces (JSF), a web application framework designed to enable developers to more easily build user interfaces for enterprise Java applications. As the co-specification lead for the recently approved EJB 3.0 specification, Oracle has donated significant time and resources toward developing standards and contributing technology that will simplify application development. Oracle is also a founding member of the JavaServer Faces expert group in the Java Community Process (JCP) and is spearheading a JSF tooling project within the Eclipse Foundation open-source community to be released later this year. Oracle also joined the Apache MyFaces project as a core contributor.

"The Java Persistence API is a critical component of Java Enterprise Edition 5," said Rod Johnson, founder of the Spring Framework and CEO of Interface21. "We have worked closely with Oracle to provide JPA integration with the Spring Framework using the TopLink Essentials JPA reference implementation. With the release of TopLink Essentials, Oracle is continuing to play a major role in the development and implementation of enterprise-ready Java."