11 Providing Software as a Service

This chapter introduces Oracle TopLink features available for developing shared applications that run in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) environments.

Use Case

Users want to establish an SaaS environment, where applications and data are shared by multiple clients.

Solution

Use TopLink SaaS features, such as extensibility, client isolation, and external metadata sources.

Components

• TopLink 12c (12.1.2.0.0) or later.

  Note:

  TopLink's core functionality is provided by EclipseLink, the open source persistence framework from the Eclipse Foundation. EclipseLink implements Java Persistence API (JPA), Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB), and other standards-based persistence technologies, plus extensions to those standards. TopLink includes all of EclipseLink, plus additional functionality from Oracle.

11.1 Introduction to the Solution

The Oracle platform for SaaS includes TopLink, a part of Oracle Fusion Middleware. This allows you to build, deploy, and manage SaaS applications. With TopLink, you can manage persistence in cloud-enabled applications and services. TopLink provides flexible SaaS solutions that address client isolation, extensibility, and external metadata sources, while still maintaining high performance and scalability, making the persistence layer of these applications a critical component.

These features are discussed in the following chapters:

• Chapter 12, "Making JPA Entities and JAXB Beans Extensible"

• Chapter 13, "Using an External MetaData Source"

• Chapter 14, "Tenant Isolation Using TopLink"