Q: What is Hibernate?

A: Hibernate is a java-based Object/relational mapping(ORM) tool.

Q: What are ORM tools?
A: ORM tools provide automated solutions for the Object/relational paradigm
mismatch problem, using metadata that describes the mapping between the
objects and the database.
Q: What is Object/relational paradigm mismatch?
A: Object-Oriented paradigm is based on software engineering principles,
whereas relational paradigm on mathematical principles. Object-oriented
technology supports the building of applications out of networks of objects
with both data and behavior. Relational technology supports the storage of
data in tables and manipulation of that data using data manipulation
language (DML). Because the underlying paradigms are different the two
technologies do not work seamlessly, hence the name Object/relational
paradigm mismatch.
Q: What role does the Session interface play in Hibernate?
A: The Session is a persistence manager that manages operation like storing
and retrieving objects. Instances of Session are inexpensive to create and
destroy. They are not threadsafe.
Q: What is SessionFactory interface?
A: The application obtains Session instances from a SessionFactory.
SessionFactory instances are not lightweight and typically one instance is
created for the whole application. If the application accesses multiple
databases, it needs one per database
Q: What is Configuration interface?
A: The application uses a Configuration instance to specify the location of
mapping documents and Hibernate-specific properties and then creates the
SessionFactory.
Q: What is the naming convention for Hibernate XML mapping file extensions?
A: .hbm.xml
Q: What are the most common methods of configuring Hibernate?
A: 1. By placing hibernate.properties file in the classpath.
2. Including <property> elements in hibernate.cfg.xml in the classpath.
Q: How can the mapping files be configured in Hibernate?
A: 1. Mapping files can be added to Configuration in the application code
or,
2. They can be configured in hibernate.cfg.xml using the <mapping>
elements.
Q: What happens when both hibernate.properties and hibernate.cfg.xml are in
the classpath?
A: The settings of the XML configuration file will override the settings
used in the properties.

Q: Since SessionFactory instances are not lightweight, where is the single

created instance placed in J2EE environments?
A: Usually it is bound to JNDI, it will bind itself automatically if
hibernate.session_factory_name is set to the name of directory node.
Q: How to set Hibernate to log all generated SQL to the console?
A: By setting the hibernate.show_sql property to true.
Q: In hibernate, what interfaces/classes must the persistent classes
(classes that are mapped to database tables) implement/extend?
A: NONE, they can be regular POJOs.
Q: Does hibernate require persistent classes to implement Serializable?
A: Hibernate doesn't require that persistent classes implement
Serializable. However, when objects are stored in an HttpSession or passed
by value using RMI, serialization is necessary.
Q: What methods must the persistent classes implement in Hibernate?
A: Since Hibernate instantiates persistent classes using
Constructor.newInstance(), it requires a constructor with no arguments for
every persistent class. And getter and setter methods for all the instance
variables.
Q: How can Hibernate be configured to access a instance variable directly
and not through a setter method?
A: By mapping the property with access="field" in Hibernate metadata. This
forces hibernate to bypass the setter method and access the instance
variable directly while initializing a newly loaded object.
Q: What is dirty checking in Hibernate?
A: Hibernate automatically detects object state changes in order to
synchronize the updated state with the database, this is called dirty
checking. An important note here is, Hibernate will compare objects by
value, except for Collections, which are compared by identity. For this
reason you should return exactly the same collection instance as Hibernate
passed to the setter method to prevent unnecessary database updates.
Q: What is the root level element in a hibernate mapping file?
A: <hibernate-mapping>
Q: Is it possible to declare mappings for multiple classes in one mapping
file?
A: Yes, by using multiple <class> elements. But, the recommended practice
is to use one mapping file per persistent class.
Q: How are the individual properties mapped to different table columns?
A: By using multiple <property> elements inside the <class> element.
Q: What are derived properties?
A: The properties that are not mapped to a column, but calculated at
runtime by evaluation of an expression are called derived properties. The

expression can be defined using the formula attribute of the <property>

element.
Q: How can you make a property be read from the database but not modified
in anyway (make it immutable)?
A: By using the insert="false" and update="false" attributes.
Q: How can a whole class be mapped as immutable?
A: By using the mutable="false" attribute in the class mapping.
Q: What is the use of dynamic-insert and dynamic-update attributes in a
class mapping?
A: They tell hibernate whether to include unmodified properties in SQL
INSERT and SQL UPDATE.
Q: How do you achieve table-per-class hierarchy while mapping classes in
Hibernate?
A: By using several <subclass> elements one for each sub-class inside the
<class> element. The <subclass> class element can in turn contain other
<subclass> elements.
Q: How do you achieve table-per-subclass while mapping classes in
Hibernate?
A: By using <joined-subclass> element inside the <class> element. A
<joined-subclass> element may contain other <joined-subclass> elements.
Q: Does hibernate allow mixing table-per-class hierarchy and table-persubclass strategies?
A: No, you cannot have a <joined-subclass> inside <subclass> and vice
versa.
Session Interface Methods:
There are number of methods provided by the Session interface but I'm going to list down few important
methods only, which we will use in this tutorial. You can check Hibernate documentation for a complete list of
methods associated with Session and SessionFactory.
S.N.

Session Methods and Description

Transaction beginTransaction()

Begin a unit of work and return the associated Transaction object.

void cancelQuery()

Cancel the execution of the current query.

void clear()

Completely clear the session.

Connection close()
4

End the session by releasing the JDBC connection and cleaning up.
Criteria createCriteria(Class persistentClass)

Create a new Criteria instance, for the given entity class, or a superclass of an entity class.
Criteria createCriteria(String entityName)

Create a new Criteria instance, for the given entity name.

SerializablegetIdentifier(Object object)

Return the identifier value of the given entity as associated with this session.
Query createFilter(Object collection, String queryString)

Create a new instance of Query for the given collection and filter string.
Query createQuery(String queryString)

Create a new instance of Query for the given HQL query string.
SQLQuerycreateSQLQuery(String queryString)

10

Create a new instance of SQLQuery for the given SQL query string.
void delete(Object object)

11

Remove a persistent instance from the datastore.

void delete(String entityName, Object object)

12

Remove a persistent instance from the datastore.

Session get(String entityName, Serializable id)

13

Return the persistent instance of the given named entity with the given identifier, or null if there is no
such persistent instance.

SessionFactorygetSessionFactory()
14
15

Get the session factory which created this session.

void refresh(Object object)

Re-read the state of the given instance from the underlying database.
Transaction getTransaction()
16

Get the Transaction instance associated with this session.

booleanisConnected()

17

Check if the session is currently connected.

booleanisDirty()

18

Does this session contain any changes which must be synchronized with the database?
booleanisOpen()

19

Check if the session is still open.

Serializable save(Object object)

20

Persist the given transient instance, first assigning a generated identifier.

void saveOrUpdate(Object object)

21

Either save(Object) or update(Object) the given instance.

void update(Object object)

22

Update the persistent instance with the identifier of the given detached instance.
void update(String entityName, Object object)

23

Update the persistent instance with the identifier of the given detached instance.

Property name

Purpose

hibernate.connection.driver_class

JDBC driver class

hibernate.connection.url

JDBC URL

hibernate.connection.username

database user

hibernate.connection.password

database user password

hibernate.connection.pool_size

maximum number of pooled connections

roperty name

Purpose

hibernate.dialect

The classname of a Hibernate org.hibernate.dialect.Dialect which

allows Hibernate to generate SQL optimized for a particular

roperty name

Purpose
relational database.
e.g.full.classname.of.Dialect
In most cases Hibernate will actually be able to choose the
correct org.hibernate.dialect.Dialect implementation based on the
JDBC metadata returned by the JDBC driver.
Write all SQL statements to console. This is an alternative to
setting the log category org.hibernate.SQL to debug.

hibernate.show_sql
e.g.true | false
Pretty print the SQL in the log and console.
hibernate.format_sql

e.g.true | false
Qualify
unqualified
table
names
schema/tablespace in generated SQL.

with

the

given

hibernate.default_schema
e.g.SCHEMA_NAME
Qualifies unqualified table names with the given catalog in
generated SQL.
hibernate.default_catalog
e.g.CATALOG_NAME
The org.hibernate.SessionFactory will be automatically bound to
this name in JNDI after it has been created.
hibernate.session_factory_name
e.g.jndi/composite/name

hibernate.max_fetch_depth

Sets a maximum "depth" for the outer join fetch tree for singleended associations (one-to-one, many-to-one). A 0 disables
default outer join fetching.
e.g. recommended values between 0 and 3
Sets a default size for Hibernate batch fetching of associations.

hibernate.default_batch_fetch_size

e.g. recommended values 4, 8, 16

Sets a default mode for entity representation for all sessions
opened from this SessionFactory

hibernate.default_entity_mode
dynamic-map, dom4j, pojo

roperty name

hibernate.order_updates

Purpose
Forces Hibernate to order SQL updates by the primary key value
of the items being updated. This will result in fewer transaction
deadlocks in highly concurrent systems.
e.g.true | false
If enabled, Hibernate will collect statistics useful for performance
tuning.

hibernate.generate_statistics
e.g.true | false
If enabled, generated identifier properties will be reset to default
values when objects are deleted.
hibernate.use_identifier_rollback
e.g.true | false
If turned on, Hibernate will generate comments inside the SQL,
for easier debugging, defaults to false.
hibernate.use_sql_comments
e.g.true | false

Hibernate JDBC and Connection Properties

Property name

Purpose

hibernate.jdbc.fetch_size

A non-zero value determines the JDBC fetch size (calls

Statement.setFetchSize()).

hibernate.jdbc.batch_size

A non-zero value enables use of JDBC2 batch updates by

Hibernate.
e.g. recommended values between 5 and 30

hibernate.jdbc.batch_versioned_data

Set this property to true if your JDBC driver returns correct

row counts from executeBatch(). Iit is usually safe to turn
this option on. Hibernate will then use batched DML for
automatically versioned data. Defaults to false.
e.g.true | false

hibernate.jdbc.factory_class

Select a custom
org.hibernate.jdbc.Batcher.
applications will not need this configuration property.

Most

e.g.classname.of.BatcherFactory
hibernate.jdbc.use_scrollable_resultset Enables use of JDBC2 scrollable resultsets by Hibernate.

Property name

Purpose
This property is only necessary when using user-supplied
JDBC connections. Hibernate uses connection metadata
otherwise.
e.g.true | false

hibernate.jdbc.use_streams_for_binary

Use streams when writing/reading binaryserializable types

to/from JDBC. *system-level property* or
e.g.true | false

Enables
use
of
JDBC3
PreparedStatement.getGeneratedKeys() to retrieve natively
generated keys after insert. Requires JDBC3+ driver and
hibernate.jdbc.use_get_generated_key JRE1.4+, set to false if your driver has problems with the
s
Hibernate identifier generators. By default, it tries to
determine the driver capabilities using connection metadata.
e.g.true|false

hibernate.connection.provider_class

The
classname
of
a
org.hibernate.connection.ConnectionProvider
provides JDBC connections to Hibernate.

custom
which

e.g.classname.of.ConnectionProvider

hibernate.connection.isolation

Sets the JDBC transaction isolation level. Check

java.sql.Connection for meaningful values, but note that
most databases do not support all isolation levels and some
define additional, non-standard isolations.
e.g.1, 2, 4, 8

hibernate.connection.autocommit

Enables autocommit for JDBC pooled connections (it is not

recommended).
e.g.true | false

hibernate.connection.release_mode

Specifies when Hibernate should release JDBC

connections. By default, a JDBC connection is held until the
session is explicitly closed or disconnected. For an
application server JTA datasource, use after_statement to
aggressively release connections after every JDBC call. For
a non-JTA connection, it often makes sense to release the
connection at the end of each transaction, by using
after_transaction. auto will choose after_statement for the
JTA and CMT transaction strategies and after_transaction

Property name

Purpose
for the JDBC transaction strategy.
e.g.auto (default)
after_statement

on_close

after_transaction

This setting only affects Sessions returned from

SessionFactory.openSession. For Sessions obtained
through
SessionFactory.getCurrentSession,
the
CurrentSessionContext implementation configured for use
controls the connection release mode for those Sessions.
hibernate.connection.

Pass the JDBC property DriverManager.getConnection(). to

hibernate.jndi.

Pass the property to the JNDI InitialContextFactory.

Hibernate Cache Properties

Property name

Purpose
The classname of a custom CacheProvider.

hibernate.cache.provider_class

hibernate.cache.use_minimal_puts

e.g.classname.of.CacheProvider
Optimizes second-level cache operation to minimize
writes, at the cost of more frequent reads. This setting is
most useful for clustered caches and, in Hibernate3, is
enabled by default for clustered cache implementations.
e.g.true|false

hibernate.cache.use_query_cache

Enables the query cache. Individual queries still have to

be set cachable.
e.g.true|false

Can be used to completely disable the second level

cache, which is enabled by default for classes which
hibernate.cache.use_second_level_cach
specify a mapping.
e
e.g.true|false

hibernate.cache.query_cache_factory

The
classname
of
a
custom
QueryCacheStandardQueryCache. interface, defaults to
the built-in
e.g.classname.of.QueryCache

Property name

Purpose
A prefix to use for second-level cache region names.

hibernate.cache.region_prefix

hibernate.cache.use_structured_entries

e.g.prefix
Forces Hibernate to store data in the second-level cache
in a more human-friendly format.
e.g.true|false

Hibernate Transaction Properties

Property name

Purpose

hibernate.transaction.factory_class

The classname of a TransactionFactory to use with

Hibernate
Transaction
API
(defaults
to
JDBCTransactionFactory).
e.g.classname.of.TransactionFactory

jta.UserTransaction

A JNDI name used by JTATransactionFactory to

obtain the JTA UserTransaction from the application
server.
e.g.jndi/composite/name

The classname of a TransactionManagerLookup. It is

required when JVM-level caching is enabled or when
hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_class using hilo generator in a JTA environment.
e.g.classname.of.TransactionManagerLookup
If enabled, the session will be automatically flushed
during the before completion phase of the transaction.
hibernate.transaction.flush_before_completio Built-in and automatic session context management is
n
preferred.
e.g.true | false

hibernate.transaction.auto_close_session

If enabled, the session will be automatically closed

during the after completion phase of the transaction.
Built-in and automatic session context management is
preferred.
e.g.true | false

Miscellaneous Properties
Property name

Purpose

Supply a custom strategy for the scoping of the "current"

Session. See Section 2.5, Contextual sessions for more
hibernate.current_session_context_clas
information about the built-in strategies.
s
e.g.jta | thread | managed | custom.Class
Chooses the HQL parser implementation.
hibernate.query.factory_class

hibernate.query.substitutions

e.g.org.hibernate.hql.ast.ASTQueryTranslatorFactory
or
org.hibernate.hql.classic.ClassicQueryTranslatorFactory
Is used to map from tokens in Hibernate queries to SQL
tokens (tokens might be function or literal names, for
example).
e.g.hqlLiteral=SQL_LITERAL, hqlFunction=SQLFUNC

hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto

Automatically validates or exports schema DDL to the

database when the SessionFactory is created. With createdrop, the database schema will be dropped when the
SessionFactory is closed explicitly.
e.g.validate | update | create | create-drop

Enables the use of CGLIB instead of runtime reflection

(System-level property). Reflection can sometimes be
useful when troubleshooting. Hibernate always requires
hibernate.cglib.use_reflection_optimizer CGLIB even if you turn off the optimizer. You cannot set this
property in hibernate.cfg.xml.
e.g.true | false

SQL Dialects
Always set the hibernate.dialect property to the correct org.hibernate.dialect.Dialect subclass for your
database. If you specify a dialect, Hibernate will use sensible defaults for some of the other properties
listed above. This means that you will not have to specify them manually.

Hibernate SQL Dialects (hibernate.dialect)

RDBMS

Dialect

DB2

org.hibernate.dialect.DB2Dialect

DB2 AS/400

org.hibernate.dialect.DB2400Dialect

DB2 OS390

org.hibernate.dialect.DB2390Dialect

PostgreSQL

org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQLDialect

MySQL

org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect

MySQL with InnoDB

org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLInnoDBDialect

MySQL with MyISAM

org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLMyISAMDialect

Oracle (any version)

org.hibernate.dialect.OracleDialect

Oracle 9i

org.hibernate.dialect.Oracle9iDialect

Oracle 10g

org.hibernate.dialect.Oracle10gDialect

Sybase

org.hibernate.dialect.SybaseDialect

Sybase Anywhere

org.hibernate.dialect.SybaseAnywhereDialect

Microsoft SQL Server

org.hibernate.dialect.SQLServerDialect

SAP DB

org.hibernate.dialect.SAPDBDialect

Informix

org.hibernate.dialect.InformixDialect

HypersonicSQL

org.hibernate.dialect.HSQLDialect

Ingres

org.hibernate.dialect.IngresDialect

Progress

org.hibernate.dialect.ProgressDialect

Mckoi SQL

org.hibernate.dialect.MckoiDialect

Interbase

org.hibernate.dialect.InterbaseDialect

Pointbase

org.hibernate.dialect.PointbaseDialect

FrontBase

org.hibernate.dialect.FrontbaseDialect

Firebird

org.hibernate.dialect.FirebirdDialect