I have a question regarding (Generic Data Access Objects)
http://www.hibernate.org/328.html

Specifically, the line about not forgetting exception handling:
// Plain JDBC: HibernateUtil.getCurrentSession().getTransaction().commit(); // Don't forget exception handling

I've implement the examples described in the URL above (everything works perfectly), but have yet to add exception handling.

How do I add hibernate exception handling to this block of code? Is it needed?
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession().beginTransaction();
MemberInviteDAO memberInviteDAO = FACTORY.getMemberInviteDAO();
memberInviteDAO.makePersistent(memberInvite);
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession().getTransaction().commit();

Do I need to catch a runtime exception as stated in the Hibernate API or is my code fine as above?

Session sess = factory.openSession();
Transaction tx;
try {
tx = sess.beginTransaction();
//do some work
...
tx.commit();
}
catch (Exception e) {
if (tx!=null) tx.rollback();
throw e;
}
finally {
sess.close();
}

Depending on the answers to above, if I'm not persisting objects to the database (only using load), do I need to wrap my code in a try/catch block?

Thanks,
Michael

A runtime exception is an exception, so you code above handle them.

If you do only 'load', no real need to have a transaction.

You always need to begin a transaction, but the question is, do I need to catch a runtime exception and ROLLBACK the transaction when doing a load?

Here is my implementation:

Transaction tx = null;
try {
tx = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession().beginTransaction();
MemberPreferenceDAO memberPreferenceDAO = FACTORY.getMemberPreferenceDAO();
memberPreferenceDAO.makePersistent(memberPreference);
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession().getTransaction().commit();
} catch (RuntimeException e) {
if (tx != null) tx.rollback();
throw e;
}

When you open a transaction, it's better (cleaner) to close it (commit or rollback) so you will have clear boundaries for your transaction.

So yes rollback.

It's fun to experiment, but for production code, you might want to seriously consider an enterprise framework like Spring or EJB or Seam to manage this for you. Saves you from having to write a lot of boiler-plate code like this.

This is what I have heard, but I want to work with Hibernate exclusively (I want to understand well enough) before adding another technology on top of it. This code will likely have to go into production, but I will refactor it at a later point to integrate spring.

Thanks for confirming my question regarding transactions.

Michael