Patent ID: 7603378

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, at an Object/Relational (O/R) processing module included in an application server, a deployment descriptor file defining the deployment of a persistent object onto the application server, the persistent object and the deployment descriptor file consistent with at least one of an Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) entity bean specification, and a Java Data Object (JDO) persistent class specification, wherein the deployment descriptor file defines the deployment of the persistent object onto the application server; parsing the received deployment descriptor to obtain a persistent field of the persistent object; and updating a database based on the persistent field, the database coupled to the application server via business logic, wherein updating includes mapping the persistent field to a schema of the database based, at least in part, on a single O/R mapping metadata file that provides a mapping for the persistent field, to the database, wherein the single O/R mapping metadata file includes a first set of metadata for mapping persistent objects consistent with the EJB specification, wherein the first set of metadata indicates the business logic, and a second set of metadata for mapping persistent objects consistent with the JDO specification.