TopLink

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TopLink is an object-relational mapping package for Java developers. It provides a powerful and flexible framework for storing Java objects in a relational database or for converting Java objects to XML documents.

TopLink Essentials [1] is the Reference Implementation of the EJB 3.0 Java Persistence API (JPA) and the open-source community edition of Oracle's TopLink product.

[edit] History

TopLink was originally developed by The Object People in Smalltalk in the 1990s. The "TOP" in TopLink is an acronym for The Object People, and the name was originally capitalized as "TOPLink". In 1996-1998 a Java version of the product was added to the product line, named TopLink for Java. After the joint acquisition of The Object People in April 2000 by BEA Systems and WebGain, TopLink product line became the property of WebGain. In 2002, TopLink was acquired by Oracle Corporation and continues to be developed as a member of the Oracle Fusion Middleware family of products,

More details on TopLink's history here: History of TopLink.

TopLink continues to be the leader in its field, winning multiple awards including:

Voted as the Best Java Persistence Architecture by Java Developer's Journal readers
Editor's Choice JavaWorld 2003 Award for Best Java Data Access Tool
Java Pro Readers' Choice Award for Best Java Data Access Tool or Driver
Oracle Donates TopLink Java Persistence Technology To Eclipse posted Mar 07, 2007 [2].

[edit] Features

Although widely known as an object-relational mapping tool, TopLink has a number of other key features including:

Rich query framework that supports an object-oriented expression framework, Query by Example (QBE), EJB QL, SQL, and stored procedures
An object-level transaction framework
Advanced caching to ensure object identity
Complete set of direct and relational mappings
Object-to-XML mappings, in addition to JAXB support
EIS/JCA Support for non-relational datasources
Visual mapping editor (Mapping Workbench)