[news.eclipse.tools.emf] Re: Switching from Hibernate

[varnica@xxxxxxxxxx (Vlad Varnica)]

Hi Roland,

I don't think this is a good idea to directly transform Java code 
including hibernate annotations or to restore Java code from a database 
because:
- once the transformation is done if you want to generate code from EMF 
then you will loose many critical mapping information in your java code.
- EMF doesn't support JDK 6 annotations. I mean that you can create java 
code but no Hibernate annotations.
- The model transformation to EMF will only capture some information of 
the code and not the full logic. I mean that the EMF reverse engineering 
from Hibernate doesn't really exist and you will have to create your own 
parser. The complexity and the usability of such a reverse requires more 
than 18 months full time investment and then few years of testing :-)

My recommended solution is to keep Hibernate logic and just add an UML 
view on the top of it. I mean that you can create a standard UML 2.2 UML 
model from your Java code including your Hibernate annotations. 
See more JPA / Hibernate annotations reverse at : 
http://www.forum-omondo.com/documentation_eclipseuml_2008/Eclipse_Database/Reverse_Existing_Database/class_diagram_created.png

The Ecore and EMF transformation complexity have already been hidden by 
EclipseUML. It means that you can use Ecore and EMF but you don't have to 
redo all the job Omondo has already done. This is why you have to pay for 
the tool :-)