I have a running dynamic web project in Eclipse (Java EE + Maven + Spring). I am at the point where I need to integrate a persistence layer and want to use Hibernate with a mySql database.
I am wonder what plugins would be useful for me at this point? For Hibernate should I install hibernate tools or is it not necessary? Are then any plugins that are most widely use for connecting / exploring database connections that would be appropriate for the type of project I am working on? Thanks.
Hibernate Tools is definitely a nice plugin (that provides wizards, a nice console useful to setup the HQL queries, a mapping editor, etc). I'm actually tempted to say: why not using it? I use it in conjunction with the database support provided by the Eclipse Data Tools Platform (that is included in the Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers or available via the update manager). In your case, I would maybe just consider using SpringSource Tools Suite as base instead of a vanilla Eclipse.
Update: As reminded by BalusC in a comment, the Hibernate Tools also include a database reverse engineering tool which is maybe the most powerful feature. I should have mentioned it, this is now fixed.
If you are willing to spend about $30 you can download MyEclipse which has a lot of good plugins already integrated into Eclipse for you: http://www.myeclipseide.com/
You can look at http://fast-code.sourceforge.net/ as well. You can create FooService and FooServiceImpl and the configurations just by typing foo. It has nice way to create unit tests as well.