This book is written for professional Java developers who already understand how to build server-side Java applications.  The book assumes no previous experience with Hibernate, though readers should have a general familiarity with databases and Web development.

What does this book cover?

After a quick overview of Hibernate in the first two chapters, the authors jump right to the code.  They show how to do the following:

• Obtain and install Hibernate
• Build the Hibernate development environment
• Use Hibernate to connect to databases
• Use Hibernate to create persistent classes and objects
• Use the Hibernate database query language and transaction management functions
• Use the Hibernate APIs

After covering these essentials, the authors go further, showing readers how to use Hibernate in the real world.  This means demonstrating how to use Hibernate with other popular tools that readers are using (including Eclipse, Tomcat, Maven, Struts, and XDoclet). This book takes a very real-world, hands-on approach to these topics and includes many working code examples, as well as a sophisticated sample application.