Difference between JTA, JPA and plain JDBC in hibernate

Question

What is the difference between JTA, JPA and plain JDBC in terms of Hibernate?

score 88 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 05 '14 at 17:53

88

In order for a difference to exist, there should be something in common, and apart from being database-related (although JTA is not only that), they have nothing more in common:

JPA is a standard for Java object-relational mapping - it specifies a set of annotations and an interface -EntityManager to perform persistence operations with the mapped objects. Hibernate implements the JPA standard
plain JDBC is a technology for accessing databases. It is what Hibernate actually uses to perform the database operations, "under the hood". It uses JDBC to send queries to the database.
JTA is a transaction API, and it is optional in Hibernate. It handles (logically) the transaction behaviour.

edited Apr 05 '14 at 17:53

Tiny

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answered Oct 11 '10 at 06:56

Bozho

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So JTA is what is responsible for the roll back and commits when using an entity manager ? So JPA is using JTA ? Or is JTA used when you have say 2 database replicas ? Please answer I'm confused – Ced Jun 03 '16 at 01:28
`In order for a difference to exist, there should be something in common` - What is this an idea or a fact? – Koray Tugay Nov 25 '17 at 21:48
@Ced look at the answer bellow. [link o the answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/59304566/7729614 ] – Soufiane Roui Oct 28 '20 at 19:26

score 38 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 24 '22 at 08:22

JDBC is a Java standard for database connection.
JPA isolates the Java developer from the inner workings of JDBC and database operations. Hibernate, EclipseLink, OpenJPA and Data Nucleus are famous JPA implementations.
JTA is a standard for transactions, allowing for management of multiple transactions among multiple databases.

JPA utilizes JDBC for database connections and SQL-related operations, and -optionally- utilizes JTA for delegating distributed transaction management details to it.

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 12 '19 at 12:26

JPA (Java Persistence API) is the Java ORM standard/specification for storing, accessing, and managing Java objects in a relational database. Hibernate is an implementation of the Java Persistence API (JPA) specification.

JTA (Java Transaction API) is the Java standard/specification for distributed transactions. It comes into picture when you have transactions that spans across multiple connections/DBs/resources. Atomikos is an implementation of JTA. (Appservers like IBM Websphere has their own JTA implementations.)

Difference between JTA, JPA and plain JDBC in hibernate

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