Working with Hibernate is very easy and developers enjoy using the APIs and the query language. Even creating mapping metadata is not an overly complex task once you've mastered the basics. Hibernate Tools makes working with Hibernate or JPA even more pleasant.
Hibernate Tools is developed under the form of a hierarchical multi module Maven project. This parent module contains the following child modules:
- hibernate-tools-orm: This module contains among others the base tools to reverse engineer Hibernate artifacts from an existing database. There is a default implementation for the most current Hibernate and JPA artifacts but an API allows you to extend it to other artifacts and develop your own templates should this be needed.
- hibernate-tools-ant: The hibernate-tools-ant module makes use of the API defined in the hibernate-tools-orm module to wrap these tools in a number of Ant tasks to be used in your Ant build scripts.
- hibernate-tools-maven: Just like the hibernate-tools-ant module this module uses the tools defined in hibernate-tools-orm to create some Maven mojos that bring the reverse engineering power to your Maven build.
- hibernate-tools-utils: This module contains a few general purpose utilities that are used in the other modules.
- hibernate-tools-test: The test module is a multi module in itself that contains tests targeting different databases as well as no database tests.
If you run into errors, have ideas on how to improve the project or if you just want to collaborate, checkout the contribution guide.
