Book Review: Hibernate In Action
February 13, 2005
Hibernate In Action (Christian Bauer & Gavin King) Manning 2005
Beware: this is big time Java-nerd stuff – not for web designers.
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One of the most difficult and time consuming elements of coding most business applications involves the persistence layer. This is particularly the case when object oriented (OO) approaches are used.
While OO programmers tend to think in terms of software objects with properties and behaviors, the truth of the matter is that at some point stuff needs to be loaded and saved in a database.
Anyone who has ever had to write their own object-relational (OR) persistence layer (I have), soon comes to realize that it is an area fraught with peril.
Why use Hibernate?
Hibernate is perhaps the most popular OR persistence framework for Java around today (although there are a number of lighter frameworks available). The authors of Hibernate In Action are part of the core team that developed Hibernate. Diving into the book quickly reveals that the authors know their stuff.
The Details:
The opening chapter (Understanding Object Relational Persistence) presents a detailed overview of pretty much all the main issues one is likely to encounter when it comes to OR persistence. The discussion is lucid and sets the tone for understanding why Hibernate is an attractive solution. The authors also spend some time highlightting why one might NOT want to use OR mapping, which I also found useful.
Sunsequent chapters get you up running relatively quickly so you can see the framework in action. As the book progresses more detailed examples are used to illustrate the potential of the framework, and also some of the limitations.
Conclusion:
Frankly I found the level of detail to be a little tough for a first read, but was pleased to know that the meat was there if I needed to get back to it.
Aside from this minor criticism I found the book to be a relatively entertaining read (7 out of 10) although you probably would need to have an interest in the subject.
All in all a strong book well worth acquiring if you are interested in evaluating the Hibernate framework.
Review by Richard Mischook
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