Oracle has announced enhanced support for the Spring Framework in the way of integration with the new Spring 2.0 release.

Oracle, based in Redwood Shores, Calif., announced on Oct. 3 that it has provided integration of TopLink Essentials, the open-source EJB (Enterprise JavaBeans) 3.0 Java Persistence API (JPA) reference implementation, with the latest Spring Framework release.

Dennis Leung, vice president of Oracle Fusion Middleware, said Oracle has been working with Interface21, the London-based company behind Spring, to drive adoption of lightweight open-source development frameworks that simplify the creation of next-generation application platforms.

TopLink Essentials is the open-source reference implementation of the JPA specification. The integration of TopLink Essentials with the Spring Framework 2.0 makes it easier for developers to build applications by enabling them to access business data as POJOs (Plain Old Java Objects), said Rod Johnson, CEO of Interface21.

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Prior to JPA, there was no standard persistence implementation, which caused developers to use proprietary persistence solutions. Spring 2.0 now comes with built-in support for the Java Persistence API, integrated with Spring's own POJO programming model, and includes TopLink Essentials, Johnson said.

"JPA is in Oracle's TopLink Essentials and we're shipping that in Spring 2.0," Johnson said.

Interface21 released Spring 2.0 on Oct. 3 and the response from developers was so overwhelming that the company's servers crashed from an overabundance of developers looking to download the technology.

Moreover, Interface21 announced that the Spring Framework recently passed a million downloads.

"The recently reached milestone of one million downloads of the Spring Framework is a testament to its value for developers and its ability to simplify the development process," Leung said in a statement.

"By combining the Spring Framework with the premier JPA solution in the open source community—TopLink Essentials—developers gain an integrated open source framework which will help them decrease costs and improve their productivity."

Click here to read more about Spring 2.0.

Leung said Oracle has been working with Interface21 for about 18 months, and for about six to eight months of that time the companies worked on the integration of TopLink Essentials and Spring 2.0.

Beyond what the companies called a natural inclination for Oracle and Spring to work together, Ralf Dossmann, senior product director at Oracle, said "a lot of our customers were using Spring. And this partnership brings a lot of value to our customers who wanted to use Spring and Oracle together."

Added Leung: "We'll continue to work with Interface21 on a number of Spring and Oracle integration areas."

Johnson said he thinks "it's a very positive move in having a standard in JPA and we are able to work with the spec lead." Johnson is referring to Michael Keith, co-lead of the JSR (Java Specification Request) that governs JPA, JSR 220. Keith is an Oracle engineer.

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