Eclipse is a great software development environment that’s heavily supported through the use of plugins. One of those plugins comes from Google that helps with the development of Cloud SQL and Google APIs. They’ve recently updated the plugin with two new features that are sure to be a big help to developers.

The two features added to the plugin include “Tooling for using Java Persistence API to access Cloud SQL” and “Importing the latest Google APIs into your GPE project.” The two updates will bring a “richer” coding and tooling experience for developers working on these programs.

The Java Persistence API introduces Object-Relational Mapping for accessing relational databases. The new plugin adds these tools to Cloud SQL and the Google App Engine. If you are in a GPE project, JPA can be enable and configured as a project facet.

The new Google Plugin for Eclipse also offers access to all the new Google APIs. They can be accessed easily with a simple click. You can also download the Google API Java client library to grant access to Google APIs from within the App Engine project. It also features update notifications so that you can keep track of any new versions of the various APIs.

The next update to the App Engine SDK will include a notification within Eclipse that will notify you of the latest updates to the App Engine SDK.

If you want to start coding right away, GPE 2.6 is available for your downloading pleasure right now. Eclipse users will want to take advantage of all of the new Google APIs.