Defines HibernateTemplate's data access methods that mirror various Session methods. Users are strongly encouraged to read the Hibernate Session javadocs for details on the semantics of those methods.

Note that operations that return an Iterator (i.e. iterate(..)) are supposed to be used within Spring-driven or JTA-driven transactions (with HibernateTransactionManager , JtaTransactionManager , or EJB CMT). Else, the Iterator won't be able to read results from its ResultSet anymore, as the underlying Hibernate Session will already have been closed.

Note that lazy loading will just work with an open Hibernate Session, either within a transaction or within OpenSessionInViewFilter / OpenSessionInViewInterceptor . Furthermore, some operations just make sense within transactions, for example: contains, evict, lock, flush, clear.