Most popular JPA implementation [closed]

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Closed 8 years ago.

I am a junior programmer and was asked to develop an application that should utilize the Java Persistence API (JPA).

Which is the most popular JPA implementation (Hibernate, Toplink, EclipseLink)

Can I use any of the above with Apache Tomcat or every implementation is tied to a specific server application ?

Are there any good introductory books or tutorials for this subject ?

Answer 1

That depends. Both solutions work but each has made their own design decisions and depending on you, those might work in your favor or against it.

So I suggest to implement a simple but complete prototype using both technologies (spend a week with each) to learn which one suits you better. Complete means: Implement each use case that you know you'll need, especially a complicated one.

As a guideline, I've found that Hibernate has more features but Eclipse Link gives you better error messages -> I spent less time fixing problems with Link.

On the other hand, Hibernate has more features built in, so I spent less time there to turn requirements into code - when I could find the feature, understand how it works and I didn't run into some odd error message that just left me stumped and running in circles for a couple of days.

Eclipse Link was once a commercial product, so the documentation is better.

Answer 2

If you choose Toplink, you will be fired and spend your days under a bridge drinking cheap vodka, wondering what your career could have been like.

I hear nothing but good about EclipseLink, but I think Hibernate has more industry usage and has some non-JPA features.

You should be able to use them all with Tomcat as they're an implementation of a Java API rather than relying on any container in particular.

Answer 3

This is a very subjective question.
I think Hibernate is still more popular, but the most popular things must not always be the best for a specific task.

Personally, I would go with EclipseLink (which is the successor of TopLink) in most projects - it's not for nothing the reference implementation of JPA with a good support and regular releases, driven by the Eclipse Foundation and coming with a good documentation.

You can use both EclipseLink and hibernate with every application server (tomcat is perfectly fine) and even stand-alone (without an application server at all) - the JPA standard guarantees that.

If you do not use implementation-specific things (and stick to JPA), you can even exchange EclipseLink with Hibernate (and vice versa) - although I would only do that for very good reasons.