Hibernate example source code file (preface.xml)

This example Hibernate source code file (preface.xml) is included in the DevDaily.com "Java Source Code Warehouse" project. The intent of this project is to help you "Learn Java by Example" ^TM.

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The Hibernate preface.xml source code

<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--
  ~ Hibernate, Relational Persistence for Idiomatic Java
  ~
  ~ Copyright (c) 2010, Red Hat Inc. or third-party contributors as
  ~ indicated by the @author tags or express copyright attribution
  ~ statements applied by the authors.  All third-party contributions are
  ~ distributed under license by Red Hat Inc.
  ~
  ~ This copyrighted material is made available to anyone wishing to use, modify,
  ~ copy, or redistribute it subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU
  ~ Lesser General Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation.
  ~
  ~ This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
  ~ but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
  ~ or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public License
  ~ for more details.
  ~
  ~ You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
  ~ along with this distribution; if not, write to:
  ~ Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  ~ 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
  ~ Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
  -->

<!DOCTYPE preface PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % BOOK_ENTITIES SYSTEM "../Hibernate_Getting_Started_Guide.ent">
%BOOK_ENTITIES;

]>

<preface id="hibernate-gsg-preface">
    <title>Preface

    <!--
        NOTE : This duplicates a lot of the information in the manual preface.  This is a great example of where the
        "content reuse" capabilities of DITA could be leveraged.
    -->

    <para>
        Working with both Object-Oriented software and Relational Databases can be cumbersome and time consuming.
        Development costs are significantly higher due to a paradigm mismatch between how data is represented in objects
        versus relational databases.  Hibernate is an Object/Relational Mapping solution for Java environments.  The
        term Object/Relational Mapping refers to the technique of mapping data between an object model representation to
        a relational data model representation.  See <ulink
        url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-relational_mapping"/> for a good high-level discussion.
    </para>

    <note>
      <para>
        You do not need a strong background in SQL to use Hibernate, but having a basic understanding of the
        concepts can help you understand Hibernate more fully and quickly.  An understanding of data modeling
        principles is especially important.  You might want to consider these resources as a good starting point:
      </para>
      <itemizedlist>
        <title>Data Modeling Resources
        <listitem>
          <para>
            <ulink url="http://www.agiledata.org/essays/dataModeling101.html"/>
          </para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_modeling"/>
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
    </note>

    <para>
        Hibernate takes care of the mapping from Java classes to database tables, and from Java data types to SQL data
        types. In addition, it provides data query and retrieval facilities. It can significantly reduce development
        time otherwise spent with manual data handling in SQL and JDBC.  Hibernate’s design goal is to relieve the
        developer from 95% of common data persistence-related programming tasks by eliminating the need for manual,
        hand-crafted data processing using SQL and JDBC.  However, unlike many other persistence solutions, Hibernate
        does not hide the power of SQL from you and guarantees that your investment in relational technology and
        knowledge is as valid as always.
    </para>

    <para>
        Hibernate may not be the best solution for data-centric applications that only use stored-procedures to
        implement the business logic in the database, it is most useful with object-oriented domain models and business
        logic in the Java-based middle-tier. However, Hibernate can certainly help you to remove or encapsulate
        vendor-specific SQL code and streamlines the common task of translating result sets from a tabular
        representation to a graph of objects.
    </para>

    <section>
        <title>Get Involved
        <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
                <para>
                    Use Hibernate and report any bugs or issues you find. See
                    <ulink url="http://hibernate.org/issuetracker.html"/> for details.
                </para>
            </listitem>
            <listitem>
                <para>
                    Try your hand at fixing some bugs or implementing enhancements. Again, see
                    <ulink url="http://hibernate.org/issuetracker.html"/>.
                </para>
            </listitem>
            <listitem>
                <para>
                    Engage with the community using mailing lists, forums, IRC, or other ways listed at
                    <ulink url="http://hibernate.org/community.html"/>.
                </para>
            </listitem>
            <listitem>
                <para>
                    Help improve or translate this documentation. Contact us on
                    the developer mailing list if you have interest.
                </para>
            </listitem>
            <listitem>
                <para>
                    Spread the word. Let the rest of your organization know about the benefits of
                    Hibernate.<!-- I didn't like 'evangelize'. Too many religious overtones. I'd like something stronger than this though. I'll have a think. -->
                </para>
            </listitem>
        </itemizedlist>
    </section>

    <section>
        <title>Tutorial code
        <para>
            The referenced projects and code for the tutorials in this guide are available at
            <ulink url="files/hibernate-tutorials.zip"/>.
        </para>
    </section>
</preface>