hibernate vs ibatis

Hibernate works very well if your data model is well in sync with object model, because ORM solutions like Hibernate map object to tables. However, let’s suppose data model is not in sync with object model, in this case you have do lot of additional coding and complexities are entering into your application, start coming the beyond the benefits of ORM

iBatis maps results sets to objects, so no need to care about table structures. This works very well for stored procedures, works very well for reporting applications

* Use iBatis if
o You want to create your own SQL's and are willing to maintain them
o your environment is driven by relational data model
o you have to work existing and complex schema's


* Use Hibernate if
o your environment is driven by object model and wants generates SQL automatically



What is iBatis ?

* A JDBC Framework
o Developers write SQL, iBATIS executes it using JDBC.
o No more try/catch/finally/try/catch.
* An SQL Mapper
o Automatically maps object properties to prepared statement parameters.
o Automatically maps result sets to objects.
o Support for getting rid of N+1 queries.
* A Transaction Manager
o iBATIS will provide transaction management for database operations if no other transaction manager is available.
o iBATIS will use external transaction management (Spring, EJB CMT, etc.) if available.
* Great integration with Spring, but can also be used without Spring (the Spring folks were early supporters of iBATIS).


What isn’t iBATIS ?

* An ORM
o Does not generate SQL
o Does not have a proprietary query language
o Does not know about object identity
o Does not transparently persist objects
o Does not build an object cache


iBatis is a very lightweight persistence solution that gives you most of the semantics of an O/R Mapping toolkit

iBATIS strives to ease the development of data-driven applications by abstracting the low-level details involved in database communication (loading a database driver, obtaining and managing connections, managing transaction semantics, etc.), as well as providing higher-level ORM capabilities (automated and configurable mapping of objects to SQL calls, data type conversion management, support for static queries as well as dynamic queries based upon an object's state, mapping of complex joins to complex object graphs, etc.).

iBATIS simply maps JavaBeans to SQL statements using a very simple XML descriptor


http://loianegroner.com/2011/02/introduction-to-ibatis-mybatis-an-alternative-to-hibernate-and-jdbc/