The Java Persistence API (JPA) part of the Java EE EJB 3.0 specification, simplifies Java persistence. It provides an object-relational mapping approach that lets you declaratively define how to map Java objects to relational database tables in a standard, portable way. JPA works both inside a Java EE application server and outside an EJB container in a Java Standard Edition (Java SE) application. An application written according to the JPA specification is scalable, transactional, and secure.
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Related concepts
Java Persistence Architecture 2.0 specification (http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=317)