Chapter 1.  Introduction

Table of Contents

1. Intended Audience
2. Lightweight Persistence

The Java Persistence 2.0 API (JPA 2.0) is a specification for the persistence of Java objects to any relational datastore. This document provides an overview of JPA 2.0. Unless otherwise noted, the information presented applies to all JPA implementations.

Note

For coverage of OpenJPA's many extensions to the JPA specification, see the Reference Guide.

1.  Intended Audience

This document is intended for developers who want to learn about JPA in order to use it in their applications. It assumes that you have a strong knowledge of object-oriented concepts and Java, including annotations and generics. It also assumes some experience with relational databases and the Structured Query Language (SQL).