Is JPA a Framework?

[Deepak Mahalingam]

Hi everybody!
I was having a discussion with my friend and he was telling me that JPA is not a framework. His reasoning was that if JPA is a Framework, then where are the classes and implementation for it? JPA is just a specification and different people like ecllipse link, toplink, etc. implement it. It is just a ORM tool.

But as far as I saw in the Oracle website, it says JPA is a framework. So, can somebody throw some light on this whole issue?

[Lester Burnham]

"Framework" is such a generic term that both a "yes" and a "no" answer could reasonably be given. How about you and your friend start by defining what a framework is; that should make it much easier to agree on whether any particular library or API fulfills your definition.

[Doug Clarke]

JPA is a specification.

Implementations of JPA might be considered a framework. We market TopLink and EclipseLink as a framework since it provides object-relational persistence but also is extensible where you can plug in your own customizations and policies to extend the functionality. That is why we consider TopLink and EclipseLink to be frameworks.

Doug