I will use the example of blog items and blogs . I am using a web app (struts) with hibernate. We have drop down that is populated with label value pairs . The drop down in populated with blog id's and the blog name. The form allows you to add blog details . When I submit the form do I always need to ressassociate the blog detials with the the blog in the database by using the the blog id and session.load ? Pre-hibernate , we did not have to do the extra select , we could just stick the blog id into the blog detail .

If you have the domain object but need to associate it (back) into the new session you can use 'update' or 'lock'. The manual has more details.