Hibernate Tools

Reference Guide

Version: 3.2.0.beta10
Table of Contents
Preface ............................................................................................................................................ iv
1. Download and install Hibernate Tools ........................................................................................ 1
1.1. JBoss Eclipse IDE .............................................................................................................. 1
1.2. Eclipse IDE ....................................................................................................................... 1
1.2.1. Usage of Eclipse WTP ............................................................................................. 1
1.3. Ant .................................................................................................................................... 1
2. Code generation architecture ...................................................................................................... 2
2.1. Hibernate Meta Model ........................................................................................................ 2
2.2. Exporters ........................................................................................................................... 3
3. Eclipse Plugins ............................................................................................................................ 4
3.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 4
3.2. Creating a Hibernate configuration file ................................................................................ 4
3.3. Creating a Hibernate Console configuration ......................................................................... 5
3.4. Reverse engineering and code generation ........................................................................... 10
3.4.1. Code Generation Launcher ..................................................................................... 10
3.4.2. Exporters .............................................................................................................. 12
3.5. Hibernate Mapping and Configuration File Editor .............................................................. 14
3.5.1. Java property/class completion ............................................................................... 14
3.5.2. Table/Column completion ...................................................................................... 15
3.5.3. Configuration property completion ......................................................................... 16
3.6. Reveng.xml editor ............................................................................................................ 16
3.7. Hibernate Console perspective .......................................................................................... 18
3.7.1. Viewing the entity structure ................................................................................... 19
3.7.1.1. Class Diagram ............................................................................................ 19
3.7.2. Prototyping Queries ............................................................................................... 20
3.7.2.1. Dynamic Query Translator .......................................................................... 20
3.7.3. Properties view ...................................................................................................... 21
3.8. Enable debug logging in the plugins .................................................................................. 22
4. Ant Tools ................................................................................................................................... 23
4.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 23
4.2. The <hibernatetool> ant Task ............................................................................................ 23
4.2.1. Basic examples ...................................................................................................... 24
4.3. Hibernate Configurations .................................................................................................. 24
4.3.1. Standard Hibernate Configuration (<configuration>) ............................................... 25
4.3.1.1. Example ..................................................................................................... 25
4.3.2. Annotation based Configuration (<annotationconfiguration>) .................................. 25
4.3.3. JPA based configuration (<jpaconfiguration>) ......................................................... 26
4.3.4. JDBC Configuration for reverse engineering (<jdbcconfiguration>) ......................... 26
4.3.4.1. Example ..................................................................................................... 27
4.4. Exporters ......................................................................................................................... 27
4.4.1. Database schema exporter (<hbm2ddl>) ................................................................. 27
4.4.1.1. Example ..................................................................................................... 28
4.4.2. POJO java code exporter (<hbm2java>) .................................................................. 28
4.4.2.1. Example ..................................................................................................... 28
4.4.3. Hibernate Mapping files exporter (<hbm2hbmxml>) ............................................... 29
4.4.3.1. Example ..................................................................................................... 29
4.4.4. Hibernate Configuration file exporter (<hbm2cfgxml>) ........................................... 29
4.4.5. Documentation exporter (<hbm2doc>) .................................................................... 29

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 Hibernate Tools

4.4.6. Query exporter (<query>) ...................................................................................... 29

4.4.6.1. Examples ................................................................................................... 30
4.4.7. Generic Hibernate metamodel exporter (<hbmtemplate>) ........................................ 30
4.4.7.1. Exporter via <hbmtemplate> ....................................................................... 30
4.5. Using properties to configure Exporters ............................................................................. 31
4.5.1. <property> and <propertyset> ................................................................................ 31
4.5.2. Getting access to user specific classes ..................................................................... 31
4.5.2.1. Example ..................................................................................................... 31
5. Controlling reverse engineering ................................................................................................ 32
5.1. Default reverse engineering strategy .................................................................................. 32
5.2. hibernate.reveng.xml file .................................................................................................. 32
5.2.1. Schema Selection (<schema-selection>) ................................................................. 33
5.2.1.1. Examples ................................................................................................... 33
5.2.2. Type mappings (<type-mapping>) .......................................................................... 33
5.2.2.1. Example ..................................................................................................... 34
5.2.3. Table filters (<table-filter>) .................................................................................... 35
5.2.4. Specific table configuration (<table>) ..................................................................... 35
5.2.4.1. <primary-key> ........................................................................................... 36
5.2.4.2. <column> ................................................................................................... 36
5.2.4.3. <foreign-key> ............................................................................................ 36
5.3. Custom strategy ............................................................................................................... 37
5.4. Custom Database Metadata ............................................................................................... 38
6. Controlling POJO code generation ........................................................................................... 39
6.1. The <meta> attribute ........................................................................................................ 39
6.1.1. Recomendations .................................................................................................... 41
6.1.1.1. Dangers of a class level use-in-string and use-in-equals meta attributes when hav-
ing bi-directional associations .................................................................................. 41
6.1.1.2. Be aware of putting at class scope level <meta> attribute use-in-equals .......... 42
6.1.2. Advanced <meta> attribute examples ..................................................................... 42
6.1.2.1. Generate pre/post-conditions for methods ..................................................... 42

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Preface
Hibernate Tools is a toolset for Hibernate 3 and related projects. The tools provide Ant tasks and Eclipse plu-
gins for performing reverse engineering, code generation, visualization and interaction with Hibernate.

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Chapter 1. Download and install Hibernate Tools
Hibernate tools can be used "standalone" via Ant 1.6.x or fully integrated into a Eclipse 3.2.x based IDE, such
as JBoss Eclipse IDE or a default Eclipse 3.2.x installation. The following describes the install steps in these
environments.

1.1. JBoss Eclipse IDE

JBoss Eclipse IDE 2.x includes Hibernate Tools and thus nothing is required besides downloading and in-
stalling JBoss Eclipse IDE. If you need to update to a newer version of the Hibernate Tools just follow the in-
structions in the Eclipse IDE section.

1.2. Eclipse IDE

To install into any Eclipse 3.2.x based Eclipse IDE you can either download the Hibernate Tools distribution
from the Hibernate website or use the JBoss IDE Eclipse update site (see http://tools.hibernate.org for links to
the update site).

If you download the Hibernate Tools distribution you need to place the /plugins and /feature directory into your
eclipse directory or eclipse extensions directory. Sometimes Eclipse does not automatically detect new plugins
and thus the tools will not be activated. To ensure eclipse sees these changes run eclipse with the -clean option.
E.g. eclipse -clean Using the updatesite does not require any additional steps.

Tip: If you need more basic instructions on installing plugins and general usage of eclipse then check out ht-
tps://eclipse-tutorial.dev.java.net/ and especially ht-
tps://eclipse-tutorial.dev.java.net/visual-tutorials/updatemanager.html which covers using the update manager.

1.2.1. Usage of Eclipse WTP

The Hibernate tools plugins currently uses WTP 1.5.x which at this time is the latest stable release from the Ec-
lipse Webtools project.

Because the WTP project not always have had proper versioning of their plugins there might exist WTP plugins
in your existing eclipse directory from other Eclipse based projects that are from an earlier WTP release but has
either the same version number or higher. It is thus recommended that if you have issues with WTP provided
features to try and install the plugins on a clean install of eclipse to ensure there are no version-collisions.

The tools only include a subset of the WTP 1.5.x plugins, thus if you want full access to the WTP functionallity
the full WTP 1.5.x SDK should be able to instal on top of the plugins without any problems.

1.3. Ant
To use the tools via Ant you need the hibernate-tools.jar and associated libraries. The libraries are included in
the distribution from the Hibernate website and the Eclipse updatesite. The libraries are located in the eclipse
plugins directory at /plugins/org.hibernate.eclipse.x.x.x/lib/tools/.These libraries are 100% inde-
pendent from the eclipse platform. How to use these via ant tasks are described in the Ant chapter.

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Chapter 2. Code generation architecture
The code generation mechanism in the Hibernate Tools consists of a few core concepts. This section explains
their overall structure which are the same for the Ant and Eclipse tools.

2.1. Hibernate Meta Model

The meta model is the model used by Hibernate core to perform its object relational mapping. The model in-
cludes information about tables, columns, classes, properties, components, values, collections etc. The API is in
org.hibernate.mapping and its main entry point is the Configuration class, the same class that is used to
build a session factory.

The model represented by the Configuration class can be build in many ways. The following list the currently
supported ones in Hibernate Tools.

• A Core configuration uses Hibernate Core and supports reading hbm.xml files, requires a hibern-
ate.cfg.xml. Named core in Eclipse and <configuration> in ant.

• A Annotation configuration uses Hibernate Annotations and supports hbm.xml and annotated classes, re-
quires a hibernate.cfg.xml. Named annotations in Eclipse and <annotationconfiguration> in ant.

• A JPA configuration uses a Hibernate EntityManager and supports hbm.xml and annotated classes requires
that the project has a META-INF/persistence.xml in its classpath. Named JPA in Eclipse and
<jpaconfiguration> in ant.

• A JDBC configuration uses Hibernate Tools reverse engineering and reads its mappings via JDBC metadata
+ additional reverse engineering files (reveng.xml). Automatically used in Eclipse when doing reverse en-
gineering from JDBC and named <jdbcconfiguration> in ant.

In most projects you will normally use only one of the Core, Annotation or JPA configuration and possibly the
JDBC configuration if you are using the reverse engineering facilities of Hibernate Tools. The important thing
to note is that no matter which Hibnerate Configuration type you are using Hibernate Tools supports them.

The following drawing illustrates the core concepts:

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 Code generation architecture

The code generation is done based on the Configuration model no matter which type of configuration have
been used to create the meta model, and thus the code generation is independent on the source of the meta mod-
el and represented via Exporters.

2.2. Exporters
Code generation is done in so called Exporters. An Exporter is handed a Hibernate Meta Model represented as
a Configuration instance and it is then the job of the exporter to generate a set of code artifacts.

The tools provides a default set of Exporter's which can be used in both Ant and the Eclipse UI. Documentation
for these Exporters is in the Ant and Eclipse sections.

Users can provide their own customer Exporter's, either by custom classes implementing the Exporter interface
or simply be providing custom templates. This is documented at Section 4.4.7, “Generic Hibernate metamodel
exporter (<hbmtemplate>)”

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Chapter 3. Eclipse Plugins

3.1. Introduction

The following features are available in the Hibernate Tools Eclipse plugins:

Mapping Editor: An editor for Hibernate XML mapping files, supporting auto-completion and syntax high-
lighting. It also supports semantic auto-completion for class names and property/field names, making it much
more versatile than a normal XML editor.

Hibernate Console: The console is a new perspective in Eclipse. It provides an overview of your Hibernate
Console configurations, were you also can get an interactive view of your persistent classes and their relation-
ships. The console allows you to execute HQL queries against your database and browse the result directly in
Eclipse.

Configuration Wizards and Code generation: A set of wizards are provided with the Hibernate Eclipse tools;
you can use a wizard to quickly generate common Hibernate configuration (cfg.xml) files, and from these you
can code generate a series of various artifacts, there is even support for completely reverse engineer an existing
database schema and use the code generation to generate POJO source files and Hibernate mapping files.

Eclipse JDT integration: Hibernate Tools integrates into the Java code completion and build support of Java
in Eclipse. This gives you codecompletion of HQL inside Java code plus Hibernate Tools will add problem
markers if your queries are not valid against the console configuration associated with the project.

Please note that these tools do not try to hide any functionality of Hibernate. The tools make working with Hi-
bernate easier, but you are still encouraged/required to read the documentation for Hibernate to fully utilize Hi-
bernate Tools and especially Hibernate it self.

3.2. Creating a Hibernate configuration file

To be able to reverse engineer, prototype queries, and of course to simply use Hibernate Core a hibern-
ate.properties or hibernate.cfg.xml file is needed. The Hibernate Tools provide a wizard for generating the hi-
bernate.cfg.xml file if you do not already have such file.

Start the wizard by clicking "New Wizard" (Ctrl+N), select the Hibernate/Hibernate Configuration file
(cfg.xml) wizard and press "Next". After selecting the wanted location for the hibernate.cfg.xml file, you will
see the following page:

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Tip: The contents in the combo boxes for the JDBC driver class and JDBC URL change automatically, depend-
ing on the Dialect and actual driver you have chosen.

Enter your configuration information in this dialog. Details about the configuration options can be found in Hi-
bernate reference documentation.

Press "Finish" to create the configuration file, after optionally creating a Console onfiguration, the hibern-
ate.cfg.xml will be automatically opened in an editor. The last option "Create Console Configuration" is en-
abled by default and when enabled i will automatically use the hibernate.cfg.xml for the basis of a "Console
Configuration"

3.3. Creating a Hibernate Console configuration

A Console Configuration describes to the Hibernate plugin how it should configure Hibernate and what config-

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 Eclipse Plugins

uration files, including which classpath is needed to load the POJO's, JDBC drivers etc. It is required to make
usage of query prototyping, reverse engineering and code generation. You can have multiple named console
configurations. Normally you would just need one per project, but more is definitly possible.

You create a console configuration by running the Console Configuration wizard, shown in the following
screenshot. The same wizard will also be used if you are coming from the hibernate.cfg.xml wizard and had en-
abled "Create Console Configuration".

Tip: the wizard will look at the current selection in the IDE and try and auto-detect the settings which you then
can just approve or modify to suit your needs.

Creating a Hibernate Console configuration

The dialog consists of three tabs, "General" for the basic/required settings, "Classpath" for classpath and "Map-
pings" for additional mappings. The two latter ones is normally not required if you specify a project and it has /
hibernate.cfg.xml or /META-INF/persistence.xml in its project classpath.

The following table describes the available settings. The wizard can automatically detect default values for
most of these if you started the Wizard with the relevant java project or resource selected

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Table 3.1. Hibernate Console Configuration Parameters

Parameter Description Auto detected

value

Name The unique name of the console configuration Name of the selec-
ted project

Project The name of a java project which classpath should be used in the Name of the selec-
console configuration ted project

Type Choose between "Core", "Annotations" and "JPA". Note that the No default value
two latter requires running Eclipse IDE with a JDK 5 runtime,
otherwise you will get classloading and/or version errors.

Property file Path to a hibernate.properties file First hibern-

ate.properties file
found in the selec-
ted project

Configuration file Path to a hibernate.cfg.xml file First hibern-

ate.cfg.xml file
found in the selec-
ted project

Persistence unit Name of the persistence unit to use No default value

(lets Hibernate En-
tity Manager find
the persistence unit)

Naming strategy Fully qualified classname of a custom NamingStrategy. Only re- No default value
quired if you use a special naming strategy.

Entity resolver Fully qualified classname of a custom EntityResolver. Only re- No default value
quired if you have special xml entity includes in your mapping
files.

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Specifying classpath in a Hibernate Console configuration

Table 3.2. Hibernate Console Configuration Classpath

Parameter Description Auto detected

value

Classpath The classpath for loading POJO and JDBC drivers; only needed empty
if the default classpath of the Project does not contain the re-
quired classes. Do not add Hibernate core libraries or dependen-
cies, they are already included. If you get ClassNotFound errors
then check this list for possible missing or redundant directories/
jars.

Include default When enabled the project classpath will be appended to the Enabled
classpath from classpath specified above.
project

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Specifying additional mappings in a Hibernate console configuration

Table 3.3. Hibernate Console Configuration Mappings

Parameter Description Auto detected

value

Mapping files List of additional mapping files that should be loaded. Note: A empty
hibernate.cfg.xml or persistence.xml can also contain mappings.
Thus if these are duplicated here, you will get "Duplicate map-
ping" errors when using the console configuration.

Clicking "Finish" creates the configuration and shows it in the "Hibernate Configurations" view

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 Eclipse Plugins

Console overview

3.4. Reverse engineering and code generation

A "click-and-generate" reverse engineering and code generation facility is available. This facility allows you to
generate a range of artifacts based on database or an already existing Hibernate configuration, be that mapping
files or annotated classes. Some of these are POJO Java source file, Hibernate *.hbm.xml, hibernate.cfg.xml
generation and schema documentation.

To start working with this process, start the "Hibernate Code Generation" which is available in the toolbar via
the Hibernate icon or via the "Run/Hibernate Code Generation" menu item.

3.4.1. Code Generation Launcher

When you click on "Hibernate Code Generation" the standard Eclipse launcher dialog will appear. In this dia-
log you can create, edit and delete named Hibernate code generation "launchers".

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The first time you create a code generation launcher you should give it a meaningfull name, otherwise the de-
fault prefix "New_Generation" will be used.

Note: The "At least one exporter option must be selected" is just a warning stating that for this launch to work
you need to select an exporter on the Exporter tab. When an exporter has been selected the warning will disap-
pear.

The dialog also have the standard tabs "Refresh" and "Common" that can be used to configure which director-
ies should be automatically refreshed and various general settings launchers, such as saving them in a project
for sharing the launcher within a team.

On the "Main" tab you see the following fields:

Table 3.4. Code generation "Main" tab fields

Field Description

Console Configuration The name of the console configuration which should be used when code generat-
ing.

Output directory Path to a directory into where all output will be written by default. Be aware that
existing files will be overwritten, so be sure to specify the correct directory.

Reverse engineer from If enabled the tools will reverse engineer the database available via the connec-
JDBC Connection tion information in the selected Hibernate Console Configuration and generate

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 Eclipse Plugins

Field Description

code based on the database schema. If not enabled the code generation will just
be based on the mappings already specified in the Hibernate Console configura-
tion.

Package The package name here is used as the default package name for any entities found
when reverse engineering.

reveng.xml Path to a reveng.xml file. A reveng.xml file allows you to control certain aspects
of the reverse engineering. e.g. how jdbc types are mapped to hibernate types and
especially important which tables are included/excluded from the process. Click-
ing "setup" allows you to select an existing reveng.xml file or create a new one.
See more details about the reveng.xml file in Chapter 5, Controlling reverse en-
gineering.

reveng. strategy If reveng.xml does not provide enough customization you can provide your own
implementation of an ReverseEngineeringStrategy. The class need to be in the
claspath of the Console Configuration, otherwise you will get class not found ex-
ceptions. See Section 5.3, “Custom strategy” for details and an example of a cus-
tom strategy.

Generate basic typed A table that has a multi-colum primary key a <composite-id> mapping will al-
composite ids ways be created. If this option is enabled and there are matching foreign-keys
each key column is still considered a 'basic' scalar (string, long, etc.) instead of a
reference to an entity. If you disable this option a <key-many-to-one> instead.
Note: a <many-to-one> property is still created, but is simply marked as non-
updatable and non-insertable.

Detect optimistic lock Automatically detect optimistic lock columns. Controllable via reveng. strategy;
columns the current default is to use columns named VERSION or TIMESTAMP.

Detect many-to-many Automatically detect many-to-many tables. Controllable via reveng. strategy.
tables

Use custom templates If enabled, the Template directory will be searched first when looking up the tem-
plates, allowing you to redefine how the individual templates process the hibern-
ate mapping model.

Template directory A path to a directory with custom templates.

3.4.2. Exporters

The exporters tab is used to specify which type of code that should be generated. Each selection represents an
"Exporter" that are responsible for generating the code, hence the name.

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 Eclipse Plugins

The following table describes in short the various exporters.

Table 3.5. Code generation "Exporter" tab fields

Field Description

Domain code Generates POJO's for all the persistent classes and components found in the given
Hibernate configuration.

DAO code Generates a set of DAO's for each entity found.

Hibernate XML Map- Generate mapping (hbm.xml) files for each entity
pings

Hibernate XML Config- Generate a hibernate.cfg.xml file. Used to keep the hibernate.cfg.xml uptodate
uration with any new found mapping files.

Schema Documentation Generates set of html pages that documents the database schema and some of the
(.html) mappings.

Each exporter listens to certain properties and these can be setup in the "Properties" section where you can add/
remove predefined or customer properties for each of the exporters. The following table lists the time of writing
pre-defined properties:

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Table 3.6. Exporter Properties

Name Description

jdk5 Generate Java 5 syntax

ejb3 Generate EJB 3 annotations

dot.executable executable to run GraphViz (only relevant, but optional for Schema documenta-
tion)

3.5. Hibernate Mapping and Configuration File Editor

The Hibernate Mapping file editor provides XML editing functionality for the hbm.xml and cfg.xml files. The
editor is based on the Eclipse WTP tools and extend its functionallity to provide hibernate specific code com-
pletion.

3.5.1. Java property/class completion

Package, class, and field completion is enabled for relevant XML attributes. The auto-completion detects it's
context and limits the completion for e.g. <property> and only shows the properties/fields available in the en-
closing <class>, <subclass> etc. It is also possible to navigate from the hbm.xml files to the relevant class/field
in java code.

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 Eclipse Plugins

This is done via the standard hyperlink navigation functionallity in Eclipse; per default it is done by pressing F3
while the cursor is on a class/field or by pressing Ctrl and the mouse button to perform the same navigation.

For java completion and navigation to work the file needs to reside inside an Eclipse Java project, otherwise no
completion will occur. Note: java completion does not require a hibernate console configuration to be used.

3.5.2. Table/Column completion

Table and column completion is also available for all table and column attributes.

Note that it requires a proper configured hibernate console configuration and this configuration should be the
default for the project where the hbm.xml resides.

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 Eclipse Plugins

You can check which console configuration is selected under the Properties of a project and look under the "Hi-
bernate Settings" page. When a proper configuration is selected it will be used to fetch the table/column names
in the background.

Note: Currently it is not recommended to use this feature on large databases since it does not fetch the informa-
tion iteratively. It will be improved in future versions.

3.5.3. Configuration property completion

In cfg.xml code completion for the value of <property> name attributes is available.

3.6. Reveng.xml editor

A reveng.xml file is used to customize and control how reverse engineering is performed by the tools. The plu-
gins provide and editor to ease the editing of this file and hence used to configure the reverse engineering pro-
cess.

The editor is intended to allow easy definition of type mappings, table include/excludes and specific override
settings for columns, e.g. define a explicit name for a column when the default naming rules is not applicable.

Note that not all the features of the .reveng.xml file is exposed or fully implemented in the editor, but the main
functionallity is there. To understand the full flexibility of the reveng.xml, please see Section 5.2,
“hibernate.reveng.xml file”

The editor is activated as soon as an .reveng.xml file is opened. To get an initial reveng.xml file the reveng.xml
wizard can be started via Ctrl+N or via the code generation launcher.

The following screentshot shows the overview page where the wanted console configuration is selected
(auto-detected if Hibernate 3 support is enabled for the project)

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 Eclipse Plugins

The table filter page allows you to specify which tables to include and exclude. Pressing refresh shows the
tables from the database that have not yet been excluded.

Type mappings page is used for specifying type mappings from jdbc types to any hibernate type (including
usertypes) if the default rules are not applicable.

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 Eclipse Plugins

Table Columns page allow the user to explicit set e.g. which hibernatetype and propertyname that should be
used in the reverse engineered model.

3.7. Hibernate Console perspective

The Hibernate Console perspective combines a set of views which allow you to see the structure of your
mapped entities/classes, edit HQL queries, execute the queries, and see the results. To use this perspective you
need to create a console configuration.

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 Eclipse Plugins

3.7.1. Viewing the entity structure

To view your new configuration and entity/class structure, expand the Hibernate Console configuration by
clicking on the + icon.

Clicking on the small + symbol allows you to browse the class/entity structure and see the relationships.

Hibernate Console perspective showing entity structure, query editor and result

3.7.1.1. Class Diagram

A class diagram is available in the view named "Hibernate Entity Model". It will show the model when the
Configuration node in a Hibernate Console Configuration is selected.

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 Eclipse Plugins

This view supports zoom in/out and can also be printed. Zooming is done via the toolbar buttons in the view
and printing is done by selecting the view and choose File/Print or use the Print Icon.

3.7.2. Prototyping Queries

Queries can be prototyped by entering them in the HQL editor. The HQL Editor is opened by right-clicking the
Console configuration and select "HQL Scratchpad".

If the menu item is disabled then you need to first create an SessionFactory. That is done by right clicking the
configuration and select "Create Session Factory" or by simpy expanding the Session Factory node.

Executing the query is done by clicking the green run button in the toolbar or pressing Ctrl+Enter.

Errors during creation of the SessionFactory or running the queries (e.g. if your configuration or query is in-
correct) will be shown in a message dialog or inlined in the view that detected the error, you may get more in-
formation about the error in the Error Log view on the right pane.

Results of a query will be shown in the Query result view and details of possible errors (syntax errors, database
errors, etc.) can be seen in the Error Log view.

Tip: HQL queries are executed using list() and without any limit of the size of the output. Be careful if you
execute a query on a large result set. You might run out of memory. This will be improved in a future version.

3.7.2.1. Dynamic Query Translator

If the "Hibernate Dynamic Query Translator" view is visible while writing in the HQL editor it will show the
generated SQL for a HQL query.

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 Eclipse Plugins

The translation is done each time you stop typing into the editor, if there are an error in the HQL the parse ex-
ception will be shown embedded in the view.

3.7.3. Properties view

The properties view shows the structure of any selected persistent object in the results view. Editing is not yet
supported.

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3.8. Enable debug logging in the plugins

It is possible to configure the eclipse plugin to route all logging made by the plugins and hibernate code it self
to the "Error log" view in Eclipse.

This is done by editing the "hibernate-log4j.properties" in org.hibernate.eclipse/ directory/jar. This file includes
a default configuration that only logs WARN and above to a set of custom appenders (PluginFileAppender and
PluginLogAppender). You can change these settings to be as verbose or silent as you please - see hibernate
documentation for interesting categories and log4j documentation for how to configure logging via a log4j
property file.

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Chapter 4. Ant Tools

4.1. Introduction
The hibernate-tools.jar contains the core for the Hibernate Tools. It is used as the basis for both the Ant tasks
described in this document and the eclipse plugins both available from tools.hibernate.org The hibernate-
tools.jar is located in your eclipse plugins directory at

/plugins/org.hibernate.eclipse.x.x.x/lib/tools/hibernate-tools.jar
. This jar is 100% independent from the eclipse platform and can thus be used independently of eclipse.

Note: until Hibernate 3.2 and related libraries are finally released there might be incompabilities with respect to
the tools. Thus to avoid any confusion it is recommended to use the hibernate3.jar & hibernate-annotations.jar
bundled with the tools when you want to use the Ant tasks. Do not worry about using e.g. Hibernate 3.2 jar's
with e.g. an Hibernate 3.1 project since the output generated will work with previous Hibernate 3 versions.

4.2. The <hibernatetool> ant Task

To use the ant tasks you need to have the hibernatetool task defined. That is done in your build.xml by inserting
the following xml (assuming the jars are in the lib directory):

<path id="toolslib">
<path location="lib/hibernate-tools.jar" />
<path location="lib/hibernate3.jar" />
<path location="lib/freemarker.jar" />
<path location="${jdbc.driver.jar}" />
</path>

<taskdef name="hibernatetool"
classname="org.hibernate.tool.ant.HibernateToolTask"
classpathref="toolslib" />

this <taskdef> defines a Ant task called <hibernatetool> which now can be used anywhere in your ant
build.xml files. It is important to include all the hibernate tools dependencies as well as the jdbc driver.

Notice that to use the annotation based Configuration you must get a release from ht-
tp://annotations.hibernate.org.

When using the <hibernatetool> task you have to specify one or more of the following:

<hibernatetool
destdir="defaultDestinationDirectory" (1)
templatepath="defaultTemplatePath" (2)
> (3)
<classpath ...>
<property key="propertyName" value="value"/>
<propertyset ...> (4)
(<configuration ...>|<annotationconfiguration ...>| (5)
<jpaconfiguration ...>|<jdbcconfiguration ...>)
(<hbm2java>,<hbm2cfgxml>,<hbmtemplate>,...*) (6)
</hibernatetool>

(1) destdir (required): destination directory for files generated with exporters.

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(2) templatepath (optional): A path to be used to look up user-edited templates.

(3) classpath (optional): A classpath to be used to resolve resources, such as mappings and usertypes. Op-
tional, but very often required.
(4) property and propertyset (optional): Used to set properties to control the exporters. Mostly relevant for
providing custom properties to user defined templates.
(5) One of 4 different ways of configuring the Hibernate Meta Model must be specified.
(6) One or more of the exporters must be specified

4.2.1. Basic examples

The following example shows the most basic setup for generating pojo's via hbm2java from a normal hibern-
ate.cfg.xml. The output will be put in the ${build.dir}/generated directory.

<hibernatetool destdir="${build.dir}/generated">
<configuration configurationfile="hibernate.cfg.xml"/>
<hbm2java/>
</hibernatetool>

The following example is similar, but now we are performing multiple exports from the same configuration.
We are exporting the schema via hbm2dll, generates some DAO code via <hbm2dao> and finally runs a cus-
tom code generation via <hbmtemplate>. This is again from a normal hibernate.cfg.xml and the output is
still put in the ${build.dir}/generated directory. Furthermore the example also shows where a classpath is
specified when you e.g. have custom usertypes or some mappings that is needed to be looked up as a classpath
resource.

<hibernatetool destdir="${build.dir}/generated">
<classpath>
<path location="${build.dir}/classes"/>
</classpath>

<configuration configurationfile="hibernate.cfg.xml"/>
<hbm2ddl/>
<hbm2dao/>
<hbmtemplate
filepattern="{package-name}/I{class-name}Constants.java"
templatepath="${etc.dir}/customtemplates"
template="myconstants.vm"
/>
</hibernatetool>

4.3. Hibernate Configurations

hibernatetool supports four different Hibernate configurations: A standard Hibernate configuration
(<configuration>), Annotation based configuration (<annotationconfiguration>), JPA persistence based
configuration (<jpaconfiguration>) and a JDBC based configuration (<jdbcconfiguration>) for use when
reverse engineering.

Each have in common that they are able to build up a Hibernate Configuration object from which a set of ex-
porters can be run to generate various output. Note: output can be anything, e.g. specific files, statments execu-
tion against a database, error reporting or anything else that can be done in java code.

The following section decribes what the the various configuration can do, plus list the individual settings they
have.

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4.3.1. Standard Hibernate Configuration (<configuration>)

A <configuration> is used to define a standard Hibernate configuration. A standard Hibernate configuration

reads the mappings from a cfg.xml and/or a fileset.

<configuration
configurationfile="hibernate.cfg.xml" (1)
propertyfile="hibernate.properties" (2)
entityresolver="EntityResolver classname" (3)
namingstrategy="NamingStrategy classname" (4)
>
<fileset...> (5)

</configuration>

(1) configurationfile (optional): The name of a Hibernate configuration file, e.g. "hibernate.cfg.xml"
(2) propertyfile (optional): The name of a property file, e.g. "hibernate.properties"
(3) entity-resolver (optional): name of a class that implements org.xml.sax.EntityResolver. Used if the
mapping files require custom entity resolver.
(4) namingstrategy (optional): name of a class that implements org.hibernate.cfg.NamingStrategy. Used for
setting up the naming strategy in Hibernate which controls the automatic naming of tables and columns.
(5) A standard Ant fileset. Used to include hibernate mapping files.Remember that if mappings are already
specified in the hibernate.cfg.xml then it should not be included via the fileset as it will result in duplicate
import exceptions.

4.3.1.1. Example

This example shows an example where no hibernate.cfg.xml exists, and a hibernate.properties + fileset is
used instead. Note, that Hibernate will still read any global /hibernate.properties available in the classpath,
but the specified properties file here will override those values for any non-global property.

<hibernatetool destdir="${build.dir}/generated">
<configuration propertyfile="{etc.dir}/hibernate.properties">
<fileset dir="${src.dir}">
<include name="**/*.hbm.xml"/>
<exclude name="**/*Test.hbm.xml"/>
</fileset>
</configuration>

<!-- list exporters here -->

</hibernatetool>

4.3.2. Annotation based Configuration (<annotationconfiguration>)

An <annotationconfiguration> is used when you want to read the metamodel from EJB3/Hibernate Annota-
tions based POJO's. To use it remember to put the jars file needed for using hibernate annotations in the
classpath of the <taskdef>.

The <annotationconfiguration> supports the same attributes as an <configuration> except that the configura-
tionfile attribute is now required as that is from where an AnnotationConfiguration gets the list of classes/
packages it should load.

Thus the minimal usage is:

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<hibernatetool destdir="${build.dir}/generated">
<annotationconfiguration
configurationfile="hibernate.cfg.xml"/>

<!-- list exporters here -->

</hibernatetool>

4.3.3. JPA based configuration (<jpaconfiguration>)

An <jpaconfiguration> is used when you want to read the metamodel from JPA/Hibernate Annotation where
you want to use the auto-scan configuration as defined in the JPA spec (part of EJB3). In other words, when
you do not have a hibernate.cfg.xml, but instead have a setup where you use a persistence.xml packaged in
an JPA compliant manner.

<jpaconfiguration> will simply just try and auto-configure it self based on the available classpath, e.g. look
for META-INF/persistence.xml.

The persistenceunit attribute can be used to select a specific persistence unit. If no persistenceunit is spe-
cified it will automatically search for one and if a unique one is found use it, but if multiple persistence units
are available it will error.

To use an <jpaconfiguration> you will need to specify some additional jars from Hibernate EntityManager in
the <taskdef> of the hibernatetool. The following shows a full setup:

<path id="ejb3toolslib">
<path refid="jpatoolslib"/> <!-- ref to previously defined toolslib -->
<path location="lib/hibernate-annotations.jar" />
<path location="lib/ejb3-persistence.jar" />
<path location="lib/hibernate-entitymanager.jar" />
<path location="lib/jboss-archive-browsing.jar" />
<path location="lib/javaassist.jar" />
</path>

<taskdef name="hibernatetool"
classname="org.hibernate.tool.ant.HibernateToolTask"
classpathref="jpatoolslib" />

<hibernatetool destdir="${build.dir}">
<jpaconfiguration persistenceunit="caveatemptor"/>
<classpath>
<!-- it is in this classpath you put your classes dir,
and/or jpa persistence compliant jar -->
<path location="${build.dir}/jpa/classes" />
</classpath>

<!-- list exporters here -->

</hibernatetool>

Note: ejb3configuration were the name used in previous versions. It still works but will emit a warning
telling you to use jpaconfiguration instead.

4.3.4. JDBC Configuration for reverse engineering (<jdbcconfiguration>)

A <jdbcconfiguration> is used to perform reverse engineering of the database from a JDBC connection.

This configuration works by reading the connection properties from

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The <jdbcconfiguration> has the same attributes as a <configuration> plus the following additional attrib-
utes:

<jdbcconfiguration
...
packagename="package.name" (1)
revengfile="hibernate.reveng.xml" (2)
reversestrategy="ReverseEngineeringStrategy classname"(3)
detectmanytomany="true|false" (4)
detectoptmisticlock="true|false" (5)
>
...
</jdbcconfiguration>

(1) packagename (optional): The default package name to use when mappings for classes is created
(2) revengfile (optional): name of reveng.xml that allows you to control various aspects of the reverse en-
gineering.
(3) reversestrategy (optional): name of a class that implements
org.hibernate.cfg.reveng.ReverseEngineeringStrategy. Used for setting up the strategy the tools
will use to control the reverse engineering, e.g. naming of properties, which tables to include/exclude etc.
Using a class instead of (or as addition to) a reveng.xml file gives you full programmatic control of the re-
verse engineering.
(4) detectManytoMany (default:true): If true (the default) tables which are pure many-to-many link tables will
be mapped as such. A pure many-to-many table is one which primary-key contains has exactly two for-
eign-keys pointing to other entity tables and has no other columns.
(5) detectOptimisticLock (efault:true): If true columns named VERSION or TIMESTAMP with appropriate
types will be mapped with the apropriate optimistic locking corresponding to <version> or <timestamp>

4.3.4.1. Example

Here is an example of using <jdbcconfiguration> to generate Hibernate xml mappings via <hbm2hbmxml>.
The connection settings is here read from a hibernate.properties file but could just as well have been read
from a hibernate.cfg.xml.

<hibernatetool>
<jdbcconfiguration propertyfile="etc/hibernate.properties" />
<hbm2hbmxml destdir="${build.dir}/src" />
</hibernatetool>

4.4. Exporters
Exporters is the parts that does the actual job of converting the hibernate metamodel into various artifacts,
mainly code. The following section describes the current supported set of exporters in the Hibernate Tool distri-
bution. It is also possible for userdefined exporters, that is done through the <hbmtemplate> exporter.

4.4.1. Database schema exporter (<hbm2ddl>)

<hbm2ddl> lets you run schemaexport and schemaupdate which generates the appropriate SQL DDL and allow
you to store the result in a file or export it directly to the database. Remember that if a custom naming strategy
is needed it is placed on the configuration element.

<hbm2ddl
export="true|false" (1)

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update="true|false" (2)
drop="true|false" (3)
create="true|false" (4)
outputfilename="filename.ddl" (5)
delimiter=";" (6)
format="true|false" (7)(8)
haltonerror="true|false"
>

(1) export (default: true): Execute the generated statements against the database
(2) update(default: false): Try and create an update script representing the "delta" between what is in the data-
base and what the mappings specify. Ignores create/update attributes. (Do *not* use against production
databases, no guarantees at all that the proper delta can be generated nor that the underlying database
can actually execute the needed operations)
(3) drop (default: false): Output will contain drop statements for the tables, indices & constraints
(4) create (default: true): Output will contain create statements for the tables, indices & constraints
(5) outputfilename (Optional): If specified the statements will be dumped to this file.
(6) delimiter (default: ";"): What delimter to use to separate statements
(7) format (default: false): Apply basic formatting to the statements.
(8) haltonerror (default: false): Halt build process if an error occurs.

4.4.1.1. Example

Basic example of using <hbm2ddl>, which does not export to the database but simply dumps the sql to a file
named sql.ddl.

<hibernatetool destdir="${build.dir}/generated">
<configuration configurationfile="hibernate.cfg.xml"/>
<hbm2ddl export="false" outputfilename="sql.ddl"/>
</hibernatetool>

4.4.2. POJO java code exporter (<hbm2java>)

<hbm2java> is a java codegenerator. Options for controlling wether JDK 5 syntax can be used and wether the
POJO should be annotated with EJB3/Hibernate Annotations.

<hbm2java
jdk5="true|false" (1)
ejb3="true|false" (2)
>

(1) jdk (default: false): Code will contain JDK 5 constructs such as generics and static imports
(2) ejb3 (default: false): Code will contain EJB 3 features, e.g. using annotations from javax.persistence and
org.hibernate.annotations

4.4.2.1. Example

Basic example of using <hbm2java> to generate POJO's that utilize jdk5 constructs.

<hibernatetool destdir="${build.dir}/generated">
<configuration configurationfile="hibernate.cfg.xml"/>
<hbm2java jdk5="true"/>
</hibernatetool>

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4.4.3. Hibernate Mapping files exporter (<hbm2hbmxml>)

<hbm2hbmxml> generates a set of .hbm files. Intended to be used together with a <jdbcconfiguration> when
performing reverse engineering, but can be used with any kind of configuration. e.g. to convert from annotation
based pojo's to hbm.xml. Note that not every possible mapping transformation is possible/implemented
(contributions welcome) so some hand editing might be necessary.

<hbm2hbmxml/>

4.4.3.1. Example

Basic usage of <hbm2hbmxml>

<hibernatetool destdir="${build.dir}/generated">
<configuration configurationfile="hibernate.cfg.xml"/>
<hbm2hbmxml/>
</hibernatetool>

<hbm2hbmxml> is normally used with a <jdbcconfiguration> like in the above example, but any other config-
uration can also be used to convert between the different ways of performing mappings. Here is an example of
that, using an <annotationconfiguration>. Note: not all conversions is implemented (contributions welcome), so
some hand editing might be necessary.

<hibernatetool destdir="${build.dir}/generated">
<annotationconfiguration configurationfile="hibernate.cfg.xml"/>
<hbm2hbmxml/>
</hibernatetool>

4.4.4. Hibernate Configuration file exporter (<hbm2cfgxml>)

<hbm2cfgxml> generates a hibernate.cfg.xml. Intended to be used together with a <jdbcconfiguration> when

performing reverse engineering, but can be used with any kind of configuration. The <hbm2cfgxml> will con-
tain the properties used and adds mapping entries for each mapped class.

<hbm2cfgxml
ejb3="true|false" (1)
/>

(1) ejb3 (default: false): the generated cfg.xml will have <mapping class=".."/>, opposed to <mapping re-
source="..."/> for each mapping.

4.4.5. Documentation exporter (<hbm2doc>)

<hbm2doc> generates html documentation a'la javadoc for the database schema et.al.

<hbm2doc/>

4.4.6. Query exporter (<query>)

<query> is used to execute a HQL query statements and optionally send the output to a file. Can be used for
verifying the mappings and for basic data extraction.

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<query
destfile="filename">
<hql>[a HQL query string]</hql>
</query>

Currently one session is opened and used for all queries and the query is executed via the list() method. In the
future more options might become available, like performing executeUpdate(), use named queries etc.

4.4.6.1. Examples

Simplest usage of <query> will just execute the query without dumping to a file. This can be used to verify that
queries can actually be performed.

<hibernatetool>
<configuration configurationfile="hibernate.cfg.xml"/>
<query>from java.lang.Object</query>
</hibernatetool>

Multiple queries can be executed by nested <hql> elements. In this example we also let the output be dumped
to queryresult.txt. Note that currently the dump is simply a call to toString on each element.

<hibernatetool>
<configuration configurationfile="hibernate.cfg.xml"/>
<query destfile="queryresult.txt">
<hql>select c.name from Customer c where c.age > 42</hql>
<hql>from Cat</hql>
</hibernatetool>

4.4.7. Generic Hibernate metamodel exporter (<hbmtemplate>)

Generic exporter that can be controlled by a user provided template or class.

<hbmtemplate
filepattern="{package-name}/{class-name}.ftl"
template="somename.ftl"
exporterclass="Exporter classname"
/>

NOTICE: Previous versions of the tools used Velocity. We are now using Freemarker which provides us much
better exception and error handling.

4.4.7.1. Exporter via <hbmtemplate>

The following is an example of reverse engineering via <jdbcconfiguration> and use a custom Exporter via
the <hbmtemplate>.

<hibernatetool destdir="${destdir}">
<jdbcconfiguration
configurationfile="hibernate.cfg.xml"
packagename="my.model"/>

<!-- setup properties -->

<property key="appname" value="Registration"/>
<property key="shortname" value="crud"/>

<hbmtemplate
exporterclass="my.own.Exporter"

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filepattern="."/>

</hibernatetool>

4.5. Using properties to configure Exporters

Exporters can be controlled by user properties. The user properties is specificed via <property> or
<propertyset> and each exporter will have access to them directly in the templates and via Export-
er.setProperties().

4.5.1. <property> and <propertyset>

The <property> allows you bind a string value to a key. The value will be available in the templates via
$<key>. The following example will assign the string value "true" to the variable $descriptors

<property key="descriptors" value="true"/>

Most times using <property> is enough for specifying the properties needed for the exporters. Still the ant
tools supports the notion of <propertyset>. The functionallity of <propertyset> is explained in detail in the
Ant task manual.

4.5.2. Getting access to user specific classes

If the templates need to access some user class it is possible by specifying a "toolclass" in the properties.

<property key="hibernatetool.sometool.toolclass" value="x.y.z.NameOfToolClass"/>

Placing the above <property> tag in <hibernatetool> or inside any exporter will automatically create an in-
stance of x.y.z.NameOfToolClass and it will be available in the templates as $sometool. This is usefull to del-
egate logic and code generation to java code instead of placing such logic in the templates.

4.5.2.1. Example

Here is an example that uses <hbmtemplate> together with <property> which will be available to the templates/
exporter. Note: This example actually simulates what <hbm2java> actually does.

<hibernatetool destdir="${build.dir}/generated">
<configuration
configurationfile="etc/hibernate.cfg.xml"/>
<hbmtemplate
templateprefix="pojo/"
template="pojo/Pojo.ftl"
filepattern="{package-name}/{class-name}.java">
<property key="jdk5" value="true" />
<property key="ejb3" value="true" />
</hbmtemplate>
</hibernatetool>

Hibernate 3.2.0.beta10 31
Chapter 5. Controlling reverse engineering
When using the <jdbcconfiguration> the ant task will read the database metadata and from that perform a re-
verse engineering of the database schema into a normal Hibernate Configuration. It is from this object e.g.
>hbm2java< can generate other artifacts such as .java, .hbm.xml etc.

To govern this process Hibernate uses a reverse engineering strategy. A reverse engineering strategy is mainly
called to provide more java like names for tables, column and foreignkeys into classes, properties and associ-
ations. It also used to provide mappings from SQL types to Hibernate types. The strategy can be customized by
the user. The user can even provide its own custom reverse engineering strategy if the provided strategy is not
enough, or simply just provide a small part of the strategy and delegate the rest to the default strategy.

5.1. Default reverse engineering strategy

The default strategy uses some rules for mapping JDBC artifact names to java artifact names. It also provide
basic typemappings from JDBC types to Hibernate types. It is the default strategy that uses the packagename
attribute to convert a table name to a fully qualified classname.

5.2. hibernate.reveng.xml file

To have fine control over the process a hibernate.reveng.xml file can be provided. In this file you can specify
type mappings and table filtering. This file can be created by hand (its just basic XML) or you can use the Hi-
bernate plugins which have a specialized editor.

Note: many databases is case-sensitive with their names and thus if you cannot make some table match and you
are sure it is not excluded by a <table-filter> then check if the case matches; most databases stores table names
in uppercase.

The following is an example of a reveng.xml. Following the example is more details about the format.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE hibernate-reverse-engineering
SYSTEM "http://hibernate.sourceforge.net/hibernate-reverse-engineering-3.0.dtd" >

<hibernate-reverse-engineering>

<type-mapping>
<!-- jdbc-type is name fom java.sql.Types -->
<sql-type jdbc-type="VARCHAR" length='20' hibernate-type="SomeUserType" />
<sql-type jdbc-type="VARCHAR" length='1' hibernate-type="yes_no" />
<!-- length, scale and precision can be used to specify the mapping precisly -->
<sql-type jdbc-type="NUMERIC" precision='1' hibernate-type="boolean" />
<!-- the type-mappings are ordered. This mapping will be consulted last,
thus overriden by the previous one if precision=1 for the column -->
<sql-type jdbc-type="NUMERIC" hibernate-type="long" />
</type-mapping>

<!-- BIN$ is recycle bin tables in Oracle -->

<table-filter match-name="BIN$.*" exclude="true" />

<!-- Exclude DoNotWantIt from all catalogs/schemas -->

<table-filter match-name="DoNotWantIt" exclude="true" />

<!-- exclude all tables from the schema SCHEMA in catalog BAD. -->
<table-filter match-catalog="BAD" match-schema="SCHEMA" match-name=".*" exclude="true" />

<!-- table allows you to override/define how reverse engineering

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 Controlling reverse engineering

are done for a specific table -->

<table name="ORDERS">
<primary-key>
<!-- setting up a specific id generator for a table -->
<generator class="sequence">
<param name="table">seq_table</param>
</generator>
<key-column name="CUSTID"/>
</primary-key>
<column name="NAME" property="orderName" type="string" />
<!-- control many-to-one and set names for a specific named foreign key constraint -->
<foreign-key constraint-name="ORDER_CUST">
<many-to-one property="customer"/>
<set property="orders"/>
</foreign-key>
</table>

</hibernate-reverse-engineering>

5.2.1. Schema Selection (<schema-selection>)

<schema-selection> is used to drive which schema's the reverse engineering will try and process.

By default the reverse engineering will read all schemas and then use <table-filter> to decide which tables
get reverse engineered and which do not; this makes it easy to get started but can be inefficient on databases
with many schemas.

With <schema-selection> it is thus possible to limit the actual processed schemas and thus significantly
speed-up the reverse engineering. <table-filter> is still used to then decide which tables will be included/ex-
cluded.

Note: If no <schema-selection> is specified, the reverse engineering works as if all schemas should be pro-
cessed. This is equal to:

<schema-selection/>

which in turn is equal to:

<schema-selection match-catalog=".*" match-schema=".*" match-table=".*"/>

5.2.1.1. Examples

The following will process all tables from MY_SCHEMA.

<schema-selection match-schema="MY_SCHEMA"/>

It is possible to have multiple schema-selection's to support multi-schema reading or simply to limit the pro-
cessing to very specific tables. The following example process all tables in MY_SCHEMA, a specific CITY ta-
ble plus all tables that starts with CODES_ in COMMON_SCHEMA.

<schema-selection match-schema="MY_SCHEMA"/>
<schema-selection match-schema="COMMON_SCHEMA" match-table="CITY"/>
<schema-selection match-schema="COMMON_SCHEMA" match-table="CODES_.*"/>

5.2.2. Type mappings (<type-mapping>)

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 Controlling reverse engineering

The <type-mapping> section specifies how the JDBC types found in the database should be mapped to Hibern-
ate types. e.g. java.sql.Types.VARCHAR with a length of 1 should be mapped to the Hibernate type yes_no or
java.sql.Types.NUMERIC should generally just be converted to the Hibernate type long.

<type-mapping>
<sql-type
jdbc-type="integer value or name from java.sql.Types"
length="a numeric value"
precision="a numeric value"
scale="a numeric value"
not-null="true|false"
hibernate-type="hibernate type name"
/>
</type-mapping>

The number of attributes specificed and the sequence of the sql-type's is important. Meaning that Hibernate
will search for the most specific first, and if no specific match is found it will seek from top to bottom when
trying to resolve a type mapping.

5.2.2.1. Example

The following is an example of a type-mapping which shows the flexibility and the importance of ordering of
the type mappings.

<type-mapping>
<sql-type jdbc-type="NUMERIC" precision="15" hibernate-type="big_decimal"/>
<sql-type jdbc-type="NUMERIC" not-null="true" hibernate-type="long" />
<sql-type jdbc-type="NUMERIC" not-null="false" hibernate-type="java.lang.Long" />
<sql-type jdbc-type="VARCHAR" length="1" not-null="true" hibernate-type="java.lang.Character"/>
<sql-type jdbc-type="VARCHAR" hibernate-type="your.package.TrimStringUserType"/>
<sql-type jdbc-type="VARCHAR" length="1" hibernate-type="char"/>
<sql-type jdbc-type="VARCHAR" hibernate-type="string"/>
</type-mapping>

The following table shows how this affects an example table named CUSTOMER:

Table 5.1. sql-type examples

Column jdbc-type lengt pre- not- Resulting hi- Rationale

h cisio null bernate-type
n

ID INTEGER 10 true int Nothing defined for INTEGER.

Falling back to default behavior.

NAME VARCHAR 30 false your.package.T No type-mapping matches

rimStringUser- length=30 and not-null=false, but
Type type-mapping matches the 2 map-
pings which only specifies
VARCHAR. The type-mapping
that comes first is chosen.

INITIAL VARCHAR 1 false char Even though there is a generic

match for VARCHAR, the more
specifc type-mapping for
VARCHAR with not-null="false"
is chosen. The first VARCHAR
sql-type matches in length but has

Hibernate 3.2.0.beta10 34
 Controlling reverse engineering

Column jdbc-type lengt pre- not- Resulting hi- Rationale

h cisio null bernate-type
n

no value for not-null and thus is

not considered.

CODE VARCHAR 1 true java.lang.Chara The most specific VARCHAR

cter with not-null="true" is selected.

SALARY NUMERIC 15 false big_decimal There is a precise match for NU-

MERIC with precision 15

AGE NUMERIC 3 false java.lang.Long type-mapping for NUMERIC

with not-null="false"

5.2.3. Table filters (<table-filter>)

The <table-filter> let you specifcy matching rules for performing general filtering/setup for tables, e.g. let you
include or exclude specific tables based on the schema or even a specifc prefix.

<table-filter
match-catalog="catalog_matching_rule" (1)
match-schema="schema_matching_rule" (2)
match-name="table_matching_rule" (3)
exclude="true|false" (4)
package="package.name" (5)
/>

(1) match-catalog (default: .*): Pattern for matching catalog part of the table
(2) match-schema (default: .*): Pattern for matching schema part of the table
(3) match-table (default: .*): Pattern for matching table part of the table
(4) exclude (default: false): if true the table will not be part of the reverse engineering
(5) package (default: ""): The default package name to use for classes based on tables matched by this table-
filter

5.2.4. Specific table configuration (<table>)

<table> allows you to provide explicit configuration on how a table should be reverse engineered. Amongst
other things it allow control over the naming of a class for the table, specify which identifier generator should
be used for the primary key etc.

<table
catalog="catalog_name" (1)
schema="schema_name" (2)
name="table_name" (3)
class="ClassName" (4)
>
<primary-key.../>
<column.../>
<foreign-key.../>
</table>

(1) catalog (Optional): Catalog name for table. Has to be specified if you are reverse engineering multiple
catalogs or if it is not equal to hiberante.default_catalog
(2) schema (Optional): Schema name for table. Has to be specified if you are reverse engineering multiple

Hibernate 3.2.0.beta10 35
 Controlling reverse engineering

schemas or if it is not equal to hiberante.default_schema

(3) name (Required): Name for table
(4) clase (Optional): The class name for table. Default name is camelcase version of the table name.

5.2.4.1. <primary-key>

A <primary-key> allows you to define a primary-key for tables that does not have such defined in the database,
and probably more importantly it allows you to define which identifier strategy that should be used (even for
already existing primary-key's).

<primary-key
<generator class="generatorname"> (1)
<param name="param_name">parameter value</param> (2)
</generator>
<key-column...> (3)
</primary-key>

(1) generator/class (Optional): defines which identifier generator should be used. The class name is any hi-
bernate short hand name or fully quailfied class name for an identifier strategy.
(2) generator/param (Optional): Allows to specify which parameter with name and value should be passed to
the identifier generator
(3) key-column (Optional): Specifies which column(s ) the primary-key consists of. A key-column is same as
column, but does not have the exclude property.

5.2.4.2. <column>

With a <column> it is possible to explicitly name the resulting property for a column. It is also possible to re-
define what jdbc and/or hibernate type a column should be processed and finally it is possible to completely ex-
clude a column from processing.

<column
name="column_name" (1)
jdbc-type="java.sql.Types type" (2)
type="hibernate_type" (3)
property="propertyName" (4)
exclude="true|false" (5)
/>

(1) name (Required): Column name

(2) jdbc-type (Optional): Which jdbc-type this column should be processed as. A value from java.sql.Types,
either numerical (93) or the constant name (TIMESTAMP).
(3) type (Optional): Which hibernate-type to use for this specific column.
(4) property (Optional): What property name will be generated for this column.
(5) exclude (default: false): set to true if this column should be ignored.

5.2.4.3. <foreign-key>

The <foreign-key> has two purposes. One for allowing to define foreign-keys in databases that does not sup-
port them or does not have them defined in their schema. Secondly, to allow defining the name of the resulting
properties (many-to-one and one-to-many's).

Note

<foreign-key
constraint-name="foreignKeyName" (1)
foreign-catalog="catalogName" (2)

Hibernate 3.2.0.beta10 36
 Controlling reverse engineering

foreign-schema="schemaName" (3)
foreign-table="tableName" (4)
>
<column-ref local-column="columnName" foreign-column=(5)"foreignColumnName"/>
<many-to-one (6)
property="aPropertyName"
exclude="true|false"/> (7)
<set
property="aCollectionName"
exclude="true|false"/>
</foreign-key>

(1) constraint-name (Required): Name of the foreign key constraint. Important when naming many-to-one
and set. It is the constraint-name that is used to link the processed foreign-keys with the resulting property
names.
(2) foreign-catalog (Optional): Name of the foreign table's catalog. (Only relevant if you want to explicitly
define a foreign key)
(3) foreign-schema (Optional): Name of the foreign table's schema. (Only relevant if you want to explicitly
define a foreign key)
(4) foreign-table (Optional): Name of the foreign table. (Only relevant if you want to explicitly define a for-
eign key)
(5) column-ref (Optional): Defines that the foreign-key constraint between a local-column and foreign-
column name. (Only relevant if you want to explicitly define a foreign key)
(6) many-to-one (Optional): Defines that a many-to-one should be created and the property attribute specifies
the name of the resulting property. Exclude can be used to explicitly define that it should be created or
not.
(7) set (Optional): Defines that a set should be created based on this foreign-key and the property attribute
specifies the name of the resulting (set) property. Exclude can be used to explicitly define that it should be
created or not.

5.3. Custom strategy

It is possible to implement a user strategy. Such strategy must implement
org.hibernate.cfg.reveng.ReverseEngineeringStrategy. It is recommended that one uses the DelegatingRe-
verseEngineeringStrategy and provide a public constructor which takes another ReverseEngineeringStrategy as
argument. This will allow you to only implement the relevant methods and provide a fallback strategy. Ex-
ample of custom delegating strategy which converts all column names that ends with "PK" into a property
named "id".

public class ExampleStrategy extends DelegatingReverseEngineeringStrategy {

public ExampleStrategy(ReverseEngineeringStrategy delegate) {

super(delegate);
}

public String columnToPropertyName(TableIdentifier table, String column) {

if(column.endsWith("PK")) {
return "id";
} else {
return super.columnToPropertyName(table, column);
}
}
}

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 Controlling reverse engineering

5.4. Custom Database Metadata

By default the reverse engineering is performed by reading using the JDBC database metadata API. This is
done via the class org.hibernate.cfg.reveng.dialect.JDBCMetaDataDialect which is an implementation of
org.hibernate.cfg.reveng.dialect.MetaDataDialect.

The default implementation can be replaced with an alternative implementation by setting the property hibern-
atetool.metadatadialect to a fully qualified classname for a class that implements JDBCMetaDataDialect.

This can be used to provide database specific optimized metadata reading. If you create an optimized/better
metadata reading for your database it will be a very welcome contribution.

Hibernate 3.2.0.beta10 38
Chapter 6. Controlling POJO code generation
When using <hbm2java> or the eclipse plugin to generate POJO java code you have the possibility to control
certain aspects of the code generation. This is primarily done through the <meta> tag in the mapping files. The
following section describes the possible meta tags and their use.

6.1. The <meta> attribute

The <meta> tag is a simple way of annotating the hbm.xml with information, so tools have a natural place to
store/read information that is not directly related to the Hibernate core.

You can use the <meta> tag to e.g. tell hbm2java to only generate "protected" setters, have classes always im-
plement a certain set of interfaces or even have them extend a certain base class and even more.

The following example shows how to use various <meta> attributes and the resulting java code.

<class name="Person">
<meta attribute="class-description">
Javadoc for the Person class
@author Frodo
</meta>
<meta attribute="implements">IAuditable</meta>
<id name="id" type="long">
<meta attribute="scope-set">protected</meta>
<generator class="increment"/>
</id>
<property name="name" type="string">
<meta attribute="field-description">The name of the person</meta>
</property>
</class>

The above hbm.xml will produce something like the following (code shortened for better understanding). No-
tice the Javadoc comment and the protected set methods:

// default package

import java.io.Serializable;
import org.apache.commons.lang.builder.EqualsBuilder;
import org.apache.commons.lang.builder.HashCodeBuilder;
import org.apache.commons.lang.builder.ToStringBuilder;

/**
* Javadoc for the Person class
* @author Frodo
*/
public class Person implements Serializable, IAuditable {

public Long id;

public String name;

public Person(java.lang.String name) {

this.name = name;
}

public Person() {
}

public java.lang.Long getId() {

return this.id;
}

Hibernate 3.2.0.beta10 39
 Controlling POJO code generation

protected void setId(java.lang.Long id) {

this.id = id;
}

/**
* The name of the person
*/
public java.lang.String getName() {
return this.name;
}

public void setName(java.lang.String name) {

this.name = name;
}

Table 6.1. Supported meta tags

Attribute Description

class-description inserted into the javadoc for classes

field-description inserted into the javadoc for fields/properties

interface If true an interface is generated instead of an class.

implements interface the class should implement

extends class the class should extend (ignored for subclasses)

generated-class overrule the name of the actual class generated

scope-class scope for class

scope-set scope for setter method

scope-get scope for getter method

scope-field scope for actual field

default-value default initializatioin value for a field

use-in-tostring include this property in the toString()

use-in-equals include this property in the equals() and hashCode() meth-

od. If no use-in-equals is specificed, no equals/hashcode will
be generated.

gen-property property will not be generated if false (use with care)

property-type Overrides the default type of property. Use this with any tag's
to specify the concrete type instead of just Object.

class-code Extra code that will inserted at the end of the class

extra-import Extra import that will inserted at the end of all other imports

Attributes declared via the <meta> tag are per default "inherited" inside an hbm.xml file.

What does that mean? It means that if you e.g want to have all your classes implement IAuditable then you
just add an <meta attribute="implements">IAuditable</meta> in the top of the hbm.xml file, just after

Hibernate 3.2.0.beta10 40
 Controlling POJO code generation

<hibernate-mapping>. Now all classes defined in that hbm.xml file will implement IAuditable!

Note: This applies to all <meta>-tags. Thus it can also e.g. be used to specify that all fields should be declare
protected, instead of the default private. This is done by adding <meta attrib-
ute="scope-field">protected</meta> at e.g. just under the <class> tag and all fields of that class will be
protected.

To avoid having a <meta>-tag inherited then you can simply specify inherit="false" for the attribute, e.g.
<meta attribute="scope-class" inherit="false">public abstract</meta> will restrict the "class-scope"
to the current class, not the subclasses.

6.1.1. Recomendations

The following are some good practices when using <meta> attributes.

6.1.1.1. Dangers of a class level use-in-string and use-in-equals meta attributes when having
bi-directional associations

If we have two entities with a bi-directional association between them and define at class scope level the meta
attributes: use-in-string, use-in-equals:

<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="Person">
<meta attribute="use-in-tostring">true</meta>
<meta attribute="use-in-equals">true</meta>
...
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

and for Event.hbm file:

<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="events.Event" table="EVENTS">
<meta attribute="use-in-tostring">true</meta>
<meta attribute="use-in-equals">true</meta>
<id name="id" column="EVENT_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property name="date" type="timestamp" column="EVENT_DATE"/>
<property name="title"/>
<set name="participants" table="PERSON_EVENT" inverse="true">
<key column="EVENT_ID"/>
<many-to-many column="PERSON_ID" class="events.Person"/>
</set>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

Then <hbm2java> will assume you want to include all properties and collections in the toString()/equals()
methods and this can result in infinite recursive calls.

To remedy this you have to decide which side of the association will include the other part (if at all) in the to-
String()/equals() methods. Therefore it is not a good practice to put at class scope such meta attributes, un-
less you are defining a class without bi-directional associations

We recomend instead to add the meta attributes at the property level:

<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="events.Event" table="EVENTS">
<id name="id" column="EVENT_ID">
<meta attribute="use-in-tostring">true</meta>

Hibernate 3.2.0.beta10 41
 Controlling POJO code generation

<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property name="date" type="timestamp" column="EVENT_DATE"/>
<property name="title">
<meta attribute="use-in-tostring">true</meta>
<meta attribute="use-in-equals">true</meta>
</property>
<set name="participants" table="PERSON_EVENT" inverse="true">
<key column="EVENT_ID"/>
<many-to-many column="PERSON_ID" class="events.Person"/>
</set>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

and now for Person:

<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="Person">
<meta attribute="class-description">
Javadoc for the Person class
@author Frodo
</meta>
<meta attribute="implements">IAuditable</meta>
<id name="id" type="long">
<meta attribute="scope-set">protected</meta>
<meta attribute="use-in-tostring">true</meta>
<generator class="increment"/>
</id>
<property name="name" type="string">
<meta attribute="field-description">The name of the person</meta>
<meta attribute="use-in-tostring">true</meta>
</property>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

6.1.1.2. Be aware of putting at class scope level <meta> attribute use-in-equals

For equal()/hashCode() method generation, you have to take into account that the attributes that participate
on such method definition, should take into account only attributes with business meaning (the name, social se-
curity number, etc, but no generated id's, for example).

This is important because Java's hashbased collections, such as java.util.Set relies on equals() and hashcode() to
be correct and not change for objects in the set; this can be a problem if the id gets assigned for an object after
you inserted it into a set.

Therefore automatically configuration the generation of equals()/hashCode() methods specifying at class

scope level the <meta> attribute use-in-equals could be a dangerous decision that could produce non expected
side-effect.

See http://www.hibernate.org/109.html for an more in-depth explanation on the subject of equals() and hash-
code().

6.1.2. Advanced <meta> attribute examples

This section shows an example for using meta attributes (including userspecific attributes) together with the
code generation features in Hibernate Tools.

The usecase being implemented is to automatically insert some pre- and post-conditions into the getter and set-
ters of the generated POJO.

Hibernate 3.2.0.beta10 42
 Controlling POJO code generation

6.1.2.1. Generate pre/post-conditions for methods

With an <meta attribute="class-code">, you can add addional methods on a given class, nevertheless such
<meta> attribute can not be used at property scope level and Hibernatetools does not provide such <meta> at-
tributes.

A possibly solution for this is to modify the freemarker templates responsable for generating the POJO's. If you
look inside hibernate-tools.jar, you can find the template: pojo/PojoPropertyAccessor.ftl

This file is as the named indicates used to generate property accessors for pojo's.

Extract the PojoPropertyAccessor.ftl into a local folder i.e. ${hbm.template.path}, respecting the whole
path, for example: ${hbm.template.path}/pojo/PojoPropertyAccessor.ftl

The contents of the file is something like this:

<#foreach property in pojo.getAllPropertiesIterator()>

${pojo.getPropertyGetModifiers(property)} ${pojo.getJavaTypeName(property, jdk5)} ${pojo.getGetter
return this.${property.name};
}

${pojo.getPropertySetModifiers(property)} void set${pojo.getPropertyName(property)}(${pojo.getJava

this.${property.name} = ${property.name};
}
</#foreach>

We can add conditionally pre/post-conditions on our set method generation just adding a little Freemarker syn-
tax to the above source code:

<#foreach property in pojo.getAllPropertiesIterator()>

${pojo.getPropertyGetModifiers(property)} ${pojo.getJavaTypeName(property, jdk5)} ${pojo.getGetter
return this.${property.name};
}

${pojo.getPropertySetModifiers(property)} void set${pojo.getPropertyName(property)}(${pojo.getJava

<#if pojo.hasMetaAttribute(property, "pre-cond")>
${c2j.getMetaAsString(property, "pre-cond","\n")}
</#if>
this.${property.name} = ${property.name};
<#if pojo.hasMetaAttribute(property, "post-cond")>
${c2j.getMetaAsString(property, "post-cond","\n")}
</#if>
}
</#foreach>

Now if in any *hbm.xml file we define the <meta> attributes: pre-cond or post-cond, their contents will be
generated into the body of the relevant set method.

As an examlpe let us add a pre-condition for property name preventing no Person can have an empty name. So
we have to modify the Person.hbm.xml file like this:

<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="Person">
<id name="id" type="long">
<generator class="increment"/>
</id>
<property name="firstName" type="string">
<meta attribute="pre-cond"><![CDATA[
if ((firstName != null) && (firstName.length() == 0) ) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("firstName can not be an empty String");
}]]>
</meta>

Hibernate 3.2.0.beta10 43
 Controlling POJO code generation

</property>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

Notes: i) If you don't use <[[CDATA[]]> you have to scape the & symbol, i.e.: &amp; ii). Note that we are refer-
ring to "firstName" directly and this is the parameter name not the actual field name. If you want to refer the
field you have to use "this.firstName" instead.

Finally we have to generate the Person.java class, for this we can use both Eclipse and Ant as long as you re-
member to set or fill in the templatepath setting. For Ant we configure <hibernatetool> task via the tem-
platepath attribute as in:

<target name="hbm2java">
<taskdef name="hibernatetool"
classname="org.hibernate.tool.ant.HibernateToolTask"
classpathref="lib.classpath"/>
<hibernatetool destdir="${hbm2java.dest.dir}"
templatepath="${hbm.template.path}">
<classpath>
<path refid="pojo.classpath"/>
</classpath>
<configuration>
<fileset dir="${hbm2java.src.dir}">
<include name="**/*.hbm.xml"/>
</fileset>
</configuration>
<hbm2java/>
</hibernatetool>
</target>

Invoking the target <hbm2java> will generate on the ${hbm2java.dest.dir} the file: Person.java:

// default package
import java.io.Serializable;
public class Person implements Serializable {

public Long id;

public String name;

public Person(java.lang.String name) {

this.name = name;
}

public Person() {
}

public java.lang.Long getId() {

return this.id;
}

public void setId(java.lang.Long id) {

this.id = id;
}

public java.lang.String getName() {

return this.name;
}

public void setName(java.lang.String name) {

if ((name != null) && (name.length() == 0)) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("name can not be an empty String");
}
this.name = name;
}
}

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