Why is Hibernate better than JDBC
1) Relational Persistence for JAVAWorking with both Object-Oriented software and Relational Database is complicated task withJDBC because there is mismatch between how data is represented in objects versus relationaldatabase. So with JDBC, developer has to write code to map an object model's data representationto a relational data model and its corresponding database schema. Hibernate is flexible andpowerful ORM solution to map Java classes to database tables. Hibernate itself takes care of thismapping using XML files so developer does not need to write code for this.
2) Transparent PersistenceThe automatic mapping of Java objects with database tables and vice versa is called TransparentPersistence. Hibernate provides transparent persistence and developer does not need to write codeexplicitly to map database tables tuples to application objects during interaction with RDBMS.With JDBC this conversion is to be taken care of by the developer manually with lines of code.
3) Support for Query LanguageJDBC supports only native Structured Query Language (SQL). Developer has to find out theefficient way to access database, i.e to select effective query from a number of queries to performsame task. Hibernate provides a powerful query language Hibernate Query Language(independent from type of database) that is expressed in a familiar SQL like syntax and includesfull support for polymorphic queries. Hibernate also supports native SQL statements. It also selectsan effective way to perform a database manipulation task for an application.
4) Database Dependent CodeApplication using JDBC to handle persistent data (database tables) having database specific codein large amount. The code written to map table data to application objects and vice versa isactually to map table fields to object properties. As table changed or database changed then it’sessential to change object structure as well as to change code written to map table-to-object/objectto-table. Hibernate provides this mapping itself. The actual mapping between tables andapplication objects is done in XML files. If there is change in Database or in any table then theonly need to change XML file properties.
5) Maintenance CostWith JDBC, it is developer’s responsibility to handle JDBC result set and convert it to Java objectsthrough code to use this persistent data in application. So with JDBC, mapping between Javaobjects and database tables is done manually. Hibernate reduces lines of code by maintainingobject-table mapping itself and returns result to application in form of Java objects. It relievesprogrammer from manual handling of persistent data, hence reducing the development time andmaintenance cost.
6) Optimize PerformanceCaching is retention of data, usually in application to reduce disk access. Hibernate, withTransparent Persistence, cache is set to application work space. Relational tuples are moved to thiscache as a result of query. It improves performance if client application reads same data manytimes for same write. Automatic Transparent Persistence allows the developer to concentrate moreon business logic rather than this application code. With JDBC, caching is maintained by handcoding.
7) Automatic Versioning and Time StampingBy database versioning one can be assured that the changes done by one person is not being rollbacked by another one unintentionally. Hibernate enables developer to define version type field toapplication, due to this defined field Hibernate updates version field of database table every timerelational tuple is updated in form of Java class object to that table. So if two users retrieve sametuple and then modify it and one user save this modified tuple to database, version is automaticallyupdated for this tuple by Hibernate. When other user tries to save updated tuple to database then itdoes not allow to save it because this user does not has updated data. In JDBC there is no checkthat always every user has updated data. This check has to be added by the developer.
8) Open-Source, Zero-Cost Product LicenseHibernate is an open source and free to use for both development and production deployments.
9) Enterprise-Class Reliability and ScalabilityHibernate scales well in any environment, no matter if use it in-house Intranet that serves hundredsof users or for mission-critical applications that serve hundreds of thousands. JDBC can not bescaled easily.
Hibernate Made Easy: Simplified Data Persistence with Hibernate and JPA (Java Persistence API) Annotations
Disadvantages of Hibernate
1) Steep learning curve.
2) Use of Hibernate is an overhead for the applications which are :• simple and use one database that never change• need to put data to database tables, no further SQL queries• there are no objects which are mapped to two different tablesHibernate increases extra layers and complexity. So for these types of applications JDBC is thebest choice.
3) Support for Hibernate on Internet is not sufficient.
4) Anybody wanting to maintain application using Hibernate will need to know Hibernate.
5) For complex data, mapping from Object-to-tables and vise versa reduces performance andincreases time of conversion.
6) Hibernate does not allow some type of queries which are supported by JDBC. For example It doesnot allow to insert multiple objects (persistent data) to same table using single query. Developerhas to write separate query to insert each object.
