Using NoSQL with EclipseLink and JPA?

NoSQL is obviously a hot topic in the enterprise these days, at least at the water cooler if not in the production data center. The momentum is such that despite being seen as a stalwart of relational databases, Oracle too has entered the NoSQL ecosystem with Oracle NoSQL. Naturally, the question of how to use NoSQL databases in Java EE applications (specifically existing Java EE 5 and Java EE 6 applications) comes up all too often. As it so turns out there are a number of very interesting initiatives out there to radically simplify the usage of NoSQL databases in Java EE applications by creating JPA based facades over them (strictly speaking, JPA as it stands today is not intended to support NoSQL from a purely standards standpoint). Such efforts include one from non other than the team behind the Oracle JPA reference implementation EclipseLink. In a code driven blog post, Huseyin Akdogan demonstrates how to use MongoDB using EclipseLink NoSQL. You are also welcome to check out my own slide deck covering using NoSQL databases in Java EE with or without a JPA flavored API (using just plain CDI):

Interestingly, NoSQL support featured quite prominently in the results of a survey around JCP standards put together by the London Java Community (LJC). It would be interesting to hear your thoughts as well.

Robert Greene, John Bracken and Shaun Smith held both a technical session titled "Building Oracle NoSQL Database Applications with EclipseLink" and a BOF titled "Java Persistence for NoSQL" at JavaOne 2013 on this topic. Stay tuned to Parleys.com for the video recordings of the sessions.