lecture

10 common pitfalls when using Hibernate

ORM (Object Relational Mapping) tools have changed the way databases can be accessed in Java applications: a domain model is now designed in a fully object oriented way and database operations do not need to be implemented using the very inconvenient and technical-oriented JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) API (Application Programming Interface). Certainly, advantages of the ORM tools are not only limited to these two features, and the impression both developers and architects get when making familiar with them is that such a tool will solve all their problems with a database access. The truth is, however, that, although some problems will really be solved, other will still persist as they are not addressed by the ORM tools and some new will occur when the ORM tool is used inappropriately. That is why some applications applying the JDBC API directly can even have better performance than those ones using ORM tools.

This presentation shows some common issues that should be taken into consideration when using Hibernate - the most popular ORM tool. What you can learn are not only ready-to-use patterns, but also their motivation and what happens behind the scenes. Moreover, examples from real enterprise applications make the issues easy to understand. The main purpose of this presentation is that both architects and developers, as the issues involve decisions made both during the application design and implementation, will learn how to avoid the common pitfalls when using Hibernate.