Hi,

I would like to use some kind of annotations to map my POJOs but I am limited to JDK 1.4 for my current project. I will be using using Hibernate 3 (want the better legacy schema and native SQL support).

As far as I'm aware, the JDK limitation forces me to use XDoclet rather than the Annotations project. I'm aware of tools like RetroTranslator and RetroWeaver; but they seem to be oriented towards getting class files compiled with a 1.5 compiler to run on a 1.4 JVM. I can't do that, I need to compile with a 1.4 JDK - and backporting the bytecodes seems like a fairly hairy/unsupported path to go down regardless (especially as I only want annotations anyway).

This leaves me with XDoclet (unless someone knows of a different option I could take?). The problem I'm facing is figuring out which version of XDoclet to use. There seems to be nowhere in the official documentation that really gives users a quick answer to their question.

I've found the following three wiki pages on XDoclet usage:
- old topic about HB2 and XDoclet 1.2 http://www.hibernate.org/72.html
- newer topic about HB3 and XDoclet2 http://www.hibernate.org/284.html
- newer topic about HB3 and XDoclet2 http://www.hibernate.org/338.html

But as you can see, none of those really address what version you should be using.

This forum post by one of the Hibernate team seems to be the only official word on the subject that I could find: http://www.hibernate.org/338.html

It pretty much says that a snapshot from CVS of the latest XDoclet 1.3 is the way to fly at the moment, but that XDoclet 2 should also be checked out because they have different feature coverage.

I think there are probably many people who are in my position (want to use HB3, but can't use Java 5). It's taken me a good couple of hours of research to find the various links to the information.

Would it be possible to get a FAQ added, and to merge the various wiki topics I outlined above into one comprehensive one that covered version issues and current recommended versions?

Also, for other peoples info, these are the current formal XDoclet issues I could find relating to support for HB3 in XDoclet, there might be some use in linking these from any new topic created:
- http://opensource.atlassian.com/projects/xdoclet/browse/XDT-1257
- http://opensource.atlassian.com/projects/xdoclet/browse/XDT-1344

I am still using XDoclet 1.x series for a major project that I am leading. I am happy with its use. There was a point where Xdoclet support was well behind Hibernate 3.x but it has caught up - I started the process in the XDoclet 1.x series source tree and others have contributed and continuing the updates. 1.2.3 only has a few minor changes I commited just so basic support was present. Enough for my needs at the time. Now major work has gone into 1.3.x (but it has not been released) which is why I recommend you use that versions CVS build.

I have chosen to stay with XDoclet 1.x because this project requires some XDoclet modules that are not present (atleast the last time I looked) in the XDoclet 2.x series. Additional differences includes the fact that some of the hibernate doclet markup is different. So a choice needs to be made and you stick with it. I would lean toward Xdoclet 2.x if you only using HIbernate as it might be more actively worked on and the scripts are easier to understand otherwise XDoclet 1.x which works well for me. The best option is to try them both out and make up your own mind.

As far as the wiki information goes, I would suggest you add/change the wiki data to match the information that you have found. I think your in the best position to improve the documentation - its a wiki so you can change it.