3.3. Hibernate Tools

Hibernate is an object-relational mapping (ORM) library, used for mapping an object-oriented domain model to a relational database. Hibernate also serves as a query service, allowing queries to be expressed in native SQL (Structured Query Language), an extension of SQL named Hibernate Query Language (HQL), or an object-oriented Criteria and Example API (Application Programming Interface).
Hibernate Tools in JBoss Developer Studio provides several features to aid in developing with Hibernate including:
Mapping Editor
The Mapping Editor is used for authoring Hibernate XML mapping files. It supports code completion (Content Assist) and syntax highlighting.
Console
The Hibernate Console provides a visual representation of database connections and class relationships. Queries can be interactively performed on the database representation.
The Hibernate Console consists of multiple panels representing the database.
Figure 3.8. Hibernate Console


Reverse Engineering
Databases can be reverse-engineered to construct domain model classes, Hibernate mapping files, annotated entity beans, HTML documentation, or complete JBoss Seam applications.
Wizards
Wizards are included to step through procedures to generate Hibernate configuration files and Hibernate console configurations.
Apache Ant Task
Apache Ant is a tool for automating software build processes. Hibernate Tools includes an Apache Ant Task for generating schema, mapping, and Java code related to the build process.
Refer to the Hibernate Tools Reference for more details.