Chapter 1. Kodo JPA/JDO Frequently Asked Questions
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## Chapter 1. Kodo JPA/JDO Frequently Asked Questions

## 1.1. General

1.1.1. What is Kodo JPA/JDO?
1.1.2. What is JPA?
1.1.3. What is JDO?
1.1.4. Is Kodo a database?
1.1.5. Is Kodo an application server?
1.1.6. Does Kodo require an application server?
1.1.7. What is the difference between JPA and JDBC?
1.1.8. What is the difference between JDO and JDBC?
1.1.9. What is the difference between JPA and EJB 2?
1.1.10. What is the difference between JDO and EJB 2?
1.1.11. Do I need to know SQL to use Kodo?
1.1.12. What standards does Kodo conform to?
1.1.13. What version of Java does Kodo require?
1.1.14. I have problems or questions about Kodo. Where can I go for help?

1.1.1. | What is Kodo JPA/JDO?
| Kodo is an implementation of the Java Persistence API (JPA) and Java Data Objects (JDO) standards that enables developers to transparently access persistent datastore via the Java programming language.
1.1.2. | What is JPA?
| JPA stands for Java Persistence API, and is a standard written by Sun Microsystems to provide transparent access to relational stores. A good introduction to JPA can be found at Chapter 1, Introduction.
1.1.3. | What is JDO?
| JDO stands for Java Data Objects, and is a standard written by Sun Microsystems to provide transparent access to a variety of datastores, from relational databases to object databases to plain files. A good introduction to JDO can be found at Chapter 1, Introduction.
1.1.4. | Is Kodo a database?
| No. Kodo provides a means to access an existing database.
1.1.5. | Is Kodo an application server?
| No, although Kodo can integrate seamlessly with any J2EE 1.3 compliant application server.
1.1.6. | Does Kodo require an application server?
| No. Kodo can be run without any external managed environment, although it can also be used from within an EJB container, a servlet, or any other managed environment that is J2EE compliant.
1.1.7. | What is the difference between JPA and JDBC?
| Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is an API that allows developers to directly access a relational database. JPA is an approach to object persistence that aims to reduce the complexity of designing persistent applications. Kodo JPA/JDO utilizes JDBC to access the relational database.
1.1.8. | What is the difference between JDO and JDBC?
| Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is an API that allows developers to directly access a relational database. JDO is a datastore-agnostic approach to object persistence that aims to reduce the complexity of designing persistent applications, and is not constrained to any particular type of datastore. Kodo JPA/JDO utilizes JDBC to access the relational database.
1.1.9. | What is the difference between JPA and EJB 2?
| EJB 2 entity beans are managed distributed components. In contrast, JPA simply provides a transparent means to persist Java objects to a datastore.
1.1.10. | What is the difference between JDO and EJB 2?
| Enterprise Java Beans are managed distributed components that handle application-level security and automatic transaction demarcation. In contrast, JDO simply provides a transparent means to persist Java objects to a datastore. EJB and JDO are complimentary technologies; developers can to write their EJBs to utilize the transparent persistence provided by JDO, rather than being limited to the restrictions of using the built-in CMP persistence or vendor-specific application server extensions.
1.1.11. | Do I need to know SQL to use Kodo?
| No. Kodo completely shields the developer from needing to write or debug SQL statements, although it does allow you to use SQL and JDBC APIs if you want to.
1.1.12. | What standards does Kodo conform to?
| Kodo supports the JPA and JDO specifications. Additionally, various parts of Kodo confirm to other standards and specifications, including XML, JTA, JCA, JNDI, JDBC, EJB 2, JMX, XA, and J2EE.
1.1.13. | What version of Java does Kodo require?
| Kodo JPA/JDO requires JDK 1.5 or higher.
1.1.14. | I have problems or questions about Kodo. Where can I go for help?
| The Kodo developer community can be accessed from http://forums.bea.com/bea/category.jspa?categoryID=600000007. Other support resources can be accessed at http://www.bea.com/kodo/. Also, if you have a maintenance and technical support contract, you can e-mail questions to support@bea.com.

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