Hibernate Configuration

Hibernate requires to know in advance where to find the mapping information that defines how your Java classes relate to the database tables. Hibernate also requires a set of configuration settings related to database and other related parameters. All such information is usually supplied as a standard Java properties file called hibernate.properties, or as an XML file named hibernate.cfg.xml.

I will consider XML formatted file hibernate.cfg.xml to specify required Hibernate properties in my examples. Most of the properties take their default values and it is not required to specify them in the property file unless it is really required. This file is kept in the root directory of your application's classpath.

Hibernate Properties:

Following is the list of important properties you would require to configure for a databases in a standalone situation:

S.N.	Properties and Description
1	hibernate.dialect  This property makes Hibernate generate the appropriate SQL for the chosen database.
2	hibernate.connection.driver_class  The JDBC driver class.
3	hibernate.connection.url  The JDBC URL to the database instance.
4	hibernate.connection.username  The database username.
5	hibernate.connection.password  The database password.
6	hibernate.connection.pool_size  Limits the number of connections waiting in the Hibernate database connection pool.
7	hibernate.connection.autocommit  Allows autocommit mode to be used for the JDBC connection.

If you are using a database along with an application server and JNDI then you would have to configure the following properties:

S.N.	Properties and Description
1	hibernate.connection.datasource  The JNDI name defined in the application server context you are using for the application.
2	hibernate.jndi.class  The InitialContext class for JNDI.
3	hibernate.jndi.<JNDIpropertyname>  Passes any JNDI property you like to the JNDI InitialContext.
4	hibernate.jndi.url  Provides the URL for JNDI.
5	hibernate.connection.username  The database username.
6	hibernate.connection.password  The database password.

Hibernate with MySQL Database:

MySQL is one of the most popular open-source database systems available today. Let us createhibernate.cfg.xml configuration file and place it in the root of your application's classpath. You would have to make sure that you have testdb database available in your MySQL database and you have a user test available to access the database.

The XML configuration file must conform to the Hibernate 3 Configuration DTD, which is available from http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/hibernate-configuration-3.0.dtd.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-configuration SYSTEM 
"http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/hibernate-configuration-3.0.dtd">

<hibernate-configuration>
   <session-factory>
   <property name="hibernate.dialect">
      org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect
   </property>
   <property name="hibernate.connection.driver_class">
      com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
   </property>

   <!-- Assume test is the database name -->
   <property name="hibernate.connection.url">
      jdbc:mysql://localhost/test
   </property>
   <property name="hibernate.connection.username">
      root
   </property>
   <property name="hibernate.connection.password">
      root123
   </property>

   <!-- List of XML mapping files -->
   <mapping resource="Employee.hbm.xml"/>

</session-factory>
</hibernate-configuration>

The above configuration file includes <mapping> tags which are related to hibernate-mapping file and we will see in next chapter what exactly is a hibernate mapping file and how and why do we use it. Following is the list of various important databases dialect property type:

Database	Dialect Property
DB2	org.hibernate.dialect.DB2Dialect
HSQLDB	org.hibernate.dialect.HSQLDialect
HypersonicSQL	org.hibernate.dialect.HSQLDialect
Informix	org.hibernate.dialect.InformixDialect
Ingres	org.hibernate.dialect.IngresDialect
Interbase	org.hibernate.dialect.InterbaseDialect
Microsoft SQL Server 2000	org.hibernate.dialect.SQLServerDialect
Microsoft SQL Server 2005	org.hibernate.dialect.SQLServer2005Dialect
Microsoft SQL Server 2008	org.hibernate.dialect.SQLServer2008Dialect
MySQL	org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect
Oracle (any version)	org.hibernate.dialect.OracleDialect
Oracle 11g	org.hibernate.dialect.Oracle10gDialect
Oracle 10g	org.hibernate.dialect.Oracle10gDialect
Oracle 9i	org.hibernate.dialect.Oracle9iDialect
PostgreSQL	org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQLDialect
Progress	org.hibernate.dialect.ProgressDialect
SAP DB	org.hibernate.dialect.SAPDBDialect
Sybase	org.hibernate.dialect.SybaseDialect
Sybase Anywhere	org.hibernate.dialect.SybaseAnywhereDialect