Hibernate version:
2.1.7c

Question:
I am currently not a hibernate user but am looking at to determine if it is a solution for my next app (vs. writing sql myself). I have spent the last couple of days sifting through tutorials, faqs, the reference material and forum posts/replies and trying things out so to determine this myself but I still have one issue that I cannot seem to resolve. I'm reaching a point where I must make a decision and I don't want to choose hibernate only to find out (too late) that it won't support what I need to do. Hence my post....and much! much! much! appreciation to any and all feedback.

My data model consists of an object that has a reference to an ordered list of nodes. Each node may also have a reference to an ordered list of nodes.


MyObject
|
--------------------------
| |
NodeA1 NodeA2
| |
------------- --------------
| | | |
NodeB1 NodeB2 NodeC1 NodeC2


I was very excited to hear that hibernate has a <list> element in the mapping file and will subsequently take care of keeping order in the underlying database. However, when I attempted to prototype this I found myself not knowing how to declare this in the mapping file. I also encountered dialog in a post (albeit in 2003) that indicated hibernate does not support tree structures (modeling and recursive loading/saving).

I would love for someone to tell me that improvements have been made since then and that hibernate will support the model I require. If so, I would also appreciate some guidance that will tell me how to achieve this support (e.g., reference to documentation, example, whatever...).

Many thanks!!!![code][/code]