What are the main functions of the Hibernate framework?

The main function of the Hibernate framework is to use Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) technology to establish a mapping between the object model of a Java application and a relational database, thus enabling the persistence of database operations. It provides the following key features:

1. Object-relational mapping (ORM) is the process of mapping Java objects to relational database tables, allowing developers to interact with databases using an object-oriented approach.
2. Database query: It provides an object-oriented query language (HQL) that allows querying through object properties and relationships, avoiding the complexity of using SQL statements directly.
3. Database operations: a series of APIs are provided for performing database CRUD operations, including persistence, updating, deleting, and querying.
4. Transaction Management: Supporting transaction operations, it can manage a series of database operations to ensure data consistency and integrity.
5. Cache management: Offers first-level and second-level cache mechanisms to improve the performance and efficiency of database operations.
6. Lazy loading: By implementing a lazy loading mechanism, data can be loaded from the database only when needed, reducing unnecessary database queries.
7. Association management: supports various types of associations (one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, many-to-many), which can be mapped through annotations or XML configuration.

In general, the main function of the Hibernate framework is to streamline the interaction between Java applications and relational databases, improving development efficiency and database performance.