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.NET Persistence API
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<h2 id="motivation">Motivation</h2> <p>The main purposes of the .NET Persistence API (NPA) are:<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> </p> <ul><li>To provide a vendor-free persistence API for .NET, making switching from one persistence provider to another easier (avoiding <a href="/facts/Vendor_lock-in/BLndHDVl">vendor lock-in</a>).</li> <li>To provide a cross-language persistence API by extending the popular <a href="/facts/Java_Persistence_API/mdw15jQI">Java Persistence API (JPA)</a> to all the .NET programming languages.</li></ul> <h2 id="technology">Technology</h2> <p>The main features of NPA include:<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> </p> <ul><li>Object-oriented API for working against databases (usually RDBMS).</li> <li>Query language, based on SQL, for retrieving data from the database in an object oriented manner.</li> <li>Support of persisting <a href="/facts/Plain_Old_CLR_Object/tK20Xs8V">POCO (plain old CLR objects)</a> objects (entities).</li> <li>Two methods for marking classes as entity classes and for specifying other settings: <ul><li>Using attributes – meta data is embedded in class definitions in the source code.</li> <li>Using external XML – meta data is specified in external <a href="/facts/XML/clNgUfWk">XML</a> resource files.</li></ul></li></ul> <h2 id="implementations">Implementations</h2> <p>NPA is a persistence specification. To use NPA an implementation of the specification is required. Persistence and ORM vendors can provide their own implementations of NPA. </p><p>First implementation, NPA for <a href="/facts/NHibernate/L67Dkwuf">NHibernate</a>, was released in December 2011.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: <i>.NET Development Foundation</i> <ul><li><a href="http://www.npersistence.org">Official website</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>NPersistence | JPA for the .NET platform <a href="http://www.npersistence.org/" target="_blank">http://www.npersistence.org/</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"FAQ | NPersistence". Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2018-08-24. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120426082101/http://www.npersistence.org/faq" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20120426082101/http://www.npersistence.org/faq</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>c# – What is the equivalent of JPA in .NET? – Stack Overflow <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2756307/what-is-the-equivalent-of-jpa-in-net" target="_blank">https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2756307/what-is-the-equivalent-of-jpa-in-net</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>"FAQ | NPersistence". Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2018-08-24. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120426082101/http://www.npersistence.org/faq" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20120426082101/http://www.npersistence.org/faq</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"API Reference". Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2018-08-24. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120426082146/http://www.npersistence.org/api-reference" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20120426082146/http://www.npersistence.org/api-reference</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>NPersistence – NuGet Must Haves <a href="http://nugetmusthaves.com/Package/NPersistence" target="_blank">http://nugetmusthaves.com/Package/NPersistence</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>"NPA for NHibernate". Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-12-30. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120426082225/http://www.npersistence.org/nhibernate" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20120426082225/http://www.npersistence.org/nhibernate</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>What is the equivalent of Java Persistence API for .NET? – AnandTech Forums <a href="https://archive.today/20130928184005/http://forums.anandtech.com/archive/index.php/t-2108535.html" target="_blank">https://archive.today/20130928184005/http://forums.anandtech.com/archive/index.php/t-2108535.html</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>