How to find out which dependencies need to be included?

Question

I'm fairly new to Java/Spring and am trying to put together a simple app which will include some basic CRUD operations and I'd like to use Hibernate for data access.

I'm using Maven as my build tool. My question is: how can I find out which dependencies are required to use Hibernate? For example, I'm using Spring 3.0.6, but how would I know what version of Hibernate to use with that version of Spring? More over, if there are multiple possible Hibernate dependencies, how would I know which ones to include for the functionality I need? So far this seems to be partially reading documentation and partially trial and error.

Is there a definitive way of knowing which Maven dependencies to use with certain version of other dependencies? Any which dependencies to use for particular bits of functionality?

Thanks,

James.

Answer 1

I follow these steps when starting to use a new framework:

1. Go to framework's web site. In your case hibernate web site and try to find latest (or a specific) version. For hibernate it is 3.6.8-Final at the time of writing.

2. Search for a maven dependency definition on the framework web site. If you can not find any dependency definition, them simply google for "frameworkname _version_ maven dependency" and you'll most probably find necessary definition, as well as the necessary repository information. For example you can find the dependency definition for hibernate on mvnrepository.com and necessary artifact repository information on Hibernate 3.6.8 release page:

   The artifacts have all been published to the JBoss Nexus repository under the org.hibernate groupId at http://repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/groups/public-jboss/

3. The question of which dependencies are necessary and which are optional depends entirely on the framework to be used. So for example in order to use hibernate, as stated on Hibernate Quick Start Guide:

   hibernate-core: The main artifact, which contains all the Hibernate classes, in packageorg.hibernate. You need these to build applications using the native Hibernate APIs. It includes capabilities for using native Hibernate mapping in hbm.xml files, as well as annotations.

   About compatibility issues (which version of hibernate is compatible with spring 3.0.6), all I can say is you have to read about integration manuals for those frameworks. Since Spring and Hibernate are two exclusively distinct frameworks, I don't think you can find a constant location to look for version compatibility matrix or something like that.