Hi,

I have recently started working with Hibernate.

Hibernate allows us to generate source code from *.hbm.xml files and also allows us to generate *.hbm.xml files from source code (POJO classes with XDoclet tags). I would like to go with the latter because as developers we are inclined to think in terms of objects and it seems easier to me (personal opinion :-) ).

I personally like using code generation as much as possible and when it came to hibernate I was not sure which would be a better option from the two listed above.

Is it better to write the hbm.xml files and then generate java objects from it or is it better to write java objects and add XDoclet tags to generate hbm.xml files?? Is there any advantage than one approach gives us over the other? Is XDoclet robust enough to support the basic, commonly used aspects of hibernate (if not all)?

TIA,
Regards,
SK

depends - mostly a manner of personal taste.

hbm.xml to java - use hibernate tools, developed/supported by the hibernate team, requires some tweaking if you want to add code into the pojo's BUT it is possible and supported.

xdoclet to hbm.xml - use doclet, *not* actively developed/supported by the hibernate team, does *not* support all hibernate3 features.

You forget one alternative and that is to use Hibernate Annotations; removing any need for code generation of the beans and still allowing you to generate other code via the hibernate tools.

If you choose to use Xdoclet 1.x then use the CVS version. Lots of work has been done to support the majority of H3.x features. It will be released as 1.3.x .

Annotations is worth considering if your using JDK 5 or higher.