Buy this book if you are interested in Hibernate. I didn't know Hibernate, but within 3 weeks of buying this book I was fully productive with Hibernate. This book is well written, organized and easy to learn from. Also has a nice chapther on Mavan

I'm half way and very pleasantly surprised. I like to type stuff in manually to get it to 'stick' and I plainly can't believe that I haven't found one error in the code listings!!! I'm a pro developer, so I don't usually bicker too much about this, but it surely is a time saver when the examples are correct. That said, the author combines a lot of the code so that it probably loses cohesion, but I'm 100% sure that this is in fact by design. For pedantic purposes it's easier -- I'm happy, about this, because I'm just trying to get up to speed on Hibernate, not get a design patterns lesson. I'm sure he's leading to that (again, I've only read half the book).

For those that gave the book a lower rating, I have to pretty much agree with their comments, but I think they're being a bit unfair. This book isn't trying to be the most 'complete' reference IMO, but rather, get you going. That said, it does WAY more as another positive reviewer mentions...you get to play with Spring, Maven, and a bunch of other goodies. Very happy with this book so far!

I am totally new to hibernate, and I was hoping for a book that would serve as a comprehensive guide to hibernate. I was rather disappointed. The book constantly says: you can do this really neato thing, but it's beyond the scope of this book. The chapter on HQL was very brief indeed really only scratching the surface, which was a bit surprising as it would seem to me that using HQL would be a very common task which would benefit from in depth coverage. The chapter on annotations was also a bit light as this seems to be the new preferred way to use hibernate amongst developers today.

Despite these grumbles with the book, I found it a helpful and clear introduction to hibernate that did at least give me an overview in a clear and concise manner. The coverage of features in hibernate 3 was good too, as other books have become a bit dated. The later chapters on how to integrate hibernate with other tools are very useful, and I found the inclusion of stripes particularly poignant. It's a good book, but not great if what you want is an in depth understanding of hibernate.

Nice step-by-step guide for building a web application that makes use of Hibernate. This fills in an important gap left by the official Hibernate documentation. However, a consequence of this approach is that much of the book ends up being devoted to explaining how to set up the chosen tools and frameworks (see table of contents). If you are instead looking for more in-depth information on topics such as session and object lifecycles, complicated mappings or performance, you'll find more information in the official Hibernate documentation (or in the corresponding section in the Spring documentation). This book really ought to have a less cute, but more descriptive title.

This book is a wonderful book for beginning hibernate. It has the right balance of theory and practice, and it is always right to the point and concise. I used it to get up to speed on hibernate 3 after not touching hibernate for two and a half years, and it was exactly what I needed. The paper quality is pretty bad, like some others have noted. However, I have read through about 70% of it (the only 70% I am going to read) and the paper/binding has shown no sign of deterioration, so do not let that keep you from reading it.

'Harnessing Hibernate' is a great resource for learning more about and how to use the Hibernate technology to map Java code to relational databases and vice versa. In today's programming world you want to be able to create object that directly map to database tables and fields. Not only does this allow for persistence and good scalability, it hides the SQL stuff that can otherwise make for difficult programming and puts them into familiar classes instead. Before this book there really wasn't great resources out on the market for learning about this technology but that is no longer the case. With 350+ pages spread over 14 chapters, good writing and separation of content this is a must have for all seasoned Java database and Hibernate developers.

***** RECOMMENDED

While I was at work one day, I decided to write the persistence layer of an application that my team was working on. I had minimal experience with Hibernate because I had worked on another project where a coworker implemented the persistence layer and used Hibernate. I got to see a bit of the magic that Hibernate provides, and I thought it would be excellent for my current project. My problem was that I did not really know how to set everything up.

I searched on Amazon for books about Hibernate, and I wanted to make sure I bought one that was fairly current so that I could see how to use it with the latest technologies. I came upon Harnessing Hibernate which is only a few months old. Even though there were only two reviews, after reading them, I decided to take a chance on this book. Wow, these reviewers were exactly right!

The authors take you through a music cataloging project. Their progression through the concepts is nothing short of amazing. They seem to give the perfect amount of detail and explanation at each step, and then you begin to form questions in your mind. They seem to anticipate them, because these questions always seem to be answered in the next section.

I should inform you that I often dislike reading books on computer technologies. I find that most authors tend to make the books as dry as possible, going on and on, ad nauseam, about every detail and idiosyncrasy of the topic. The authors of Harnessing Hibernate, however, make the book completely enjoyable to read. Their style is conversational, and they do not try to talk over anyone's head. They give you plenty of useful information that you can use immediately, and inform you of other sources to investigate if you want more information on a particular aspect of the material.

Anyway, if you want to learn Hibernate in a clear and concise manner, then you will not be disappointed if you buy this book. It will keep you reading, and you won't fall asleep while doing so. And hey, you'll understand all of the material and you will even learn a lot about Hibernate! I do not give complements lightly, but this is indeed a perfect book.

Harnessing Hibernate is a fine book, which uses the most efficient ways to achieve its goal. Though focusing on Hibernate, the book enlists the usage of various frameworks such as Spring Framework, Stripes and Maven.


Part I: Hibernate in a hurry: The core

Build:
The book starts with how you should build which used to be a dread. The authors choose to use Ant - Maven task, which is cool. I use Maven directly, but that's beside the point. Both approaches are better than finding the JARs on the web.

Database:
HSQLDB is what the book recommends and for some reason it makes sense . It really is the best way to go. I am not suggesting to format your Oracle DB server and install HSQLDB; but I am suggesting you stay focused and worry about the big DB later; the book goes back to a larger DB; so don't worry too much right now.

The Project Hierarchy:
This one, I must admit, I do not care for; I think Maven directory structure is better and one should not have to create this manually, but that's probably personal. This is later reviewed in Chapter 12: Maven in More Depth.

Core hibernate:
The book doesn't mess around too much. It explains how to configure hibernate and before long you find your hands in hibernate mapping. From chapter 2 through chapter 9 you'll find yourself in the core of Hibernate: mapping, hibernate configuration, persistent objects (creating and finding), collections and associations, richer associations, custom value types, annotations, criteria queries and a look at HQL.

Part II: Playing nice with others: beyond the core

MySQL - a nice short intro to MySQL is shown.

Hibernate and Eclipse - yes, this is in here too (and up to date Eclipse v3.3). And just in time for you to get ready for a later chapter, Spring and Hibernate, which is the way J2EE is going anyway (lightweight).

Maven in more depth - Maven does not have many books out there and this is a very nice in depth explanation. If you think you've gotten short changed, take a look at Java Power Tools (you'll love that book too). The chapter is enough to get you moving with Maven, and if your Maven experience is anything like mine, you'll never go back to Ant.

Hibernate and Spring - this book could not have gotten any better than this. Spring, is like a dream. Rod Johnson, Colin Sampaleanu and team have done it well. Unlike the other monolithic approach, Spring takes advantage of already existing frameworks and offers this invisible layer to allow you to focus on what's important; your business code... and, of course, the book delivers. It shows you how Spring simplifies Hibernate development. If you're new to layered development a la separation of concerns (SoC) the book first introduces you to the DAO pattern. It then continues with the reason so many of us like the Spring framework: HibernateDAOSupport and the HibernateTemplate. Although I prefer to use the HibernateTemplate directly and avoid loosing my one chance at inheritance, I agree with the book examples. The authors are tying to help you understand what kind of support Spring offers.

Stripes with Spring and Hibernate - Now, the book could just end here and be done with it, but no, it continues with the web app. I mean, wow. The book ends with style. It uses Tomcat - and I think it does it to prove a point. You don't need a fancy big server to get J2EE running these days. Stripes is a cool project to work with and I thank the authors for introducing me to a framework I was clueless about.

This book is truly amazing. If you're looking for an in-depth approach to Hibernate take a look at Java Persistence with Hibernate. If, however, you're an impatient developer this is the book for you. I think it offers just enough in-depth theory and it keeps you awake with frequent easy to understand code.

James Elliott, Timothy M. O'Brien and Ryan Fowler; I thank you all for writing this book.

/.Will

The book reminds me of Ant in anger, for some reason. The topics are different and maybe the style is different too but that's just how I see this book; Hibernate in Anger - probably the title would not have sold; I guess Harnessing Hibernate has a nice ring to it and it kind of makes you think about testing.

Part I: The core

Build:
The book starts with how you should build which used to be a dread. The authors choose to use Ant - Maven task, which is cool. I use Maven directly, but that's beside the point. Both approaches are better than finding the JARs on the web.

Database:
HSQLDB is what the book recommends and for some reason it makes sense . It really is the best way to go. I am not suggesting to format your Oracle DB server and install HSQLDB; but I am suggesting you stay focused and worry about the big DB later; the book goes back to a larger DB; so don't worry too much right now.

The Project Hierarchy:
This one, I must admit, I do not care for; I think Maven directory structure is better and one should not have to create this manually, but that's probably personal. This is later reviewed in Chapter 12: Maven in More Depth.

Core hibernate:
The book doesn't mess around too much. It explains how to configure hibernate and before long you find your hands in hibernate mapping. From chapter 2 through chapter 9 you'll find yourself in the core of Hibernate: mapping, hibernate configuration, persistent objects (creating and finding), collections and associations, richer associations, custom value types, annotations, criteria queries and a look at HQL.

Part II of the book is where things get really interesting.

MySQL - a nice short intro to MySQL is shown.

Hibernate and Eclipse - yes, this is in here too (and up to date Eclipse v3.3). And just in time for you to get ready for a later chapter, Spring and Hibernate, which is the way J2EE is going anyway (lightweight).

Maven in more depth - Maven does not have many books out there and this is a very nice in depth explanation. If you think you've gotten short changed, take a look at Java Power Tools (you'll love that book too). The chapter is enough to get you moving with Maven, and if you're Maven experience is anything like mine, you'll never go back to Ant.

Hibernate and Spring - this book could not have gotten any better than this. Spring, is like a dream. Rod Johnson, Colin Sampaleanu and team have done it well. Unlike the other monolithic approach, Spring takes advantage of already existing frameworks and offers this invisible layer to allow you to focus on what's important; your business code... and, of course, the book delivers. It shows you how Spring simplifies Hibernate development. If you're new to layered development a la separation of concerns (SoC) the book first introduces you to the DAO pattern. It then continues with the reason so many of us like the Spring framework: HibernateDAOSupport and the HibernateTemplate. Although I prefer to use the HibernateTemplate directly and avoid loosing my one chance at inheritance, I agree with the book examples. The authors are tying to help you understand what kind of support Spring offers.

Now, the book could just end here and be done with it, but no, it continues with the web app. I mean, wow. The book ends with style. It uses Tomcat - and I think it does it to prove a point. You don't need a fancy big server to get J2EE running these days. Stripes is cool project to work with and I thank the authors for introducing me to a framework I was clueless about.

I kind of went all over the map but the book is truly amazing. If you're looking for lots of theory, I recommend The Holy Bible. It starts with the beginning. If, however, you're an impatient developer this is the book for you. I think it offers just enough in-depth theory and it keeps you awake with frequent easy to understand (and well explained too) code.

James Elliott, Timothy M. O'Brien and Ryan Fowler; I thank you all for writing this book.

/.Will

I just got this book in the mail last week, as it was just recently released. From reaing it, I can tell you that it carries on the tradition of high quality editing and content that we expect from O'Riely books.

There has been a real lack of good, up to date, READABLE books about Hibernate on the market. You only have to scan amazon to see some of the horrible reviews many books have received. But this book is excellent, and I can assure you that many five star reviews will follow this one.