Generating EJB 3 Persistent Objects

EJB 3.0 introduces a standard O/R mapping specification and moves to POJO based persistence. PowerDesigner provides support for EJB 3 through an extension file.

To enable the EJB 3 extensions in your model, select Model > Extensions, click the Attach an Extension tool, select the EJB 3.0 file (on the O/R Mappingtab), and click OK to attach it.

EJB 3.0 persistence provides a lightweight persistence solution for Java applications. It supports powerful, high performance and transparent object/relational persistence, which can be used both in container and out of container.

EJB 3.0 persistence lets you develop persistent objects using POJO (Plain Old Java Object). All the common Java idioms, including association, inheritance, polymorphism, composition, and the Java collections framework are supported. EJB 3.0 persistence allows you to express queries in its own portable SQL extension (EJBQL), as well as in native SQL.

PowerDesigner supports the design of Java classes, database schema and Object/Relational mapping (O/R mapping). Using these metadata, PowerDesigner can generate codes for EJB 3 persistence, including:

Persistent EJB Entities (domain specific objects)
Configuration file
O/R mapping files (Optional)
DAO factory
Data Access Objects (DAO)
Unit test classes for automated test

Generating Entities for EJB 3.0
You generate entities for EJB 3.0 as follows:
Defining EJB 3 Basic O/R Mapping
There are three kinds of persistent classes in EJB 3:
Defining EJB 3 Association Mappings
EJB 3 persistence provides support for most of the association mapping strategies. We will just address the differences here.
Defining EJB 3 Inheritance Mappings
EJB 3 persistence supports all three popular inheritance mapping strategies and also mixed strategies.
Defining EJB 3 Persistence Default Options
The following default persistent options can be set at the model, package or class level:
Defining EJB 3 Persistence Configuration
There are some persistence properties which are used for database connection. You need to set them before run the generated application.
Checking the Model
To keep the model and mappings correct and consistent, you need to run a model check. If there are errors, you need to fix them. You can also run model checking before code generation.
Generating Code for EJB 3 Persistence
In order to generate code for EJB 3 persistence, you must.

Parent topic: Generating Persistent Objects for Java and JSF Pages