Customer comments on this selection.
 Very helpful
This book is not a cookbook, but it does provide a deeper-than-usual perspective on the concepts guiding Hibernate and ORM in general. As a result, you have to read it differently from the run-of-the-mill software book: say a chapter at a time, rather than simply copying the code samples. In my experience, that special effort really pays off. Thanks to the authors!
 decent material but poorly written
First off, if you want a great example of a very well written technical book on Java EE, check out Seam in Action. Allen covers ORM as well. This book goes back and forth between the Hibernate xml mappings and the JPA annotations very often. The Hibernate Session API and JPA EntityManager API is thrown around willy nilly in the text. It's very difficult to concentrate and digest the information. But there is some good stuff in there including second level cache and Seam (which seams inappropriate for a ORM book). Also there is way too much detail at times (most of the book honestly) so you don't get the high-level picture of the ORM concepts. What about Kodo and JPOX and other persistence providers for JPA? Not written by a native English speaker apparently so another minus. JPA and Hibernate are obviously related but they belong in separate books for clarity. For JPA, I recommend Java Persistence book by Mike Keith (Apress). Or the spec (JSR 220). This book is not worth the price, find something better. For Hibernate, you can learn a lot from the Caveat Emptor download as well. The authors have yet to finish the Seam version of Caveat Emptor! Get with the program!
You'll hate ORM if you read this book
I had a very difficult time reading this book. Manning should have released a new edition of Hibernate in Action and a Java Persistence in Action. The book is way too long and heavy. Very confusing to read as the authors keep going back and forth on code/xml for Hibernate and then JPA.
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br /not enough coverage on views and how when you reverse engineer a view a separate @Embeddable class is create by hbm2java and the primary key always consists of all the columns in the table which the view is based on.
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br /needs a chapter on best practices and design patterns (OSIV, for example). Performance tuning as well. When and why to use stored procs and whether or not JPA supports stored procs.
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br /the seam chapter in the end is random and not necessary (is this a JBoss stack book?)
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br /needs more coverage on Toplink Essentials (the RI for JPA), OpenJPA and other alternatives to Hibernate.
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br /needs coverage on what is planned for JPA 2.0 (like Criteria API).
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br /stay away from this book, it's very difficult to read and follow. stick with the specs, forums and online user docs.
WoWoooo
so...i'm a novice hibernater (ie never used it before--learning it for the first time). after 8 months, i'm at page 634 of 840+ pages (but the last 80 pages don't count cause its about jboss seams). and i finally decided to share my opinion of this book. first, let me explain why its taken me as long as it has. when i read a technology book, i try most/all of the examples and understand it. those who read this book without coding are just wasting there time. (i'll probably read it a second time, but hopefully at a far faster rate, but i have to take some golfing lessons or something else in between, thank god)
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br /wow--what a read. comprehensive it is. anything and everything you want to know about hibernate. every example i tried worked, some i didn't try cause i'm not going to use it (jpa). having said that, except for the first example which is fully documented, everything is presented as bits of code; you have to fill in the rest, which means you better know what you're doing, or willing to dig around, or do what i did, start at page 1 and work your way through the book.
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br /the early chapters are well written. people who criticize this book for being boring just don't get it. if you want exciting, got buy a work of fiction. if you want to learn hibernate, BUY THIS BOOK.
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br /the later chapters about concepts and advanced hibernate features aren't as well written. the flow is not as contiguous, and some of the topics seem to be thrown together into a chapter with no tie in, except for the common chapter title.
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br /but worth its cost, if you take your time, and you will definitely learn some hibernate if you buy this book. how much will depend on you.
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br /things they could improve on
br /-introduce the basics of HQL criteria/query api earlier in the book
br /-introduce transactions earlier
br /-object scope identity not well defined, still little hazy about it
br /-ch 12 and onwards just seem not was well edited as the earlier chapters, seems like they were thrown together to make a deadline
br /-later chapters start to get really big, for people who read/study in chunks, makes these chapters seem more daunting
br /-leave out the last chapter, seams does not belong in hibernate/jpa book
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br /things very well done
br /-rationalizing why hibernate is the way it is, especially things like how it is implemented to allow separation of concerns
br /-explaining most of the concepts
br /-optimizing hibernate
br /-and many others
If you're confused about JPA+Hibernate and want to be even more confused...
1) the book is way too long, it should have been released as two separate books: an update to Hibernate in Action and a new Java Persistence in Action (see Mike Keith's Apress book on JPA!)
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br /2) why is there a random Seam chapter at the end? obviously it ties in with the implementing conversations (chapter 11) and the purpose of Seam is essentially to improve and simplify Java EE while tying together JSF and EJB 3, but does it really need to be in this already way too long book? And if you're interested in learning about Seam, read Seam in Action by Dan Allen, that's the best book out thus far on Seam.
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br /3) there is no chapter on when and why you would use the Hibernate API (e.g. Criteria) which is not available in the current JPA 1.0 spec. When and in what scenarios is it worthwhile and/or necessary to deviate from JPA? And if you do, what are the possible consequences (e.g. if you subsequently use a different persistence provider, then you must refactor the Hibernate AIP out). What is currently deficient about JPA 1.0, etc.?
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br /4) there is no chapter on comparing and contrasting the various JPA persistence provider options like OpenJPA, Kodo, Hibernate, Toplink Essentials. Why should one use Hibernate if Toplink is the reference implementation for the JPA spec?
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br /5) there is no chapter on using Hibernate/JPA in a clustered environment (although there is some coverage on JBossCache, JGroups and second level cache).
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br /6) Caveat Emptor Seam version is still not available (and there is no release date)!
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br /7) there is no ORM design patterns chapter which would describe material like DAO and Open Session in View pattern, for example.
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br /8) it would be nice if there were some more pictures (Seam in Action does very well in this regard!)
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br /9) last but not least, and this is the main reason I'm rating this book so poorly, is that there is a ton of information in this book but it is EXTREMELY difficult to read, follow, and digest. The authors go back and forth between JPA code and Hibernate code (and XML configs) constantly and it is very, very confusing.
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br /So. If you want to be more confused about JPA and Hibernate (ORM is definitely not the easiest subject to digest and learn), then waste your money and buy and attempt to read this book.
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br /Otherwise, just stick to the specs, reference docs and forums. Or wait for the potential Hibernate in Practice (there is a Spring in Practice book coming soon!)
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