b10061.book Page i Wednesday, September 4, 2002 1:20 PM Oracle9iAS TopLink Getting Started Release 2 (9.0.3) August 2002 Part No. B10061-01 b10061.book Page ii Wednesday, September 4, 2002 1:20 PM Oracle9iAS TopLink Getting Started, Release 2 (9.0.3) Part No. B10061-01 Copyright © 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved. The Programs (which include both the software and documentation) contain proprietary information of Oracle Corporation; they are provided under a license agreement containing restrictions on use and disclosure and are also protected by copyright, patent and other intellectual and industrial property laws. Reverse engineering, disassembly or decompilation of the Programs, except to the extent required to obtain interoperability with other independently created software or as specified by law, is prohibited. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. 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Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. b10061.book Page iii Wednesday, September 4, 2002 1:20 PM Contents Send Us Your Comments .................................................................................................................... v Preface........................................................................................................................................................... vii Intended Audience ............................................................................................................................... vii Documentation Accessibility .............................................................................................................. viii Structure ................................................................................................................................................. viii Related Documents................................................................................................................................ ix Conventions............................................................................................................................................. x 1 TopLink Concepts Benefits of Using TopLink................................................................................................................ 1-1 TopLink Framework .................................................................................................................... 1-2 Relational Databases.......................................................................................................................... 1-2 Tables, Records, and Fields ......................................................................................................... 1-3 Keys (Primary and Foreign)........................................................................................................ 1-3 Sequence Numbers....................................................................................................................... 1-4 Java Object Model .............................................................................................................................. 1-5 Similarities Between Object and Relational Domains ............................................................. 1-5 Storing Objects in a Relational Database................................................................................... 1-5 TopLink Descriptors........................................................................................................................... 1-6 Mappings ....................................................................................................................................... 1-7 Relationship Mappings......................................................................................................... 1-7 Direct Mappings .................................................................................................................... 1-8 For More Information .................................................................................................................. 1-8 iii b10061.book Page iv Wednesday, September 4, 2002 1:20 PM Database Sessions............................................................................................................................... 1-8 Using TopLink in an Application .................................................................................................... 1-9 Transactions................................................................................................................................... 1-9 Unit of Work .................................................................................................................................. 1-9 Reading and Writing Java Objects ............................................................................................. 1-9 TopLink Mapping Workbench ....................................................................................................... 1-10 Design Strategies and Tips ............................................................................................................. 1-11 Database Considerations ........................................................................................................... 1-12 Do Not Design in Isolation........................................................................................................ 1-13 2 Installing and Testing TopLink System Requirements ........................................................................................................................ 2-1 Operating Systems Requirements .............................................................................................. 2-1 Hardware Requirements ............................................................................................................. 2-2 Software Requirements................................................................................................................ 2-2 Installing TopLink .............................................................................................................................. 2-3 Modifying the PATH and CLASSPATH Environment Variables......................................... 2-4 Windows Environment......................................................................................................... 2-4 Non-Windows Environment ............................................................................................... 2-5 Third-party License Information ..................................................................................................... 2-6 Configuring TopLink for Your Development Environment ...................................................... 2-8 Sun JDK and JRE........................................................................................................................... 2-8 IBM VisualAge for Java ............................................................................................................... 2-9 Importing TopLink Classes.................................................................................................. 2-9 Importing TopLink Source Files.......................................................................................... 2-9 Testing Your TopLink Installation................................................................................................. 2-10 General Troubleshooting................................................................................................................. 2-11 Glossary Index iv b10061.book Page v Wednesday, September 4, 2002 1:20 PM Send Us Your Comments Oracle9iAS TopLink Getting Started, Release 2 (9.0.3) Part No. B10061-01 Oracle Corporation welcomes your comments