Contents

Title and Copyright Information

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Preface

Intended Audience

Documentation Accessibility

Structure

Related Documents

Conventions

1 TopLink Concepts

Benefits of Using TopLink

TopLink Framework

Relational Databases

Tables, Records, and Fields

Keys (Primary and Foreign)

Sequence Numbers

Java Object Model

Similarities Between Object and Relational Domains

Storing Objects in a Relational Database

TopLink Descriptors

Mappings

Relationship Mappings

Direct Mappings

For More Information

Database Sessions

Using TopLink in an Application

Transactions

Unit of Work

Reading and Writing Java Objects

TopLink Mapping Workbench

Design Strategies and Tips

Database Considerations

Do Not Design in Isolation

2 Installing and Testing TopLink

System Requirements

Operating Systems Requirements

Hardware Requirements

Software Requirements

Installing TopLink

Modifying the PATH and CLASSPATH Environment Variables

Windows Environment

Non-Windows Environment

Third-party License Information

Configuring TopLink for Your Development Environment

Sun JDK and JRE

IBM VisualAge for Java

Importing TopLink Classes

Importing TopLink Source Files

Testing Your TopLink Installation

General Troubleshooting

Glossary

Index