How does Hibernate work with Java applications?

Hibernate is Object Relational Mapping (ORM) tool.
Hibernate can be use with JSP Servlet, Struts, Spring application.
Hibernate basically used for database related activity.
For configuration you required *-hbm.xml file for entity object.
And for connection write below -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1251:XE SYSTEM admin123 10 org.hibernate.dialect.Oracle10gDialect true update false thread -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For book reffrence take hibernate with spring Author Reza Seddighee.
Online: ref: http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-10-2004/jw-1018-hibernate.html Maroof

Hibernate is a ORM(Object relational mapping) tool, Which means it will map the java beans/VO(Value Object) to DB Table, Need to some configurations. 
So java developer no need to learn SQL.
One more important feature is we can change the DB without changing the code because we are writing code based on the Java beans/VO.But need to do small XML change.