We're using Hibernate version: 3.1 and writing java code with Eclipse.

Suppose our application domain has these aspects:

1. Cases contain boxes.
2. Boxes contain items.
3. Sometimes a case or a box is empty.
4. Sometimes a box or item is loose and has no parent container.

We think our database is properly designed. It has three tables: case, box and item. They have these fields

case.id
case.barcode

box.id
box.case_id
box.position_in_case

item.id
item.barcode
item.position_in_box

We need to display a list that has the following in each row:

case.barcode
box.position_in_case
box.barcode
item.position_in_box
item.barcode

How do we write a query to return a list of objects to populate the list?

We have a large number of objects and plan on using query.setFirstResult() and query.setMaxResults().

Reading chapter 7 of the book Hibernate in Action gives us a few clues, but leaves us wondering how to do multiple outer joins.

Is there a reference document that uses BackusNauer notation to definitively specify syntax of hql queries?

TIA,
BE

look at the presistence part of the spec

http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=220

it has the bns form...