Part II: Mapping concepts and strategies

This part is all about actual object/relational mapping, from classes and properties to tables and columns. chapter 4 starts with regular class and property mappings, and explains how you can map fine-grained Java domain models. Next, in chapter 5, you'll see how to map more complex class inheritance hierarchies and how to extend Hibernate's functionality with the powerful custom mapping type system. In chapters 6 and 7, we show you how to map Java collections and associations between classes, with many sophisticated examples. Finally, you'll find chapter 8 most interesting if you need to introduce Hibernate in an existing applications, or if you have to work with legacy database schemas and hand-written SQL. We also talk about customized SQL DDL for schema generation in this chapter.

After reading this part of the book, you'll be ready to create even the most complex mappings quickly and with the right strategy. You'll understand how the problem of inheritance mapping can be solved, and how collections and associations can be mapped. You'll also be able to tune and customize Hibernate for integration with any existing database schema or application.