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<preface xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xl="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" >
    <title>Preface</title>

    <para>
        The goal of this document is to discuss how to map an application's domain model to a relational
        database.
    </para>

    <para>
        Historically applications using Hibernate would have used its proprietary XML mapping file format for
        this purpose.  With the coming of JPA, most of this information is now defined in a way that is portable
        across ORM/JPA providers using annotations (and/or standardized XML format).  This document will focus on
        JPA mapping where possible.  For Hibernate mapping features not supported by JPA we will prefer Hibernate
        extension annotations, again where possible.
    </para>

</preface>