This element has several optional attributes. The schema and catalog attributes specify that tables referred to in this mapping belong to the named schema and/or catalog. If specified, tablenames will be qualified by the given schema and catalog names. If missing, tablenames will be unqualified. The default-cascade attribute specifies what cascade style should be assumed for properties and collections which do not specify a cascade attribute. The auto-import attribute lets us use unqualified class names in the query language, by default.

<hibernate-mapping
         schema="schemaName"
         catalog="catalogName"
         default-cascade="cascade_style"
         default-access="field|property|ClassName"
         default-lazy="true|false"
         auto-import="true|false"
         package="package.name"
 />

schema (optional): The name of a database schema.

catalog (optional): The name of a database catalog.

default-cascade (optional - defaults to none): A default cascade style.

default-access (optional - defaults to property): The strategy Hibernate should use for accessing all properties. Can be a custom implementation of PropertyAccessor.

default-lazy (optional - defaults to true): The default value for unspecifed lazy attributes of class and collection mappings.

auto-import (optional - defaults to true): Specifies whether we can use unqualified class names (of classes in this mapping) in the query language.

package (optional): Specifies a package prefix to assume for unqualified class names in the mapping document.

If you have two persistent classes with the same (unqualified) name, you should set auto-import="false". Hibernate will throw an exception if you attempt to assign two classes to the same "imported" name.

Note that the hibernate-mapping element allows you to nest several persistent <class> mappings, as shown above. It is however good practice (and expected by some tools) to map only a single persistent class (or a single class hierarchy) in one mapping file and name it after the persistent superclass, e.g. Cat.hbm.xml, Dog.hbm.xml, or if using inheritance, Animal.hbm.xml.