Java Persistence API

Abstract

Applications are made up of business logic, interaction with other systems, user interfaces . . . and data. Most of the data that our applications manipulate have to be stored in databases, retrieved, and analyzed. Databases are important: they store business data, act as a central point between applications, and process data through triggers or stored procedures. Persistent data are everywhere, and most of the time they use relational databases as the underlying persistence engine (as opposed to schemaless databases). Relational databases store data in tables made of rows and columns. Data are identified by primary keys, which are special columns with uniqueness constraints and, sometimes, indexes. The relationships between tables use foreign keys and join tables with integrity constraints.