What is JPA?
Java Persistence API (JPA) is a collection of classes and methods that have been provided by Oracle to persistently store the massive amount of data in a database. Java developers use lots of code (or the proprietary framework) to interact with databases. However, with JPA, the burden of interacting with the database is reduced significantly as it forms a bridge between object models (Java program) and relational models (database program).
Why JPA?
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JPA reduces the burden of writing extensive codes for the relational object management.
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Easy interaction with the database instance.
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A user can easily switch the JPA implementation (as long as they are not using any proprietary features).
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Increase in the developer’s productivity.
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Type and parameter are handled automatically.
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JPA provides caching which is an excellent performance tuning feature.
JPA providers
Since JPA is an open-source API, various enterprise vendors(e.g., Oracle, Redhat, Eclipse, etc.) provide new products by adding the JPA flavor to them. Some of these products include Hibernate, Eclipselink, Toplink, Spring Data JPA, etc.
