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# Development Environment

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To create a TopLink application, use TopLink Workbench to map objects to data sources using relational and nonrelational models. Capture the resulting mappings and additional run-time configurations in the TopLink project file (`project.xml`) and build a session configuration file (`sessions.xml`). These files together represent your entire TopLink project, as shown in Figure: TopLink Workbench in Development Environment.

During development, you can use the TopLink API to define query and transaction logic. When you use entity beans, there is generally little or no direct use of the TopLink API and there is no session or `sessions.xml` file.

TopLink Workbench in Development Environment

Description of "TopLink Workbench in Development Environment"

TopLink Workbench can import compiled entity classes (Java objects or EJB entity beans), as well as relational or nonrelational schemas through a JDBC driver (configured by the developer). Because TopLink imports the object and relational models for mapping, developers can develop the two models relatively independently from the mapping phase of a project development.