Temporal libraries for Java

Question

I'm looking for temporal libraries for Java, i.e. libraries which allow to store multiple historical version of the same concept. I'm looking for a library which has an API to do something like:

Instant i1 = Instant.valueOf("2010-01-01");
Instant i2 = Instant.valueOf("2010-01-02");
Attribute<String> a =  ....
a.setValue(i1, "String as of 2010-01-01");
a.setValue(i2, "String as of 2010-01-02");

You can find a discussion about temporal issues on the nice articles by Martin Fowler

One library I found is JTemporal, which seems pretty good to me, but it's not complete and lacks support for Hibernate persistance. I'd like support for temporal sets too, i.e. sets defined in an exact point in time. JTemporal does that, but persisting the TemporalSet is not easy.

Answer 1

Look at Deuce STM - Java Software Transactional Memory.

Answer 2

Joda-time should be covering your requirements.

Joda-Time provides a quality replacement for the Java date and time classes. The design allows for multiple calendar systems, while still providing a simple API. The 'default' calendar is the ISO8601 standard which is used by XML. The Gregorian, Julian, Buddhist, Coptic, Ethiopic and Islamic systems are also included, and we welcome further additions. Supporting classes include time zone, duration, format and parsing.

It has (like JTemporal) support for instants, periods, etc.

It also has hibernate support.

Answer 3

Have a look at DaoFusion framework which acts as a bitemporal framework with tight integration into Hibernate. It should be exactly what you are looking for.

Quoted from the linked website:

Bitemporal pattern offers an elegant and sophisticated way of dealing with most temporal issues. The bitemporal pattern implementation offered by DAO Fusion builds upon a bitemporal framework created by Erwin Vervaet and Christophe Vanfleteren. You can learn more about this framework from their presentation Temporal Issues in a Rich Domain Model.