Relational Mappings

A relational mapping transforms any object data member type to a corresponding relational database (SQL) data source representation in any supported relational database. Relational mappings allow you to map an object model into a relational data-model.

Relational mappings can also transform object data members that reference other domain objects that are stored in other tables in the database and are related through foreign keys.

Use relational mappings in relational projects. For more information, see "Relational Projects".

For more information about relational mappings, see Chapter 33, "Understanding Relational Mappings" and Chapter 34, "Configuring a Relational Mapping".

Note:

Do not confuse relational mappings with object-relational mappings (see "Object-Relational Mappings"). An object-relational mapping transforms certain object data member types to structured data source representations optimized for storage in specialized object-relational databases such as Oracle Database. Object-relational mappings allow you to map an object model into an object-relational data-model. In general, you can use relational mappings with any supported relational database. You can only use Object-relational mappings with specialized object-relational databases optimized to support object-relational data source representations.

TopLink provides the following relational mappings: