Hibernate (sometimes refered as H8) 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 lead by Gavin King. 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.
Its 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 starting from scratch or from a legacy database. Hibernate generates the SQL calls and relieves the developer from manual result set handling and object conversion, keeping 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 both in Java Swing applications and in J2EE applications using Java Servlet or EJB session beans.
JBoss Group later hired the lead Hibernate developers and worked with them in supporting Hibernate. This move brought Hibernate development under J2EE Specifications.
The current version of Hibernate is Version 3, which enriched the platform with new features like a new Interceptor/Callback architecture, user defined filters, and JDK 5.0 Annotations (Java's metadata feature). Hibernate 3 is also very close to the EJB 3.0 specification (although it was finished before the EJB 3.0 specification was release by the Java Communty Process) and serves as the backbone for the EJB 3.0 implementation of JBoss.
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
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