Eclipse - Tips & Tricks

This article is for those who use Eclipse. Keyboards shortcuts are very important for comfortable and quick editing. Here are the list of most important shortcuts in Eclipse :

For a full list of shortcuts, you can also check by pressing Ctrl+Shift+L.

1. Ctrl +3 Focus into the Quick Access search box which allows you to execute any Eclipse command.
2. Ctrl+SHIFT+T Search dialog for Java Type, Start typing the name and the list gets smaller. Try typing the capital letters of the class only (e.g. type "NPE" to find "NullPointerException")
3. Ctrl+SHIFT+R Search dialog for resources, e.g. Xml files, text files, or files of any other type.
4. Ctrl+E Open Editor Drop down, Presents a popup window listing currently opened files.
5. Ctrl+O Quick Outline, Show all methods of the current class, Press Ctrl+O a second time to include inherited methods.
6. Ctrl+SHIFT+space Context Information
7. Ctrl+Shift+O Organize Imports, Adjusts the imports statements in the current Java source file
8. F3 Open Declaration ,Navigate to the declaration of the selected variable . This works much like a browser hyperlink.
9. Ctrl + hover to methods,variables Ask for Open Declaration, Implementation, Super Implementation or return types.
10. Alt+Left/Right Backward/Forward History, Works like a browser's back/forward button.
11. Ctrl + L Go to a specific line number.
12. F4 Open Type Hierarachy
13. Ctrl+Alt+H Open Call Hierarchy. Show where a method is called from.
14. Alt + SHIFT + R Use this to rename type, method, or field. All existing references will be refactored as well.
15. Alt+Shift+M Extract method, Use this to extract a new method from existing code. The parameter list and return type will be automatically created.
16. Ctrl+Shift+P Go to the matching bracket.
17. SHIFT+ENTER /Ctrl+SHIFT+ENTER Insert a line below or above the current line.
18. Ctrl + /, Ctrl+7, Ctrl +\ Add or Remove block comment.
19. Ctrl +F6 Switch among the editor.
20. Ctrl + F7 Switch among open views.
21. Ctrl + F8 Switch among perspectives.
22. Alt +/ It does the word completion based on the set of words already present in the current file.
23. Ctrl + I It correct the indention for block of Java code or an entire class.
24. Ctrl + . or Ctrl + , It will navigate to next or previous error.
25. Ctrl+F11, F11, Run or Debug the Application.
26. F5,F6, F7, F8 Step into function, Next Step (line by line) , Step out , Skip to next breakpoint.
27. Ctrl +1 Give quick fix code.
28. Ctrl + D Delete the current line.
29. Ctrl + SHIFT + G Search for current cursor positioned word reference in workspace.
30. Ctrl +Page Up/Page Down Switch to next editor / switch to previous editor
31. Alt + - Open Editor Window Option menu.
32. Ctrl +F10, then n It will show or hide the line numbers
33. Ctrl + q It will jump to last location edited
34. Ctrl + SHIFT + f It will format all code in Editor using code formatter.
35. Alt + SHIFT + J or /** and then press Enter Add javadoc Element Comment ( adds '/** ... */')
36. Alt + SHIFT + V Move selected element to other class or file (With complete method or class selected)
37. Ctrl + DEL Delete next element
38. Ctrl + BACKSPACE Delete previous element. 
    Note : I have not added basic shortcut like Ctrl+S to save the file.
    Feel free to comment If you find something is incorrect or update me more :)

Hibernate Configuration

To inform Hibernate from where to find mapping information of Java classes to database tables or configuration setting related to database, All such information is usually supplied by Hibernate Configuration Object. It is managed by an instance of org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration. An instance of org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration represents an entire set of mappings of an application’s Java types to an SQL database. The mappings are compiled from various XML mapping files or from Java 5 Annotations.

Hibernate provides following types of configurations

1. hibernate.cfg.xml – A standard XML file which contains hibernate configuration and which resides in root of application’s CLASSPATH 
2. hibernate.properties – A Java compliant property file which holds key value pair for different hibernate configuration strings. 
3. Programmatic configuration – This is the manual approach. The configuration can be defined in Java class. 

1. hibernate.cfg.xml : The hibernate.cfg.xml file is a standard XML file which contains all the configuration parameters like database connection, class mappings etc. This file needs to be placed root of CLASSPATH of application.

Below is the sample hibernate.cfg.xml file :

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-configuration PUBLIC
"-//Hibernate/Hibernate Configuration DTD 3.0//EN"
"http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/hibernate-configuration-3.0.dtd">
<hibernate-configuration> <session-factory>
<!-- Database connection settings -->
<property name="connection.driver_class">com.mysql.jdbc.Driver</property>
<property name="connection.url">jdbc:mysql://localhost/SampleApp</property>
<property name="connection.username">root</property>
<property name="connection.password">root123</property>
<!-- JDBC connection pool (use the built-in) -->
<property name="connection.pool_size">1</property>
<!-- SQL dialect -->
<property name="dialect">org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect</property>
<!-- Enable Hibernate's automatic session context management -->
<property name="current_session_context_class">thread</property>
<!-- Disable the second-level cache -->
<property name="cache.provider_class">org.hibernate.cache.NoCacheProvider</property>
<!-- Echo all executed SQL to stdout -->
<property name="show_sql">false</property>
<!-- Drop and re-create the database schema on startup -->
<property name="hbm2ddl.auto">update</property>
<!-- Mapping files POJO -->
<mapping class="com.hibernate.pojo.Host"/>
</session-factory>
</hibernate-configuration>

2. hibernate.properties file :
This is the easiest way to get started with Hibernate. Create a file hibernate.properties and place it in root of your applications CLASSPATH.
 
Below is the sample hibernate.properties file:

hibernate.connection.driver_class=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
hibernate.connection.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost/SampleApp
hibernate.connection.username=root
hibernate.connection.password=root123
hibernate.connection.pool_size=1
hibernate.dialect = org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect

 3. Programmatic Configuration

We can obtain a org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration instance by instantiating it directly and specifying XML mapping documents. If the mapping files are in the classpath, use addResource(). For example:

Configuration cfg = new Configuration()
.addResource("Host.hbm.xml");

An alternative way is to specify the mapped class and allow Hibernate to find the mapping document for you:

Configuration cfg = new Configuration()
.addClass(com.hibernate.pojo.Host.class);

A org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration also allows you to specify configuration properties. For example:

 Configuration cfg = new Configuration()
.addClass(com.hibernate.pojo.Host.class)
.setProperty("hibernate.dialect", "org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect")
.setProperty("hibernate.connection.datasource", "jdbc:mysql://localhost/SampleApp")
.setProperty("hibernate.order_updates", "true");

Refer here for more details :
http://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/core/3.6/reference/en-US/html/session-configuration.html#configuration-optional 

What is Hibernate ?

What is Hibernate ?

1. Hibernate is an  open source java based library used to work with relational databases. 
2. The term Object/Relational Mapping refers to the programming technique for converting data between relational databases and object oriented programming languages such as Java, C# etc.
3. It is a very powerful ORM solution build on top of JDBC API.
4. It was initiated by Gavin King in 2001.
5. It is a persistence framework which is used to store and retrieve data from database. It is a powerful, high performance Object-Relational Persistence and Query service for any Java Application
6. Hibernate  makes use of persistent objects called POJOs (Plain Old Java Objects).
7. Hibernate maps Java classes(POJO) to database tables and from Java data types to SQL data types and relieve the developer from 95% of common data persistence related programming tasks.
8. These objects works as a data carrier called DTO (Data Transfer Object). They are used to carry data between different layers.

Advantages of Hibernate :

1. Hibernate takes care of mapping Java classes to database tables using annotation or XML files. You don't need to write any code to map it.
2.  It provides simple APIs for storing and fetching Java objects directly to and from the database.
3. If there is change in database or in any table then the only need to change XML file properties. and Java classes which are related to the table.
4. No need of SQL knowledge, you just need to work on familiar Java data types.
5. It does not require an application server to operate.
6.  Reduce database access complexity by easy fetching techniques.
7. It has easy and simple query for data access.
8. It is layers architecture and you can use the components as per your application need.
9. Hibernate is database independent and you can use any database of your choice. It supports all major RDBMS like HSQL Database Engine, DB2/NT, MYSQL, PostgreSQL, FrontBase, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Database,  Sybase SQL Server,  Informix Dynamic Server.
10. It also provide caching framework that works with Hibernate. You can use any one in your application to improve the performance of your application.

 Hibernate Architecture :

The figure given below represents the architecture of Hibernate :

 

Hibernate framework uses various existing Java APIs, like JDBC, Java Transaction API(JTA), and Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI). JDBC provides a rudimentary level of abstraction of functionality common to relational databases, allowing almost any database with a JDBC driver to be supported by Hibernate. JNDI and JTA allow Hibernate to be integrated with J2EE application servers.

Below are some definitions of the object depicts in above diagram :

• Persistent Object : These are short-lived, single threaded objects containing persistent state and business function. These can be ordinary JavaBeans/POJOs. They are associated with exactly one Session. Once the Session is closed, they will be detached and free to be used in any application layer (for example, directly as data transfer objects to and from presentation).
• Transient Object : Instances of persistent classes those are not currently associated with a Session. They may have been instantiated by the application and not yet persisted, or they may have been instantiated by a closed Session.
• Configuration (org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration ): The configuration of Hibernate is handled by the instance of org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration . It is the first Hibernate object you create in any Hibernate application and usually created only once during application initialization. It represents a configuration or properties file required by the Hibernate.

  Configuration cfg = new Configuration()

• SessionFactory (org.hibernate.SessionFactory ) : Session factory is a thread safe, immutable cache of compiled mappings for a single database. Configuration object is used to create a SessionFactory object. Only single instance of session factory is required for an application, so it is based on a singleton pattern. Typically SessionFactory is require for per database using a separate configuration file. So in case If you are using multiple databases then you would have to create multiple SessionFactory objects. The SessionFactory is heavyweight object so usually it is loaded at the start of the application.

  SessionFactory sessions = cfg.buildSessionFactory();

• Session (org.hibernate.Session): The session object provides an interface between the application and data stored in the database. It is a lightweight object and it wraps JDBC connection. It is factory of Transaction, Query and Criteria. It holds a mandatory (first-level) cache of persistent objects, used when navigating the object graph or looking up objects by identifier.

  Session session = sessions.openSession(); 

• Transaction (org.hibernate.Transaction): It is a single-threaded, short-lived object used by the application to 

  specify atomic units of work. It is Optional. It provides methods for transaction management.  

• Query :  Query object use Hibernate Query Language(HQL) or SQL to fetch data from the database. 

• Criteria : Criteria object are used to create and execute object oriented criteria queries to retrieve objects.