Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) is the process of converting Java objects to database tables. In other words, this allows us to interact with a relational database without any SQL. The Java Persistence API (JPA) is a specification that defines how to persist data in Java applications. The primary focus of JPA is the ORM layer.

 

Hibernate is one of the most popular Java ORM frameworks in use today. Its first release was almost twenty years ago, and still has excellent community support and regular releases. Additionally, Hibernate is a standard implementation of the JPA specification, with a few additional features that are specific to Hibernate. Let’s take a look at some core features of JPA and Hibernate.