What just happened?

Hibernate configured itself to work with MySQL's specific features, examined the mapping document for our Track class, connected to the MySQL server, and executed the commands necessary to build a database schema for persisting Track instances.

It's interesting to compare Example 2-11 with Example 2-7. Most of the output is the same, but there are subtle differences in the SQL used to actually create the table. This is what Hibernate means by SQL "dialects."

Back on the server, you can fire up the MySQL client again, and confirm that the Track mapping schema has been created.

It's not surprising to find the table empty. We'll investigate how to populate it with data in the first part of Chapter 3.

If you've followed this example and set up a MySQL database, and you'd prefer to continue working with it throughout the rest of the book, feel free to do so, but bear in mind you'll need to know how to look at the results of the examples yourself. The text will assume you're still working with HSQLDB, and it will show you how to check your progress in that context. You will also see slight differences in the schema, as databases all have slightly different column types and features. Apart from these minor details, it really makes no difference what database you're using — that's part of the appeal of an O/R mapping layer like Hibernate.

If you do want to switch back to HSQLDB for the ease of following the discussion, change your hibernate.properties back to the values shown in Example 2-4.