Native Hibernate vs. Hibernate JPA

Native Hibernate uses only the Hibernate Core for all its functions. The code for a class that will be saved to the database is displayed below:

package hello;
public class Message {
private Long id;
private String text;
private Message nextMessage;
// Constructors, getters, setters...
}

As can be seen, it is merely a Plain Old Java Object (POJO). The relational mapping that links the object to the database table is in an XML mapping document. The actual code that will create and save the object is below:

package hello;
import java.util.*;
import org.hibernate.*;
import persistence.*;
public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// First unit of work
Session session = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().openSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
Message message = new Message("Hello World");
Long msgId = (Long) session.save(message);
tx.commit();
session.close();
// Shutting down the application
HibernateUtil.shutdown();
}
}

Session, Transaction and Query (not shown) objects are available due to the org.hibernate import. They allow a higher-level handling of database tasks than DAO using JDBC.

Hibernate JPA is accessed through the use of Hibernate EntityManager and Hibernate Annotations. The Hibernate EntityManager is merely a wrapper around Hibernate Core, providing and supporting JPA functionality. Thus the change in the code can be seen below:

package hello;
import javax.persistence.*;
@Entity
@Table(name = "MESSAGES")
public class Message {
@Id @GeneratedValue
@Column(name = "MESSAGE_ID")
private Long id;
@Column(name = "MESSAGE_TEXT")
private String text;
@ManyToOne(cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
@JoinColumn(name = "NEXT_MESSAGE_ID")
private Message nextMessage;

The XML document with all the relational data has been removed and replaced with inline annotations, which is provided by the javax.persistence import. The only difference between the Hibernate POJO and JPA POJO is the annotations. The code itself will run fine, the annotations make it a persistent entity but will do nothing unless Hibernate goes through it. JPA can glean enough information from them for the ORM and persistence tasks. The HelloWorld code:

package hello;
import java.util.*;
import javax.persistence.*;
public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Start EntityManagerFactory
EntityManagerFactory emf =
Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("helloworld");
// First unit of work
EntityManager em = emf.createEntityManager();
EntityTransaction tx = em.getTransaction();
tx.begin();
Message message = new Message("Hello World");
em.persist(message);
tx.commit();
em.close();
// Shutting down the application
emf.close();
}
}

The Hibernate import is gone, replace by javax.persistence. The EntityManagerFactory, EntityManager and EntityTransaction run the database tasks.

Both API seem similar and choosing one over the other is a matter of preference. Native Hibernate is the cleaner one, with the relational data put into an XML document. Hibernate JPA is standardised with Java and can be ported easily.

Other JPA implementations:
Open-source:
GlassFish
Apache OpenJPA

Commercial:
SAP NetWeaver
Oracle TopLink
BEA Kodo