The following topics introduce the new and changed features of Oracle TopLink and other significant changes that are described in this guide, and provides pointers to additional information. This book is the new edition of the formerly titled Solution Guide for Oracle TopLink.
Oracle TopLink 12c (12.1.2) includes the following new and changed features that are documented in this book. This list does not necessarily include all new or changed features in this release. It only includes the new features that are documented in this book.
Quick installer, which installs TopLink into a location of your choice, including over an existing Oracle home. See Chapter 2, "Installing Oracle TopLink."
Client isolation, where multiple application tenants may share database tables and schemas. This allows applications to manage entities for multiple tenants in the same application. See Chapter 14, "Tenant Isolation Using TopLink."
JSON bindings, for converting objects directly to and from JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). This can be useful when creating RESTful services, using JSON messages with Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS) services. See Chapter 16, "Converting Objects to and from JSON Documents,"
RESTful persistence, where Java Persistence API (JPA) entities can be exposed through standards-based RESTful services such as JAX-RS, using either JSON or XML media. See Chapter 20, "Exposing JPA Entities Through RESTful Data Services."
TopLink Live Data queries ("live queies"), where live queries track changes to the backing data store. See Chapter 21, "Keeping Data Fresh Using TopLink Live Data Queries."
Support for Oracle Database Continuous Query Notification (CQN),, which allows the database to notify TopLink of database changes so that cached objects can be invalidated in the shared cache. See Chapter 22, "Using Database Events to Invalidate the Cache."
NoSQL database support, allowing objects to be mapped to non-relational (NoSQL) data sources. See Chapter 23, "Using TopLink with NoSQL Databases,".
For a complete list of the changes in this release, see http://www.oracle.com//toplink/.
For 12c (12.1.2), this guide has been updated in several ways. Following are the sections that have been added or changed.
Moved installation information from appendix to Chapter 2, "Installing Oracle TopLink," and replaced old information with information about the new quick installer.
Added new chapter, Chapter 5, "Using TopLink with JBoss 7 Application Server," to describe how TopLink can be used with applications deployed to JBoss Application Server 7.1.
Added new chapter, Chapter 6, "Using TopLink with IBM WebSphere Application Server," to describe how TopLink can be used with applications deployed to IBM WebSphere Application Server
Added new chapter, Chapter 7, "Migrating from Native TopLink," to describe migrate applications using "native" TopLink object-relational mapping (ORM) APIs to the current EclipseLink APIs, which have been the core libraries in TopLink staring with TopLink 11g, Release 1 (11.1.1).
Added information about data partitioning in Chapter 10, "Scaling Applications in Clusters."
Split Chapter 11, "Providing Software as a Service." into four chapters:
Chapter 11, "Providing Software as a Service." This is now just an overview of the following three chapters.
Chapter 14, "Tenant Isolation Using TopLink" and also updated this chapter with information about Virtual Private Database (VPD) multi-tenancy and table-per-tenant multi-tenancy
Added new chapter, Chapter 16, "Converting Objects to and from JSON Documents," to describe how to convert objects directly to and from JSON
Added information about weaving to Chapter 17, "Testing JPA Outside a Container," to describe how to use the persistence unit JAR file to test an application outside the container (for instance, in applications for the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE platform)).
Added new chapter, Chapter 19, "Scaling JPA Applications Using TopLink Grid with Oracle Coherence," to describe how applications can use TopLink Grid to achieve high availability and increase performance.
Added new chapter, Chapter 20, "Exposing JPA Entities Through RESTful Data Services," to describe how to expose JPA entities through Java Persistence API-RESTful Services (JPA-RS), using either JSON or XML media.
Added new chapter, Chapter 21, "Keeping Data Fresh Using TopLink Live Data Queries," to describe how to use TopLink live queries to track changes to the backing data store.
Added new chapter, Chapter 22, "Using Database Events to Invalidate the Cache," to describe how to use EclipseLink Database Change Notification (DCN) for shared caching in a JPA environment. DCN allows the database to notify EclipseLink of database changes. The changed objects are invalidated in the EclipseLink shared cache. Stale data can be discarded, even if other applications access the same data in the database.
Added new chapter, Chapter 24, "Using Oracle TopLink with the Oracle Database," to describe how to use the Oracle Database features that are supported by TopLink.