Hibernate es una de las herramientas ORM más ampliamente utilizadas para aplicaciones Java. Se utiliza mucho en aplicaciones empresariales para operaciones de bases de datos. Por eso decidí escribir una publicación sobre preguntas de entrevista sobre hibernate para repasar tus conocimientos antes de la entrevista. Ya seas un principiante o tengas experiencia, tener un buen conocimiento de la herramienta ORM Hibernate ayuda a superar la entrevista. Aquí estoy proporcionando preguntas importantes de entrevista sobre hibernate con respuestas para ayudarte a repasar tus conocimientos e impresionar a tu entrevistador. Al igual que en otras publicaciones de preguntas de entrevista, es probable que agregue más preguntas a esta lista en el futuro, así que es posible que desees marcarla para referencia futura. 
Recientemente he escrito muchas publicaciones sobre hibernate, la mayoría de ellas contienen proyectos descargables completos. Proporcionaré referencias a ellas según sea necesario y puedes revisarlas para refrescar tus conocimientos.
Preguntas de Entrevista sobre Hibernate
- ¿Qué es el Framework Hibernate?
- ¿Qué es la API de Persistencia de Java (JPA)?
- ¿Cuáles son los beneficios importantes de usar el Framework Hibernate?
- ¿Cuáles son las ventajas de Hibernate sobre JDBC?
- ¿Nombra algunas interfaces importantes del framework Hibernate?
- ¿Qué es el archivo de configuración de Hibernate?
- ¿Qué es el archivo de mapeo de Hibernate?
- ¿Nombra algunas anotaciones importantes utilizadas para el mapeo de Hibernate?
- ¿Qué es Hibernate SessionFactory y cómo se configura?
- ¿La Hibernate SessionFactory es segura para subprocesos?
- ¿Qué es Hibernate Session y cómo obtenerla?
- ¿La Hibernate Session es segura para subprocesos?
- ¿Cuál es la diferencia entre openSession y getCurrentSession en Hibernate?
- ¿Cuál es la diferencia entre los métodos get() y load() de Hibernate Session?
- ¿Qué es el almacenamiento en caché de Hibernate? Explique la caché de primer nivel de Hibernate.
- ¿Cómo configurar el almacenamiento en caché de segundo nivel de Hibernate utilizando EHCache?
- ¿Cuáles son los diferentes estados de un bean de entidad en Hibernate?
- ¿Cuál es el uso de la llamada merge() en Hibernate Session?
- ¿Cuál es la diferencia entre los métodos save(), saveOrUpdate() y persist() en Hibernate?
- ¿Qué sucederá si no tenemos un constructor sin argumentos en un bean de entidad?
- ¿Cuál es la diferencia entre una colección ordenada y una colección ordenada, cuál es mejor?
- ¿Cuáles son los tipos de colecciones en Hibernate?
- ¿Cómo implementar Joins en Hibernate?
- ¿Por qué no deberíamos hacer la Clase de Entidad final?
- ¿Qué es HQL y cuáles son sus beneficios?
- ¿Qué es la Caché de Consultas en Hibernate?
- ¿Podemos ejecutar consultas SQL nativas en Hibernate?
- ¿Cuál es el beneficio del soporte de consultas SQL nativas en Hibernate?
- ¿Qué es una Consulta SQL Nombrada?
- ¿Cuáles son los beneficios de una Consulta SQL Nombrada?
- ¿Cuál es el beneficio de la API de Criterios de Hibernate?
- ¿Cómo registrar las consultas SQL generadas por Hibernate en archivos de registro?
- ¿Qué es un Proxy de Hibernate y cómo ayuda en la carga diferida?
- ¿Cómo implementar relaciones en Hibernate?
- ¿Cómo funciona la gestión de transacciones en Hibernate?
- ¿Qué es el cascading y cuáles son los diferentes tipos de cascading?
- ¿Cómo integrar el registro de log4j en una aplicación Hibernate?
- ¿Cómo utilizar el DataSource JNDI del servidor de aplicaciones con el framework Hibernate?
- ¿Cómo integrar los frameworks Hibernate y Spring?
- ¿Qué es la clase HibernateTemplate?
- ¿Cómo integrar Hibernate con aplicaciones web Servlet o Struts2?
- ¿Qué patrones de diseño se utilizan en el framework Hibernate?
- ¿Cuáles son las mejores prácticas a seguir con el framework Hibernate?
- ¿Qué es el Framework Hibernate Validator?
- ¿Cuál es el beneficio del plugin Eclipse Hibernate Tools?
Preguntas y respuestas de entrevista sobre Hibernate
-
¿Qué es el Framework Hibernate?
La asignación objeto-relacional o ORM es la técnica de programación que mapea objetos del modelo de dominio de la aplicación a tablas de base de datos relacionales. Hibernate es una herramienta ORM basada en Java que proporciona un marco para mapear objetos del modelo de dominio de la aplicación a tablas de base de datos relacionales y viceversa. Hibernate proporciona la implementación de referencia de Java Persistence API, lo que lo convierte en una excelente elección como herramienta ORM con beneficios de acoplamiento flojo. Podemos utilizar la API de persistencia de Hibernate para operaciones CRUD. El marco de Hibernate ofrece la opción de mapear objetos Java antiguos a tablas de base de datos tradicionales mediante el uso de anotaciones JPA, así como una configuración basada en XML. De manera similar, las configuraciones de Hibernate son flexibles y se pueden realizar desde un archivo de configuración XML o programáticamente. Para obtener una visión rápida del uso del marco de Hibernate, puedes consultar el Tutorial para Principiantes de Hibernate.
-
¿Qué es Java Persistence API (JPA)?
Java Persistence API (JPA) proporciona especificaciones para gestionar datos relacionales en aplicaciones. La versión actual de JPA, la 2.1, se inició en julio de 2011 como JSR 338. JPA 2.1 fue aprobada como versión final el 22 de mayo de 2013. Las especificaciones de JPA están definidas con anotaciones en el paquete javax.persistence. El uso de anotaciones JPA nos ayuda a escribir código independiente de la implementación.
-
¿Cuáles son los beneficios importantes de usar el marco Hibernate?
Algunos de los beneficios importantes de usar el marco Hibernate son:
- Hibernate elimina todo el código repetitivo que viene con JDBC y se encarga de gestionar los recursos, para que podamos centrarnos en la lógica empresarial.
- El marco Hibernate proporciona soporte tanto para XML como para anotaciones JPA, lo que hace que nuestra implementación de código sea independiente.
- Hibernate proporciona un lenguaje de consulta poderoso (HQL) que es similar a SQL. Sin embargo, HQL es completamente orientado a objetos y comprende conceptos como herencia, polimorfismo y asociación.
- Hibernate es un proyecto de código abierto de la comunidad de Red Hat y se utiliza en todo el mundo. Esto lo convierte en una mejor opción que otros porque la curva de aprendizaje es pequeña y hay toneladas de documentación en línea, y la ayuda está fácilmente disponible en los foros.
- Hibernate es fácil de integrar con otros marcos de Java EE; es tan popular que el marco Spring proporciona soporte incorporado para integrar Hibernate con aplicaciones Spring.
- Hibernate admite la inicialización diferida mediante objetos proxy y realiza consultas reales a la base de datos solo cuando es necesario.
- La caché de Hibernate nos ayuda a obtener un mejor rendimiento.
- Para las características específicas del proveedor de bases de datos, Hibernate es adecuado porque también podemos ejecutar consultas SQL nativas. En general, Hibernate es la mejor opción en el mercado actual como herramienta ORM, ya que contiene todas las funciones que necesitarás en una herramienta ORM.
-
¿Cuáles son las ventajas de Hibernate sobre JDBC?
Algunas de las ventajas importantes del framework Hibernate sobre JDBC son:
- Hibernate elimina una gran cantidad de código repetitivo que viene con la API JDBC, el código se ve más limpio y legible.
- Hibernate soporta herencia, asociaciones y colecciones. Estas características no están presentes en la API JDBC.
- Hibernate proporciona implícitamente gestión de transacciones, de hecho, la mayoría de las consultas no pueden ejecutarse fuera de la transacción. En la API JDBC, necesitamos escribir código para la gestión de transacciones utilizando commit y rollback. Lee más en Administración de Transacciones JDBC.
- La API JDBC arroja una excepción
SQLExceptionque es una excepción verificada, por lo que necesitamos escribir mucho código de bloques try-catch. La mayoría de las veces es redundante en cada llamada JDBC y se usa para la gestión de transacciones. Hibernate envuelve las excepciones JDBC y arroja una excepción no verificadaJDBCExceptionoHibernateException, por lo que no necesitamos escribir código para manejarlo. La gestión de transacciones incorporada en Hibernate elimina el uso de bloques try-catch. - El lenguaje de consulta de Hibernate (HQL) es más orientado a objetos y está más cerca del lenguaje de programación Java. Para JDBC, necesitamos escribir consultas SQL nativas.
- Hibernate admite el almacenamiento en caché que es mejor para el rendimiento, las consultas JDBC no están en caché y, por lo tanto, el rendimiento es bajo.
- Hibernate proporciona la opción a través de la cual también podemos crear tablas de base de datos, para JDBC las tablas deben existir en la base de datos.
- La configuración de Hibernate nos ayuda a utilizar la conexión JDBC y también el DataSource de JNDI para el grupo de conexiones. Esta es una característica muy importante en aplicaciones empresariales y está completamente ausente en la API JDBC.
- Hibernate admite anotaciones JPA, por lo que el código es independiente de la implementación y fácilmente reemplazable con otras herramientas ORM. El código JDBC está muy estrechamente acoplado con la aplicación.
-
Menciona algunas interfaces importantes del marco de trabajo de Hibernate.
Some of the important interfaces of Hibernate framework are:
1. **SessionFactory (org.hibernate.SessionFactory)**: SessionFactory is an immutable thread-safe cache of compiled mappings for a single database. We need to initialize SessionFactory once and then we can cache and reuse it. SessionFactory instance is used to get the Session objects for database operations.
2. **Session (org.hibernate.Session)**: Session is a single-threaded, short-lived object representing a conversation between the application and the persistent store. It wraps JDBC `java.sql.Connection` and works as a factory for `org.hibernate.Transaction`. We should open session only when it's required and close it as soon as we are done using it. Session object is the interface between java application code and hibernate framework and provide methods for CRUD operations.
3. **Transaction (org.hibernate.Transaction)**: Transaction is a single-threaded, short-lived object used by the application to specify atomic units of work. It abstracts the application from the underlying JDBC or JTA transaction. A org.hibernate.Session might span multiple org.hibernate.Transaction in some cases.
Hibernate configuration file contains database specific configurations and used to initialize SessionFactory. We provide database credentials or JNDI resource information in the hibernate configuration xml file. Some other important parts of hibernate configuration file is Dialect information, so that hibernate knows the database type and mapping file or class details.
Hibernate mapping file is used to define the entity bean fields and database table column mappings. We know that JPA annotations can be used for mapping but sometimes XML mapping file comes handy when we are using third party classes and we can't use annotations.
Hibernate supports JPA annotations and it has some other annotations in `org.hibernate.annotations` package. Some of the important JPA and hibernate annotations used are:
1. **javax.persistence.Entity**: Used with model classes to specify that they are entity beans.
2. **javax.persistence.Table**: Used with entity beans to define the corresponding table name in database.
3. **javax.persistence.Access**: Used to define the access type, either field or property. Default value is field and if you want hibernate to use getter/setter methods then you need to set it to property.
4. **javax.persistence.Id**: Used to define the primary key in the entity bean.
5. **javax.persistence.EmbeddedId**: Used to define composite primary key in the entity bean.
6. **javax.persistence.Column**: Used to define the column name in database table.
7. **javax.persistence.GeneratedValue**: Used to define the strategy to be used for generation of primary key. Used in conjunction with `javax.persistence.GenerationType` enum.
8. **javax.persistence.OneToOne**: Used to define the one-to-one mapping between two entity beans. We have other similar annotations as `OneToMany`, `ManyToOne` and `ManyToMany`
9. **org.hibernate.annotations.Cascade**: Used to define the cascading between two entity beans, used with mappings. It works in conjunction with `org.hibernate.annotations.CascadeType`
10. **javax.persistence.PrimaryKeyJoinColumn**: Used to define the property for foreign key. Used with `org.hibernate.annotations.GenericGenerator` and `org.hibernate.annotations.Parameter`
Here are two classes showing usage of these annotations.
```
package com.journaldev.hibernate.model;
import javax.persistence.Access;
import javax.persistence.AccessType;
import javax.persistence.Column;
import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue;
import javax.persistence.GenerationType;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.OneToOne;
import javax.persistence.Table;
import org.hibernate.annotations.Cascade;
@Entity
@Table(name = "EMPLOYEE")
@Access(value=AccessType.FIELD)
public class Employee {
@Id
@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
@Column(name = "emp_id")
private long id;
@Column(name = "emp_name")
private String name;
@OneToOne(mappedBy = "employee")
@Cascade(value = org.hibernate.annotations.CascadeType.ALL)
private Address address;
//métodos getter setter
}
```
```
package com.journaldev.hibernate.model;
import javax.persistence.Access;
import javax.persistence.AccessType;
import javax.persistence.Column;
import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.OneToOne;
import javax.persistence.PrimaryKeyJoinColumn;
import javax.persistence.Table;
import org.hibernate.annotations.GenericGenerator;
import org.hibernate.annotations.Parameter;
@Entity
@Table(name = "ADDRESS")
@Access(value=AccessType.FIELD)
public class Address {
@Id
@Column(name = "emp_id", unique = true, nullable = false)
@GeneratedValue(generator = "gen")
@GenericGenerator(name = "gen", strategy = "foreign", parameters = { @Parameter(name = "property", value = "employee") })
private long id;
@Column(name = "address_line1")
private String addressLine1;
@OneToOne
@PrimaryKeyJoinColumn
private Employee employee;
//métodos getter setter
}
```
SessionFactory is the factory class used to get the Session objects. SessionFactory is responsible to read the hibernate configuration parameters and connect to the database and provide Session objects. Usually an application has a single SessionFactory instance and threads servicing client requests obtain Session instances from this factory. The internal state of a SessionFactory is immutable. Once it is created this internal state is set. This internal state includes all of the metadata about Object/Relational Mapping. SessionFactory also provide methods to get the Class metadata and Statistics instance to get the stats of query executions, second level cache details etc.
Internal state of SessionFactory is immutable, so it's thread safe. Multiple threads can access it simultaneously to get Session instances.
Hibernate Session is the interface between java application layer and hibernate. This is the core interface used to perform database operations. Lifecycle of a session is bound by the beginning and end of a transaction. Session provide methods to perform create, read, update and delete operations for a persistent object. We can execute HQL queries, SQL native queries and create criteria using Session object.
Hibernate Session object is not thread safe, every thread should get it's own session instance and close it after it's work is finished.
Hibernate SessionFactory getCurrentSession() method returns the session bound to the context. But for this to work, we need to configure it in hibernate configuration file. Since this session object belongs to the hibernate context, we don't need to close it. Once the session factory is closed, this session object gets closed.
```
<property name="hibernate.current_session_context_class">thread</property>
```
Hibernate SessionFactory openSession() method always opens a new session. We should close this session object once we are done with all the database operations. We should open a new session for each request in multi-threaded environment. There is another method openStatelessSession() that returns stateless session, for more details with examples please read [Hibernate openSession vs getCurrentSession](/community/tutorials/hibernate-sessionfactory).
Hibernate session comes with different methods to load data from database. get and load are most used methods, at first look they seems similar but there are some differences between them.
1. get() loads the data as soon as it's called whereas load() returns a proxy object and loads data only when it's actually required, so load() is better because it support lazy loading.
2. Since load() throws exception when data is not found, we should use it only when we know data exists.
3. We should use get() when we want to make sure data exists in the database.
For clarification regarding the differences, please read [Hibernate get vs load](/community/tutorials/hibernate-session-get-vs-load-difference-with-examples).
As the name suggests, hibernate caches query data to make our application faster. Hibernate Cache can be very useful in gaining fast application performance if used correctly. The idea behind cache is to reduce the number of database queries, hence reducing the throughput time of the application. Hibernate first level cache is associated with the Session object. Hibernate first level cache is enabled by default and there is no way to disable it. However hibernate provides methods through which we can delete selected objects from the cache or clear the cache completely. Any object cached in a session will not be visible to other sessions and when the session is closed, all the cached objects will also be lost. For better explanation, please read [Hibernate First Level Cache](/community/tutorials/hibernate-caching-first-level-cache).
EHCache is the best choice for utilizing hibernate second level cache. Following steps are required to enable EHCache in hibernate application.
- Add hibernate-ehcache dependency in your maven project, if it's not maven then add corresponding jars.
```
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-ehcache</artifactId>
<version>4.3.5.Final</version>
</dependency>
```
- Add below properties in hibernate configuration file.
```
<property name="hibernate.cache.region.factory_class">org.hibernate.cache.ehcache.EhCacheRegionFactory</property>
<!-- For singleton factory -->
<!-- <property name="hibernate.cache.region.factory_class">org.hibernate.cache.ehcache.SingletonEhCacheRegionFactory</property>
-->
<!-- enable second level cache and query cache -->
<property name="hibernate.cache.use_second_level_cache">true</property>
<property name="hibernate.cache.use_query_cache">true</property>
<property name="net.sf.ehcache.configurationResourceName">/myehcache.xml</property>
```
- Create EHCache configuration file, a sample file myehcache.xml would look like below.
```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ehcache xmlns:xsi="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="ehcache.xsd" updateCheck="true"
monitoring="autodetect" dynamicConfig="true">
<diskStore path="java.io.tmpdir/ehcache" />
<defaultCache maxEntriesLocalHeap="10000" eternal="false"
timeToIdleSeconds="120" timeToLiveSeconds="120" diskSpoolBufferSizeMB="30"
maxEntriesLocalDisk="10000000" diskExpiryThreadIntervalSeconds="120"
memoryStoreEvictionPolicy="LRU" statistics="true">
<persistence strategy="localTempSwap" />
</defaultCache>
<cache name="employee" maxEntriesLocalHeap="10000" eternal="false"
timeToIdleSeconds="5" timeToLiveSeconds="10">
<persistence strategy="localTempSwap" />
</cache>
<cache name="org.hibernate.cache.internal.StandardQueryCache"
maxEntriesLocalHeap="5" eternal="false" timeToLiveSeconds="120">
<persistence strategy="localTempSwap" />
</cache>
<cache name="org.hibernate.cache.spi.UpdateTimestampsCache"
maxEntriesLocalHeap="5000" eternal="true">
<persistence strategy="localTempSwap" />
</cache>
</ehcache>
```
- Annotate entity beans with @Cache annotation and caching strategy to use. For example,
```
import org.hibernate.annotations.Cache;
import org.hibernate.annotations.CacheConcurrencyStrategy;
@Entity
@Table(name = "ADDRESS")
@Cache(usage=CacheConcurrencyStrategy.READ_ONLY, region="employee")
public class Address {
}
```
That's it, we are done. Hibernate will use the EHCache for second level caching, read [Hibernate EHCache Example](/community/tutorials/hibernate-ehcache-hibernate-second-level-cache) for a complete example with explanation.
An entity bean instance can exist is one of the three states.
1. **Transient**: When an object is never persisted or associated with any session, it's in transient state. Transient instances may be made persistent by calling save(), persist() or saveOrUpdate(). Persistent instances may be made transient by calling delete().
2. **Persistent**: When an object is associated with a unique session, it's in persistent state. Any instance returned by a get() or load() method is persistent.
3. **Detached**: When an object is previously persistent but not associated with any session, it's in detached state. Detached instances may be made persistent by calling update(), saveOrUpdate(), lock() or replicate(). The state of a transient or detached instance may also be made persistent as a new persistent instance by calling merge().
Hibernate merge can be used to update existing values, however this method create a copy from the passed entity object and return it. The returned object is part of persistent context and tracked for any changes, passed object is not tracked. For example program, read [Hibernate merge](/community/tutorials/hibernate-session-merge-vs-update-save-saveorupdate-persist-example).
Hibernate save can be used to save entity to database. Problem with save() is that it can be invoked without a transaction and if we have mapping entities, then only the primary object gets saved causing data inconsistencies. Also save returns the generated id immediately. Hibernate persist is similar to save with transaction. I feel it's better than save because we can't use it outside the boundary of transaction, so all the object mappings are preserved. Also persist doesn't return the generated id immediately, so data persistence happens when needed. Hibernate saveOrUpdate results into insert or update queries based on the provided data. If the data is present in the database, update query is executed. We can use saveOrUpdate() without transaction also, but again you will face the issues with mapped objects not getting saved if session is not flushed. For example usage of these methods, read [Hibernate save vs persist](/community/tutorials/hibernate-session-merge-vs-update-save-saveorupdate-persist-example).
Hibernate uses [Reflection API](/community/tutorials/java-reflection-example-tutorial) to create instance of Entity beans, usually when you call get() or load() methods. The method `Class.newInstance()` is used for this and it requires no-args constructor. So if you won't have no-args constructor in entity beans, hibernate will fail to instantiate it and you will get `HibernateException`.
When we use Collection API sorting algorithms to sort a collection, it's called sorted list. For small collections, it's not much of an overhead but for larger collections it can lead to slow performance and OutOfMemory errors. Also the entity beans should implement `Comparable` or `Comparator` interface for it to work, read more at [java object list sorting](/community/tutorials/comparable-and-comparator-in-java-example). If we are using Hibernate framework to load collection data from database, we can use it's Criteria API to use "order by" clause to get ordered list. Below code snippet shows you how to get it.
```
List<Employee> empList = session.createCriteria(Employee.class)
.addOrder(Order.desc("id")).list();
```
Ordered list is better than sorted list because the actual sorting is done at database level, that is fast and doesn't cause memory issues.
There are five collection types in hibernate used for one-to-many relationship mappings.
1. Bag
2. Set
3. List
4. Array
5. Map
There are various ways to implement joins in hibernate.
- Using associations such as one-to-one, one-to-many etc.
- Using JOIN in the HQL query. There is another form "join fetch" to load associated data simultaneously, no lazy loading.
- We can fire native sql query and use join keyword.
Hibernate use proxy classes for lazy loading of data, only when it's needed. This is done by extending the entity bean, if the entity bean will be final then lazy loading will not be possible, hence low performance.
Hibernate Framework comes with a powerful object-oriented query language – Hibernate Query Language (HQL). It’s very similar to SQL except that we use Objects instead of table names, that makes it more close to object oriented programming. Hibernate query language is case-insensitive except for java class and variable names. So SeLeCT is the same as sELEct is the same as SELECT, but com.journaldev.model.Employee is not same as com.journaldev.model.EMPLOYEE. The HQL queries are cached but we should avoid it as much as possible, otherwise we will have to take care of associations. However it's a better choice than native sql query because of Object-Oriented approach. Read more at [HQL Example](/community/tutorials/hibernate-query-language-hql-example-tutorial).
Hibernate implements a cache region for queries resultset that integrates closely with the hibernate second-level cache. This is an optional feature and requires additional steps in code. This is only useful for queries that are run frequently with the same parameters. First of all we need to configure below property in hibernate configuration file.
```
<property name="hibernate.cache.use_query_cache">true</property>
```
And in code, we need to use setCacheable(true) method of Query, quick example looks like below.
```
Query query = session.createQuery("from Employee");
query.setCacheable(true);
query.setCacheRegion("ALL_EMP");
```
Hibernate provide option to execute native SQL queries through the use of `SQLQuery` object. For normal scenarios, it is however not the recommended approach because we loose benefits related to hibernate association and hibernate first level caching. Read more at [Hibernate Native SQL Query Example](/community/tutorials/hibernate-native-sql-query-example).
Native SQL Query comes handy when we want to execute database specific queries that are not supported by Hibernate API such as query hints or the CONNECT keyword in Oracle Database.
Hibernate provides Named Query that we can define at a central location and use them anywhere in the code. We can created named queries for both HQL and Native SQL. Hibernate Named Queries can be defined in Hibernate mapping files or through the use of JPA annotations @NamedQuery and @NamedNativeQuery.
Hibernate Named Query helps us in grouping queries at a central location rather than letting them scattered all over the code. Hibernate Named Query syntax is checked when the hibernate session factory is created, thus making the application fail fast in case of any error in the named queries. Hibernate Named Query is global, means once defined it can be used throughout the application. However one of the major disadvantage of Named query is that it’s hard to debug, because we need to find out the location where it’s defined.
Hibernate provides Criteria API that is more object oriented for querying the database and getting results. We can’t use Criteria to run update or delete queries or any DDL statements. It’s only used to fetch the results from the database using more object oriented approach. Some of the common usage of Criteria API are:
- Criteria API provides Projection that we can use for aggregate functions such as sum(), min(), max() etc.
- Criteria API can be used with ProjectionList to fetch selected columns only.
- Criteria API can be used for join queries by joining multiple tables, useful methods are createAlias(), setFetchMode() and setProjection()
- Criteria API can be used for fetching results with conditions, useful methods are add() where we can add Restrictions.
- Criteria API provides addOrder() method that we can use for ordering the results.
Learn some quick examples at [Hibernate Criteria Example](/community/tutorials/hibernate-criteria-example-tutorial).
We can set below property for hibernate configuration to log SQL queries.
```
<property name="hibernate.show_sql">true</property>
```
However we should use it only in Development or Testing environment and turn it off in production environment.
Hibernate uses proxy object to support lazy loading. Basically when you load data from tables, hibernate doesn't load all the mapped objects. As soon as you reference a child or lookup object via getter methods, if the linked entity is not in the session cache, then the proxy code will go to the database and load the linked object. It uses javassist to effectively and dynamically generate sub-classed implementations of your entity objects.
We can easily implement one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many relationships in hibernate. It can be done using JPA annotations as well as XML based configurations. For better understanding, you should go through following tutorials.
1. [Hibernate One to One Mapping](/community/tutorials/hibernate-one-to-one-mapping-example-annotation)
2. [Hibernate One to Many Mapping](/community/tutorials/hibernate-one-to-many-mapping-annotation)
3. [Hibernate Many to Many Mapping](/community/tutorials/hibernate-many-to-many-mapping-join-tables)
Transaction management is very easy in hibernate because most of the operations are not permitted outside of a transaction. So after getting the session from SessionFactory, we can call session `beginTransaction()` to start the transaction. This method returns the Transaction reference that we can use later on to either commit or rollback the transaction. Overall hibernate transaction management is better than JDBC transaction management because we don't need to rely on exceptions for rollback. Any exception thrown by session methods automatically rollback the transaction.
When we have relationship between entities, then we need to define how the different operations will affect the other entity. This is done by cascading and there are different types of it. Here is a simple example of applying cascading between primary and secondary entities.
```
import org.hibernate.annotations.Cascade;
@Entity
@Table(name = "EMPLOYEE")
public class Employee {
@OneToOne(mappedBy = "employee")
@Cascade(value = org.hibernate.annotations.CascadeType.ALL)
private Address address;
}
```
Note that Hibernate CascadeType enum constants are little bit different from JPA `javax.persistence.CascadeType`, so we need to use the Hibernate CascadeType and Cascade annotations for mappings, as shown in above example. Commonly used cascading types as defined in CascadeType enum are:
1. None: No Cascading, it's not a type but when we don't define any cascading then no operations in parent affects the child.
2. ALL: Cascades save, delete, update, evict, lock, replicate, merge, persist. Basically everything
3. SAVE\_UPDATE: Cascades save and update, available only in hibernate.
4. DELETE: Corresponds to the Hibernate native DELETE action, only in hibernate.
5. DETATCH, MERGE, PERSIST, REFRESH and REMOVE - for similar operations
6. LOCK: Corresponds to the Hibernate native LOCK action.
7. REPLICATE: Corresponds to the Hibernate native REPLICATE action.
Hibernate 4 uses JBoss logging rather than slf4j used in earlier versions. For log4j configuration, we need to follow below steps.
- Add log4j dependencies for maven project, if not maven then add corresponding jar files.
- Create log4j.xml configuration file or log4j.properties file and keep it in the classpath. You can keep file name whatever you want because we will load it in next step.
- For standalone projects, use static block to configure log4j using `DOMConfigurator` or `PropertyConfigurator`. For web applications, you can use ServletContextListener to configure it.
That's it, our setup is ready. Create `org.apache.log4j.Logger` instance in the java classes and start logging. For complete example code, you should go through [Hibernate log4j example](/community/tutorials/hibernate-log4j-logging) and [Servlet log4j example](/community/tutorials/servlet-jdbc-database-connection-example).
For web applications, it's always best to allow servlet container to manage the connection pool. That's why we define JNDI resource for DataSource and we can use it in the web application. It's very easy to use in Hibernate, all we need is to remove all the database specific properties and use below property to provide the JNDI DataSource name.
```
<property name="hibernate.connection.datasource">java:comp/env/jdbc/MyLocalDB</property>
```
For a complete example, go through [Hibernate JNDI DataSource Example](/community/tutorials/hibernate-tomcat-jndi-datasource-example-tutorial).
Spring is one of the most used Java EE Framework and Hibernate is the most popular ORM framework. That’s why Spring Hibernate combination is used a lot in enterprise applications. The best part with using Spring is that it provides out-of-box integration support for Hibernate with **Spring ORM** module. Following steps are required to integrate Spring and Hibernate frameworks together.
1. Add hibernate-entitymanager, hibernate-core and spring-orm dependencies.
2. Create Model classes and corresponding DAO implementations for database operations. Note that DAO classes will use SessionFactory that will be injected by Spring Bean configuration.
3. If you are using Hibernate 3, you need to configure `org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalSessionFactoryBean` or `org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.annotation.AnnotationSessionFactoryBean` in Spring Bean configuration file. For Hibernate 4, there is single class `org.springframework.orm.hibernate4.LocalSessionFactoryBean` that should be configured.
4. Note that we don't need to use Hibernate Transaction Management, we can leave it to Spring declarative transaction management using `@Transactional` annotation.
For complete example go through [Spring Hibernate Integration](/community/tutorials/spring-hibernate-integration-example-tutorial) and [Spring MVC Hibernate Integration](/community/tutorials/spring-mvc-hibernate-mysql-integration-crud-example-tutorial).
When Spring and Hibernate integration started, Spring ORM provided two helper classes - `HibernateDaoSupport` and `HibernateTemplate`. The reason to use them was to get the Session from Hibernate and get the benefit of Spring transaction management. However from Hibernate 3.0.1, we can use `SessionFactory` _getCurrentSession()_ method to get the current session and use it to get the spring transaction management benefits. If you go through above examples, you will see how easy it is and that's why we should not use these classes anymore. One other benefit of `HibernateTemplate` was exception translation but that can be achieved easily by using `@Repository` annotation with service classes, shown in above spring mvc example. This is a trick question to judge your knowledge and whether you are aware of recent developments or not.
Hibernate integration with Servlet or Struts2 needs to be done using `ServletContextListener`, a complete example can be found at [Hibernate Struts2 Integration Example](/community/tutorials/struts2-hibernate-integration-example-tutorial).
Some of the design patterns used in Hibernate Framework are:
- Domain Model Pattern - An object model of the domain that incorporates both behavior and data.
- Data Mapper - A layer of Mappers that moves data between objects and a database while keeping them independent of each other and the mapper itself.
- [Proxy Pattern](/community/tutorials/proxy-design-pattern) for lazy loading
- [Factory pattern](/community/tutorials/factory-design-pattern-in-java "Factory Design Pattern in Java") in SessionFactory
Some of the best practices to follow in Hibernate are:
- Always check the primary key field access, if it's generated at the database layer then you should not have a setter for this.
- By default hibernate set the field values directly, without using setters. So if you want hibernate to use setters, then make sure proper access is defined as `@Access(value=AccessType.PROPERTY)`.
- If access type is property, make sure annotations are used with getter methods and not setter methods. Avoid mixing of using annotations on both filed and getter methods.
- Use native sql query only when it can't be done using HQL, such as using database specific feature.
- If you have to sort the collection, use ordered list rather than sorting it using Collection API.
- Use named queries wisely, keep it at a single place for easy debugging. Use them for commonly used queries only. For entity specific query, you can keep them in the entity bean itself.
- For web applications, always try to use JNDI DataSource rather than configuring to create connection in hibernate.
- Avoid Many-to-Many relationships, it can be easily implemented using bidirectional One-to-Many and Many-to-One relationships.
- For collections, try to use Lists, maps and sets. Avoid array because you don't get benefit of lazy loading.
- Do not treat exceptions as recoverable, roll back the Transaction and close the Session. If you do not do this, Hibernate cannot guarantee that in-memory state accurately represents the persistent state.
- Prefer DAO pattern for exposing the different methods that can be used with entity bean
- Prefer lazy fetching for associations
Data validation is integral part of any application. You will find data validation at presentation layer with the use of Javascript, then at the server side code before processing it. Also data validation occurs before persisting it, to make sure it follows the correct format. Validation is a cross cutting task, so we should try to keep it apart from our business logic. That’s why JSR303 and JSR349 provides specification for validating a bean by using annotations. Hibernate Validator provides the reference implementation of both these bean validation specs. Read more at [Hibernate Validation Example](/community/tutorials/hibernate-validator-jsr303-example-tutorial).
Hibernate Tools plugin helps us in writing hibernate configuration and mapping files easily. The major benefit is the content assist to help us with properties or xml tags to use. It also validates them against the Hibernate DTD files, so we know any mistakes before hand. Learn how to install and use at [Hibernate Tools Eclipse Plugin](/community/tutorials/hibernate-tools-eclipse-plugin).
Eso es todo para Preguntas y respuestas de la entrevista de Hibernate, espero que te ayude para la entrevista como persona recién graduada o experimentada. Por favor, avísame si me he perdido alguna pregunta importante aquí, la agregaré a la lista.
Source:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/hibernate-interview-questions-and-answers