Hibernate is an Object-relational mapping (ORM) solution for the Java language. It is free, open source software that is distributed under the LGPL. Hibernate was developed by a team of Java software developers around the world. It provides an easy to use framework for mapping an object-oriented ___domain model to a traditional relational database.
Hibernate not only takes care of the mapping from Java classes to database tables (and from Java data types to SQL data types), but also provides data query and retrieval facilities and can significantly reduce development time otherwise spent with manual data handling in SQL and JDBC.
Hibernate's goal is to relieve the developer from a significant amount of common data persistence related programming tasks. Hibernate adapts to the developer's development process, whether it is started with a design from scratch or from a legacy database. Hibernate generates the SQL, and relieves the developer from manual result set handling and object conversion, and keeps the application portable to all SQL databases. Hibernate provides transparent persistence, the only requirement for a persistent class is a no-argument constructor.
Hibernate is typically used in Java Swing applications, Java Servlet-based applications, or J2EE applications using EJB session beans.
References
- Will Iverson: Hibernate: A J2EE™ Developer's Guide, Addison Wesley Professional, ISBN 0-321-26819-9
- Christian Bauer, Gavin King: Hibernate in Action, Manning Publications Company, ISBN 1932394-15-X
External links
Ports
- NHibernate Home Page - .NET port