BEA boosts Java access to relational databases

Java specialist BEA used the JavaOne Conference in San Francisco to launch Kodo 4.0 with EJB3 and a technology preview version of BEA WebLogic Server that includes full EJB3 support.

Kodo provides access to relational databases through the Java Data Objects and EJB3 Persistence standards, enabling developers to use relational databases in their Java apps without needing to use SQL commands. BEA also announced that parts of Kodo called the Open JPA (Java Persistence API) have been formally accepted by the Apache Software Foundation.

Open JPA is a set of Java Persistence APIs based on the recently ratified EJB3 specification. These APIs focus on keeping relational database objects in RAM, which can simplify development and improve performance.

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF)’s move followed BEA’s recent announcement that it would give a substantial portion of its Kodo product to the open-source community, and its subsequent donation of some Open JPA code to the ASF.

Separately, Java scalability specialist Terracotta is giving away copies of its session clustering systems – Terracotta Sessions for Tomcat and Terracotta Sessions for WebLogic Server. The tools make it much easier for Apache and WebLogic administrators to cluster servers to provide scalability and fault-tolerance.

Terracotta founder and chief executive Ari Zilka said Java developers could use Terracotta Sessions to get their HTTP sessions clustered within 30 minutes. Terracotta Sessions licences are free for all platforms for four JVMs and under.