View source for EclipseLink/UserGuide/JPA/Introduction/About EclipseLink

{{EclipseLink_UserGuide
|info=y
|toc=n}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:About EclipseLink}}
=About EclipseLink=
EclipseLink is an advanced object-persistence and object-transformation framework that provides development tools and run-time capabilities that reduce development and maintenance efforts and increase enterprise application functionality. 

Using EclipseLink, you can integrate persistence and object-transformation into your application, while staying focused on your primary domain problem by taking advantage of an efficient, flexible, and field-proven solution (see [[EclipseLink/UserGuide/JPA/Introduction/Object-Persistence Impedance Mismatch|What Is the Object-Persistence Impedance Mismatch]]).

EclipseLink is suitable for use with a wide range of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (Java EE) and Java application architectures (see [[EclipseLink/UserGuide/JPA/Introduction/Architecture|EclipseLink Application Architectures]]). Use EclipseLink to design, implement, deploy, and optimize an advanced object-persistence and object-transformation layer that supports a variety of data sources and formats, including the following:
* Relational–for transactional persistence of Java objects to a relational database accessed using Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) drivers.
* Object-Relational Data Type–for transactional persistence of Java objects to special-purpose structured data source representations optimized for storage in object-relational data type databases such as Oracle Database.
* Enterprise information system (EIS)–for transactional persistence of Java objects to a nonrelational data source accessed using a Java EE Connector architecture (JCA) adapter and any supported EIS record type, including indexed, mapped, or XML.
* XML–for nontransactional, nonpersistent (in-memory) conversion between Java objects and XML Schema Document (XSD)-based XML documents using Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB).

EclipseLink includes support for EJB 3.0 and the Java Persistence API (JPA) in Java EE and Java SE environments including integration with a variety of application severs including:
* Oracle WebLogic Server
* Oracle OC4J
* Glassfish
* JBoss
* IBM WebSphere application server
* SAP NetWeaver

EclipseLink lets you quickly capture and define object-to-data source and object-to-data representation mappings in a flexible, efficient metadata format (see [[Introduction to EclipseLink Application Development (ELUG)#Working with EclipseLink Metadata|Working with EclipseLink Metadata]]).

The EclipseLink runtime lets your application exploit this mapping metadata with a simple session facade that provides in-depth support for data access, queries, transactions (both with and without an external transaction controller), and caching.


{{EclipseLink_JPA
|previous=[[EclipseLink/UserGuide/JPA/Introduction|Introduction]]
|next=[[EclipseLink/UserGuide/JPA/Introduction/Object-Persistence Impedance Mismatch|Object-Persistence Impedance Mismatch]]
|up=[[EclipseLink/UserGuide/JPA/Introduction|Introduction]]
|version = 2.2.0 Draft
}}