hi:
I am implementing a session beans -> dao - > hibernate architechture.
I wanted to know what is a better idea to have a DAO / persistent class
or have a DAO serving a group of logically related persistent classes.

I was prefering the latter as we have a large number of persistent classes.Any advantages to the first approach ?

tia

splash

I had this same issue a while back when I started working on my current application. After debating a lot, I decided to go with the model of a DAO per persistent class. I created a DAOInterface and defined all the possible methods (searchByPrimaryKey(), search(), add() - covers saveOrUpdate, delete(), addMultiple(), deleteMultiple() etc...).

The biggest advantage I have seen from this approach is the ease of use and the standard templating that you can do to rapidly write new DAOs. Other developers who weren't initially involved with the project have said that they find it much easier to understand this structure as well. Hope that helps.