Summary

In this chapter, we developed the classes we need to implement functionality for the first five user stories (page 36). Furthermore, these classes are directly relevant to the code we will develop in Chapter 7 and the scheduled jobs in Chapter 10.

In this chapter, we accomplished the following:

• Learned what object-relational mapping technology is and the benefits it offers

• Installed HSQLDB

• Designed our database

• Used DDL script to create our database tables and some test data

• Setup Hibernate, covered its basic concepts, and began working with it

• Developed a simple and then a slightly more complex example (along with a corresponding unit test suite class) of using Hibernate for Time Expression's Department and Timesheet tables

• Discussed advanced Hibernate topics and other features for you to explore (should you need them)

However, we are not done with Hibernate just yet! For example, we will use some of the classes coded in this chapter in our web application in the next chapter. In addition, I will demonstrate how we can use an Eclipse plug-in to generate the Hibernate mapping files (in Chapter 8, "The Eclipse Phenomenon!").

For now, we are ready to dive into the next two chapters where we enter the world of user interfaces by using the Spring MVC web framework to develop our web UI.

We will also begin working with the Eclipse SDK in Chapter 8 and see how much time IDEs can save. Till now, I have intentionally used the command line because I truly believe learning the fundamentals first by using the manual way will help you better understand how things work behind the scenes. It can also help you drop back to the command line in case the IDE does not provide a certain functionality or it has a known bug.