A Hibernate Archive (or HAR for short) is packaged like a normal JAR file, but
it has some special properties. It contains a META-INF/jboss-service.xml
file which tells JBoss how to initialize
Hibernate. Besides starting up a session
factory and setting up some other useful features, JBoss also verifies that
the database tables are up to date. To do this, JBoss needs the hibernate
mappings and their corresponding class files. Those files are included in
the HAR.
Cost - It takes very little effort and doesn't cost the state anything
to publish the source code, we use a free service called
Source Forge. If we receive source code contributions
from outside developers it will actually result in a savings because the contributed
code is code that Vermont didn't have to pay developers to write.
To be a good Neighbor - Many people use maven, jboss, and hibernate. Sharing
the code with others is a nice thing to do because it helps them accomplish their
goals while reducing their costs. Additionally, other people could adapt and enhance
the code to meet their needs.
Education - Vermonters who are studying Java software development could learn
by studying our code. Developers of open source software could legally copy and use
the code in their projects.
Better Software - With more people using our code and more developers looking at our
code, bugs would be more easily spotted and fixed.
