Introduction to Hibernate Framework

This tutorial is an Introduction to Hibernate Framework: First of you should learn the What is Hibernate Framework? You should understand its features and benefits.

Introduction to Hibernate Framework

Hibernate Tutorial: an introduction to Hibernate Framework, its features and benefits of using Hibernate framework

This article is introduces you with the Hibernate framework. You will learn the features and advantages of using Hibernate in your projects.

What is Hibernate Framework?

Hibernate is Java based open source project for persisting the Java objects (POJO's) into persistence store (e.g. database). It is one of the most used ORM tool in the software industry. ORM stands for Object Relational Mapping and it provides the API for saving the persistence objects to the data store. It also provides the API for performing insert, update, delete and query operations. Here there is not need to write the JDBC SQL statement and queries Hibernate Framework (ORM tool) automatically generates the necessary SQL statements and execute against database in runtime. It saves a lot of development time and increases the developers efficiency working on the project.

As mentioned above Hibernate Framework is free and open source framework which is distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License. So, you can use Hibernate framework for free as well commercial application without paying any fee.

Hibernate framework supports OOP's principal and provides support for association, inheritance, polymorphism, composition and the collection framework. Developers can use all these principals of Java while working with the Hibernate framework.

Following diagram shows show you can use the Hibernate framework in your application:

Working of Hibernate ORM

From your Java application will call the Hibernate API and then Hibernate will perform the persistence acvities. 

Features of Hibernate Framework:

Here is the important features and benefits of Hibernate:

  • Transparent persistence:  Hibernate framework automatically generates the SQL queries on the fly and using JDBC it saves the data into database. It also handles the process of managing the JDBC connection and exceptions.
     
  • Annotations/XML based mapping meta data: Developers can use the Java annotations or XML configuration for specifying the Object-relational mapping information to Hibernate ORM.
     
  • Persistence API: Provides the API for easy persistence and query of the objects.
     
  • Increase developer productivity: Hibernate reduces the development time of the data access layer of the application.
     
  • Database independent: Hibernate supports all the major relational databases including:
    * MySQL
    * Oracle
    * PostgreSQL
    * FrontBase
    * DB2/NT
    * Microsoft SQL Server Database
    * Sybase SQL Server
    * Informix Dynamic Server
    * HSQL Database Engine
     
  • Caching Support: Hibernate provides support primary and secondary persistence caching mechanisms.
     

 

More tutorials about Hibernate Introduction

Tutorials

  1. Why hibernate is used?
  2. Hibernate Native SQL Example
  3. Hibernate Update Query
  4. Hibernate Delete Query
  5. Hibernate Count Query
  6. Writing First Hibernate Code
  7. Running First Hibernate 3.0 Example
  8. Hibernate Book
  9. Understanding Hibernate O/R Mapping
  10. Using Hibernate to generate id incrementally
  11. Hibernate Query Language
  12. Preparing table for HQL Examples
  13. Writing ORM for Insurance table
  14. HQL from clause Example
  15. Hibernate Select Clause
  16. HQL Where Clause Example
  17. Hibernate Architecture
  18. HQL Group By Clause Example
  19. hibernateTemplate-Order Results
  20. Hibernate Criteria Query Example
  21. Hibernate How To
  22. Hibernate Quickly
  23. Hibernate 3.1.2 Released
  24. HQL Order By Example
  25. Hibernate 3.1.3 Released
  26. Hibernate 3.1.1 Released
  27. Introduction to Hibernate 3.0
  28. Complete Hibernate 3.0 and Hibernate 4 Tutorial
  29. Hibernate Avg() Function (Aggregate Functions)
  30. Hibernate Max() Function (Aggregate Functions)
  31. Hibernate Min() Function (Aggregate Functions)
  32. Hibernate Criteria Expression (eq)
  33. Hibernate Criteria Expression (lt)
  34. Hibernate Criteria Expression (le)
  35. Hibernate Criteria Expression (gt)
  36. Hibernate Criteria Expression (ge)
  37. Hibernate Criteria Expression (and)
  38. Hibernate Criteria Expression (or)
  39. Hibernate Projections (rowCount or countDistinct)
  40. Hibernate Projection Count