The second iteration of OpenJPA 2.0 is complete! Iteration 2 content is based on the 10/31/2008 draft of the JPA 2.0 specification. Here is a summary of the new features provided in this iteration:

• Support for the JPA 2.0 level 2 cache interface. Operations on the OpenJPA data cache are now available from the entity manager factory through a standard JPA interface.
• Support for use of order column through a JPA annotations or orm mapping file elements. Existing OpenJPA support for order columns has been extended to support the JPA standard OrderColumn definition. This iteration supports a configurable base value attribue. Support for the table and contiguous attributes will be provided in future iterations.
• Enhanced map support. The use of Map collections has been significantly enhanced. This iteration includes use of the new MapKeyClass, MapKeyColumn, MapKeyJoinColumn, and MapKeyJoinColumns annotations and corresponding orm mapping file elements.
• Support for JPQL INDEX() function within a query projection or predicate. Allows the index of ordered columns to be projected or used as part of a query predicate. Projection is currently not supported for element collection. This support will be added in a future iteration.
• Support for new javax.persistence standard properties. Standard properties such as javax.persistence.jdbc.driver can now be specified as configuration properties.
• Support for entity TYPE() expression. Allows projection of or query criteria based on entity type. OpenJPA does not currently allow selection of an abstract entity type.

These new features are available in the latest nightly snapshot build. Be aware that the JPA 2.0 spec is not final so these features are subject to change.

Many thanks to those who contributed to this iteration! If you'd like to be a contributor to the OpenJPA project, please post your interest on the dev mailing list or contact one of the active committers.

-Jeremy