We just got done releasing Hibernate O/RM 5.0.0.Beta1. I will follow up later with a more in depth blog post for 5.0.0.Final, but this first Beta implements all new APIs and most new features. Specifically in this Beta include:
- New bootstrapping API - better determinism, better integration
- Java 8 Support (though still compatible with Java 6). Just add hibernate-java8 to your classpath.
- Ability to handle additional Java types for id attributes marked as GenerationType#AUTO. Built-in support for Number and UUID. Expandable via new org.hibernate.boot.model.IdGeneratorStrategyInterpreter extension
- scanning support for non-JPA usage
- NamingStrategy has been removed in favor of a better designed API. 2 actually: org.hibernate.boot.model.naming.ImplicitNamingStrategy and org.hibernate.boot.model.naming.PhysicalNamingStrategy
Additionally, support for AttributeConverters has been expanded and more fully realized:
- fully supported for non-@Enumerated enum values
- applicable in conjunction with @Nationalized support
- called to handle null values
- settable in hbm.xml by using type="converter:fully.qualified.AttributeConverterName"
- integrated with hibernate-envers
- collection values, map keys
See https://hibernate.org/orm/downloads/ for information on obtaining Hibernate ORM.
NOTE: 5.0 is expected to be compatible with Java 6 (aside from the hibernate-java8 module naturally). However, Beta1 will not work with Java 6 due to something with JAXB that I have not yet had time to investigate. Beta1 requires Java 7. Again, the expectation is to have it be compatible with Java 6 by the next release if possible.