This might be already asked and answered but a search on the above topic returned 1527 posts so I decided to ask.

Is there a preference to using query vs. criteria?

If there is a way to search only the post subjects I would appreciate a pointer as to how.

I prefer Criterias -- it is a more OO way of accessing the data. But, occasionally, I need to use HQL (arbitrary inner joins[join conditions not in the mapping documents]) OR Native SQL.

Curtis ...