This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz
by Matt Raible.
Original Post: Hibernate vs. iBATIS
Feed Title: Raible Designs ~ We Build Web Apps
Feed URL: http://static.raibledesigns.com/500.html
Feed Description: Opinions and tips on how to build web applications using Java. Currently using Hibernate, Struts, XHTML, CSS, Ant, JUnit and XDoclet.
There's an interesting thread taking place on the iBATIS User Mailing List. The basic jist of the responses are: Hibernate works well when you control the data model, iBATIS works well when you need to integrate with an existing database. I've said this for a couple years now, and I still believe it. Furthermore, I've found that when working with iBATIS, I tend to know what's going on a lot more. After all, it's just SQL. From all the questions on the AppFuse mailing list, it seems like a lot of Hibernate users are constantly trying to get Hibernate to "work its magic" and handle all their relationships for them.
I wonder if newbies would be better of using iBATIS? Using iBATIS, there isn't a whole lot of magic, and you get full control over the SQL - which would likely be easier to understand. Maybe I should create a "newbie" version of AppFuse - where the frameworks uses are the easiest to learn or most documented. It'd probably be Struts+Spring+iBATIS, or maybe just Spring+iBATIS so I could sell more copies of Spring Live.
Previous Topic
