I'm interested in seeing who has done this conversion, and what your experiences were. How many EJBs did you convert? How long did it take you? Any recommendations for things to watch out for along the way?

Thanks,

Erik

I have only converted a small number 10 or so. Even so I would recommend you use the Entity EJBs as a guideline and build from scratch (start from the database schema). Use Middlegen (or other tools) to assist the process. The queries should be reviewed since Hibernate offers so much great power a fresh start using the HQL feature set will result in less code and likely fast execution than your previous Entity EJB solution.

Thanks for your input, David. I'll be sure and review our queries as we go. I'm not sure about the convert vs. start from scratch issue yet -- we have just over 100 entity beans, and a rich domain model. Since our entity beans do a lot more than just persist data for us, I'm thinking we may be better off converting instead of replacing-- but still considering the options. I was thinking I might be able to write some simple conversion scripts to help out even..

If you have a good domain model already then your half way there just need to create the HBMs either by adding XDoclect markup or generating manually or use a tool like MIddlegen to provide the kick start. The real issue is in the DAO level, finders etc. The queries is where you have the option to use a more powerfull syntax and reduce database hits. Given thats its a decent size effort a few experience notes on the wiki might prove to be of value to others that follow your footsteps.