HIBERNATE - Relational Persistence for

Idiomatic Java
Hibernate Reference Documentation
The Hibernate Team
The JBoss Visual Design Team
4.3.8.Final
Copyright 2004 Red Hat, Inc.
Legal Notice
2015-01-06

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
HIBERNATE - Relational Persistence for Idiomatic Java ................................................................ 1
Hibernate Reference Documentation .............................................................................................. 1
The Hibernate Team ..................................................................................................................... 1
The JBoss Visual Design Team .................................................................................................... 1
Preface .............................................................................................................................................. 14
Note ................................................................................................................................................... 14
Chapter 1. Tutorial.......................................................................................................................... 15
Important ......................................................................................................................................... 16
Note ................................................................................................................................................... 16
1.1. Part 1 - The first Hibernate Application ................................................................................ 16
Note ................................................................................................................................................... 16
1.1.1. Setup ................................................................................................................................... 16
Tip ..................................................................................................................................................... 17
1.1.2. The first class ..................................................................................................................... 17
1.1.3. The mapping file ................................................................................................................ 18
Important ......................................................................................................................................... 19
Tip ..................................................................................................................................................... 20

Note ................................................................................................................................................... 20
Tip ..................................................................................................................................................... 21
1.1.4. Hibernate configuration.................................................................................................... 21
Note ................................................................................................................................................... 21
Caution ............................................................................................................................................. 21
Note ................................................................................................................................................... 22
Tip ..................................................................................................................................................... 22
1.1.5. Building with Maven ......................................................................................................... 23
1.1.6. Startup and helpers ........................................................................................................... 23
1.1.7. Loading and storing objects ............................................................................................. 24
Important ......................................................................................................................................... 25
Note ................................................................................................................................................... 26
1.2. Part 2 - Mapping associations ................................................................................................. 27
1.2.1. Mapping the Person class ................................................................................................. 27
1.2.2. A unidirectional Set-based association ............................................................................ 28
1.2.3. Working the association .................................................................................................... 29
1.2.4. Collection of values ............................................................................................................ 31
1.2.5. Bi-directional associations ................................................................................................ 32
Note ................................................................................................................................................... 32
1.2.6. Working bi-directional links ............................................................................................ 33
1.3. Part 3 - The EventManager web application ......................................................................... 34
1.3.1. Writing the basic servlet ................................................................................................... 34
1.3.2. Processing and rendering.................................................................................................. 35
1.3.3. Deploying and testing ........................................................................................................ 37
Note ................................................................................................................................................... 37
1.4. Summary ................................................................................................................................... 37
Chapter 2. Architecture .................................................................................................................. 38
2.1. Overview.................................................................................................................................... 38
2.1.1. Minimal architecture......................................................................................................... 38
2.1.2. Comprehensive architecture............................................................................................. 39
2.1.3. Basic APIs .......................................................................................................................... 39
2.2. Contextual sessions ................................................................................................................... 41
Chapter 3. Configuration................................................................................................................ 42
3.1. Programmatic configuration ................................................................................................... 42

3.2. Obtaining a SessionFactory ..................................................................................................... 43

3.3. JDBC connections..................................................................................................................... 44
3.4. Optional configuration properties .......................................................................................... 45
Warning............................................................................................................................................ 45
Note ................................................................................................................................................... 47
3.4.1. SQL Dialects ...................................................................................................................... 53
3.4.2. Outer Join Fetching........................................................................................................... 54
3.4.3. Binary Streams .................................................................................................................. 55
3.4.4. Second-level and query cache ........................................................................................... 55
3.4.5. Query Language Substitution .......................................................................................... 55
3.4.6. Hibernate statistics ............................................................................................................ 55
3.5. Logging ...................................................................................................................................... 55
Important ......................................................................................................................................... 55
3.6. Implementing a NamingStrategy....................................................................................... 56
3.7. Implementing a PersisterClassProvider ................................................................................. 57
3.8. XML configuration file ............................................................................................................ 57
3.9. Java EE Application Server integration................................................................................. 58
3.9.1. Transaction strategy configuration.................................................................................. 59
3.9.2. JNDI-bound SessionFactory ..................................................................................... 60
3.9.3. Current Session context management with JTA ............................................................ 61
Chapter 4. Persistent Classes ......................................................................................................... 61
4.1. A simple POJO example .......................................................................................................... 62
4.1.1. Implement a no-argument constructor............................................................................ 63
4.1.2. Provide an identifier property .......................................................................................... 63
Note ................................................................................................................................................... 63
Note ................................................................................................................................................... 64
4.1.3. Prefer non-final classes (semi-optional)........................................................................... 64
4.1.4. Declare accessors and mutators for persistent fields (optional) .................................... 65
4.2. Implementing inheritance ........................................................................................................ 65
4.3. Implementing equals() and hashCode()........................................................................ 65
4.4. Dynamic models........................................................................................................................ 66
Note ................................................................................................................................................... 66
4.5. Tuplizers .................................................................................................................................... 68
4.6. EntityNameResolvers ............................................................................................................... 69

Chapter 5. Basic O/R Mapping ...................................................................................................... 72

5.1. Mapping declaration ................................................................................................................ 72
5.1.1. Entity .................................................................................................................................. 75
Tip ..................................................................................................................................................... 76
Tip ..................................................................................................................................................... 77
5.1.2. Identifiers ........................................................................................................................... 80
Tip ..................................................................................................................................................... 83
Warning............................................................................................................................................ 83
Warning............................................................................................................................................ 87
Important ......................................................................................................................................... 89
Note ................................................................................................................................................... 91
Warning............................................................................................................................................ 97
5.1.3. Optimistic locking properties (optional).......................................................................... 98
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 101
5.1.4. Property ............................................................................................................................ 101
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 103
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 104
@org.hibernate.annotations.AccessType .................................................................................... 105
5.1.5. Embedded objects (aka components) ............................................................................ 109
5.1.6. Inheritance strategy......................................................................................................... 112
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 114
Tip ................................................................................................................................................... 114
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 116
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 119
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 119
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 119
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 119
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 119
5.1.7. Mapping one to one and one to many associations ....................................................... 123
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 124
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 129
5.1.8. Natural-id ......................................................................................................................... 131
5.1.9. Any .................................................................................................................................... 132
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 133

5.1.10. Properties ....................................................................................................................... 134

Note ................................................................................................................................................. 135
5.1.11. Some hbm.xml specificities ........................................................................................... 135
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 138
5.2. Hibernate types ....................................................................................................................... 139
5.2.1. Entities and values ........................................................................................................... 139
5.2.2. Basic value types .............................................................................................................. 140
5.2.3. Custom value types .......................................................................................................... 142
5.3. Mapping a class more than once ........................................................................................... 143
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 143
5.4. SQL quoted identifiers ........................................................................................................... 144
5.5. Generated properties ............................................................................................................. 144
5.6. Column transformers: read and write expressions ............................................................. 144
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 145
5.7. Auxiliary database objects ..................................................................................................... 145
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 146
Chapter 6. Types............................................................................................................................ 146
Important ....................................................................................................................................... 147
6.1. Value types .............................................................................................................................. 147
6.1.1. Basic value types .............................................................................................................. 147
6.1.2. Composite types ............................................................................................................... 154
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 154
6.1.3. Collection types ................................................................................................................ 154
Important ....................................................................................................................................... 154
6.2. Entity types ............................................................................................................................. 154
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 154
6.3. Significance of type categories ............................................................................................... 155
6.4. Custom types ........................................................................................................................... 155
6.4.1. Custom types using org.hibernate.type.Type .................................................. 155
Important ....................................................................................................................................... 156
6.4.2. Custom types using org.hibernate.usertype.UserType............................... 156
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 156
6.4.3. Custom types using org.hibernate.usertype.CompositeUserType ......... 158
6.5. Type registry ........................................................................................................................... 159

Chapter 7. Collection mapping .................................................................................................... 160

7.1. Persistent collections .............................................................................................................. 160
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 161
7.2. How to map collections .......................................................................................................... 161
Warning.......................................................................................................................................... 164
7.2.1. Collection foreign keys .................................................................................................... 165
7.2.2. Indexed collections........................................................................................................... 166
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 168
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 170
7.2.3. Collections of basic types and embeddable objects ...................................................... 171
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 172
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 173
7.3. Advanced collection mappings .............................................................................................. 173
7.3.1. Sorted collections ............................................................................................................. 173
Tip ................................................................................................................................................... 174
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 174
7.3.2. Bidirectional associations ................................................................................................ 175
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 178
7.3.3. Bidirectional associations with indexed collections ...................................................... 179
7.3.4. Ternary associations ........................................................................................................ 180
7.3.5. Using an <idbag> ..................................................................................................... 181
7.4. Collection examples ................................................................................................................ 181
Chapter 8. Association Mappings ................................................................................................ 186
8.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 187
8.2. Unidirectional associations .................................................................................................... 187
8.2.1. Many-to-one ..................................................................................................................... 187
8.2.2. One-to-one ........................................................................................................................ 188
8.2.3. One-to-many .................................................................................................................... 188
8.3. Unidirectional associations with join tables ......................................................................... 189
8.3.1. One-to-many .................................................................................................................... 189
8.3.2. Many-to-one ..................................................................................................................... 189
8.3.3. One-to-one ........................................................................................................................ 190
8.3.4. Many-to-many ................................................................................................................. 190
8.4. Bidirectional associations....................................................................................................... 191

8.4.1. one-to-many / many-to-one ............................................................................................. 191

8.4.2. One-to-one ........................................................................................................................ 192
8.5. Bidirectional associations with join tables ........................................................................... 193
8.5.1. one-to-many / many-to-one ............................................................................................. 193
8.5.2. one to one .......................................................................................................................... 193
8.5.3. Many-to-many ................................................................................................................. 194
8.6. More complex association mappings .................................................................................... 195
Chapter 9. Component Mapping ................................................................................................. 195
9.1. Dependent objects................................................................................................................... 196
9.2. Collections of dependent objects ........................................................................................... 198
Important ....................................................................................................................................... 198
9.3. Components as Map indices .................................................................................................. 199
9.4. Components as composite identifiers.................................................................................... 199
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 199
Tip ................................................................................................................................................... 200
9.5. Dynamic components ............................................................................................................. 201
Chapter 10. Inheritance mapping ................................................................................................ 201
10.1. The three strategies .............................................................................................................. 201
10.1.1. Table per class hierarchy .............................................................................................. 202
10.1.2. Table per subclass.......................................................................................................... 202
10.1.3. Table per subclass: using a discriminator ................................................................... 203
10.1.4. Mixing table per class hierarchy with table per subclass .......................................... 204
10.1.5. Table per concrete class ................................................................................................ 204
10.1.6. Table per concrete class using implicit polymorphism .............................................. 205
10.1.7. Mixing implicit polymorphism with other inheritance mappings ............................ 206
10.2. Limitations ............................................................................................................................ 206
Chapter 11. Working with objects ............................................................................................... 207
11.1. Hibernate object states ......................................................................................................... 208
11.2. Making objects persistent .................................................................................................... 208
11.3. Loading an object ................................................................................................................. 209
11.4. Querying ................................................................................................................................ 210
11.4.1. Executing queries........................................................................................................... 211
11.4.2. Filtering collections ....................................................................................................... 215
11.4.3. Criteria queries .............................................................................................................. 215

11.4.4. Queries in native SQL ................................................................................................... 216

11.5. Modifying persistent objects................................................................................................ 216
11.6. Modifying detached objects ................................................................................................. 216
11.7. Automatic state detection .................................................................................................... 217
11.8. Deleting persistent objects ................................................................................................... 218
11.9. Replicating object between two different datastores......................................................... 219
11.10. Flushing the Session ........................................................................................................... 219
11.11. Transitive persistence......................................................................................................... 220
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 221
11.12. Using metadata ................................................................................................................... 223
Chapter 12. Read-only entities ..................................................................................................... 223
Important ....................................................................................................................................... 224
12.1. Making persistent entities read-only .................................................................................. 224
12.1.1. Entities of immutable classes ........................................................................................ 225
12.1.2. Loading persistent entities as read-only ...................................................................... 225
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 225
12.1.3. Loading read-only entities from an HQL query/criteria ........................................... 226
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 226
12.1.4. Making a persistent entity read-only ........................................................................... 227
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 227
Important ....................................................................................................................................... 227
12.2. Read-only affect on property type ...................................................................................... 228
12.2.1. Simple properties ........................................................................................................... 229
12.2.2. Unidirectional associations ........................................................................................... 229
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 229
12.2.3. Bidirectional associations .............................................................................................. 231
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 231
Chapter 13. Transactions and Concurrency ............................................................................... 232
13.1. Session and transaction scopes ............................................................................................ 233
13.1.1. Unit of work ................................................................................................................... 233
13.1.2. Long conversations ........................................................................................................ 234
13.1.3. Considering object identity ........................................................................................... 235
13.1.4. Common issues .............................................................................................................. 236
13.2. Database transaction demarcation ..................................................................................... 236

13.2.1. Non-managed environment .......................................................................................... 237

13.2.2. Using JTA ....................................................................................................................... 238
13.2.3. Exception handling ........................................................................................................ 240
13.2.4. Transaction timeout ...................................................................................................... 241
13.3. Optimistic concurrency control........................................................................................... 241
13.3.1. Application version checking........................................................................................ 241
13.3.2. Extended session and automatic versioning ................................................................ 242
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 243
13.3.3. Detached objects and automatic versioning ................................................................ 243
13.3.4. Customizing automatic versioning ............................................................................... 243
13.4. Pessimistic locking ................................................................................................................ 244
13.5. Connection release modes .................................................................................................... 245
Chapter 14. Interceptors and events ............................................................................................ 246
14.1. Interceptors ........................................................................................................................... 246
14.2. Event system ......................................................................................................................... 248
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 248
14.3. Hibernate declarative security ............................................................................................ 249
Chapter 15. Batch processing ....................................................................................................... 250
15.1. Batch inserts .......................................................................................................................... 251
15.2. Batch updates........................................................................................................................ 251
15.3. The StatelessSession interface ............................................................................................. 252
15.4. DML-style operations........................................................................................................... 252
Chapter 16. HQL: The Hibernate Query Language .................................................................. 255
16.1. Case Sensitivity ..................................................................................................................... 255
16.2. The from clause .................................................................................................................... 256
16.3. Associations and joins .......................................................................................................... 256
16.4. Forms of join syntax ............................................................................................................. 257
16.5. Referring to identifier property .......................................................................................... 258
Important ....................................................................................................................................... 258
16.6. The select clause.................................................................................................................... 258
16.7. Aggregate functions .............................................................................................................. 259
16.8. Polymorphic queries............................................................................................................. 260
16.9. The where clause .................................................................................................................. 260
16.10. Expressions.......................................................................................................................... 262

16.11. The order by clause ............................................................................................................ 264

16.12. The group by clause ........................................................................................................... 265
16.13. Subqueries ........................................................................................................................... 265
16.14. HQL examples .................................................................................................................... 266
16.15. Bulk update and delete....................................................................................................... 268
16.16. Tips & Tricks ...................................................................................................................... 268
16.17. Components ........................................................................................................................ 269
16.18. Row value constructor syntax ........................................................................................... 269
Chapter 17. Criteria Queries ........................................................................................................ 270
17.1. Creating a Criteria instance ........................................................................................... 270
17.2. Narrowing the result set....................................................................................................... 270
17.3. Ordering the results ............................................................................................................. 271
17.4. Associations ........................................................................................................................... 272
17.5. Dynamic association fetching .............................................................................................. 273
17.6. Components .......................................................................................................................... 273
17.7. Collections ............................................................................................................................. 274
17.8. Example queries ................................................................................................................... 274
17.9. Projections, aggregation and grouping............................................................................... 275
17.10. Detached queries and subqueries ...................................................................................... 276
17.11. Queries by natural identifier ............................................................................................. 277
Chapter 18. Native SQL ................................................................................................................ 277
18.1. Using a SQLQuery ............................................................................................................... 278
18.1.1. Scalar queries ................................................................................................................. 278
18.1.2. Entity queries ................................................................................................................. 279
18.1.3. Handling associations and collections .......................................................................... 279
18.1.4. Returning multiple entities ........................................................................................... 280
18.1.5. Returning non-managed entities .................................................................................. 282
18.1.6. Handling inheritance ..................................................................................................... 282
18.1.7. Parameters ..................................................................................................................... 282
18.2. Named SQL queries ............................................................................................................. 283
Tip ................................................................................................................................................... 288
18.2.1. Using return-property to explicitly specify column/alias names ............................... 288
18.2.2. Using stored procedures for querying ......................................................................... 289
18.3. Custom SQL for create, update and delete ........................................................................ 290

Tip ................................................................................................................................................... 292

Tip ................................................................................................................................................... 292
18.4. Custom SQL for loading ...................................................................................................... 293
Chapter 19. Filtering data ............................................................................................................ 294
19.1. Hibernate filters .................................................................................................................... 294
Chapter 20. Improving performance........................................................................................... 297
20.1. Fetching strategies ................................................................................................................ 298
20.1.1. Working with lazy associations .................................................................................... 299
20.1.2. Tuning fetch strategies .................................................................................................. 300
20.1.3. Single-ended association proxies .................................................................................. 301
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 302
20.1.4. Initializing collections and proxies ............................................................................... 302
20.1.5. Using batch fetching ...................................................................................................... 304
20.1.6. Using subselect fetching ................................................................................................ 305
20.1.7. Fetch profiles.................................................................................................................. 305
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 307
20.1.8. Using lazy property fetching......................................................................................... 307
20.2. The Second Level Cache ...................................................................................................... 308
20.2.1. Cache mappings ............................................................................................................. 309
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 310
20.2.2. Strategy: read only ........................................................................................................ 311
20.2.3. Strategy: read/write....................................................................................................... 311
20.2.4. Strategy: nonstrict read/write ...................................................................................... 311
20.2.5. Strategy: transactional .................................................................................................. 312
20.2.6. Cache-provider/concurrency-strategy compatibility ................................................. 312
Important ....................................................................................................................................... 312
20.3. Managing the caches ............................................................................................................ 312
20.4. The Query Cache .................................................................................................................. 313
20.4.1. Enabling query caching ................................................................................................ 314
Important ....................................................................................................................................... 314
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 314
20.4.2. Query cache regions ...................................................................................................... 314
20.5. Bytecode Enhancement ........................................................................................................ 315
20.5.1. Implementing org.hibernate.engine.spi.ManagedEntity interface ..... 315

20.5.2. Runtime instrument ...................................................................................................... 315

20.5.3. Build-time instrument ................................................................................................... 315
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 316
20.6. Understanding Collection performance ............................................................................. 317
20.6.1. Taxonomy ....................................................................................................................... 317
20.6.2. Lists, maps, idbags and sets are the most efficient collections to update ................. 318
20.6.3. Bags and lists are the most efficient inverse collections ............................................. 318
20.6.4. One shot delete ............................................................................................................... 318
20.7. Monitoring performance...................................................................................................... 319
20.7.1. Monitoring a SessionFactory ........................................................................................ 319
20.7.2. Metrics ............................................................................................................................ 320
Chapter 21. Toolset Guide ............................................................................................................ 321
21.1. Automatic schema generation ............................................................................................. 322
21.1.1. Customizing the schema................................................................................................ 322
21.1.2. Running the tool ............................................................................................................ 324
21.1.3. Properties ....................................................................................................................... 324
21.1.4. Using Ant ........................................................................................................................ 325
21.1.5. Incremental schema updates ........................................................................................ 325
21.1.6. Using Ant for incremental schema updates ................................................................ 326
21.1.7. Schema validation.......................................................................................................... 326
21.1.8. Using Ant for schema validation .................................................................................. 327
Chapter 22. Additional modules .................................................................................................. 327
22.1. Bean Validation .................................................................................................................... 327
22.1.1. Adding Bean Validation ................................................................................................ 328
22.1.2. Configuration ................................................................................................................. 328
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 328
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 329
22.1.3. Catching violations ........................................................................................................ 329
22.1.4. Database schema............................................................................................................ 330
22.2. Hibernate Search .................................................................................................................. 330
22.2.1. Description ..................................................................................................................... 330
22.2.2. Integration with Hibernate Annotations ..................................................................... 330
Chapter 23. Example: Parent/Child ............................................................................................ 331
23.1. A note about collections ....................................................................................................... 331

23.2. Bidirectional one-to-many ................................................................................................... 331

23.3. Cascading life cycle .............................................................................................................. 333
23.4. Cascades and unsaved-value ......................................................................................... 334
23.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 334
Chapter 24. Example: Weblog Application ................................................................................ 335
24.1. Persistent Classes .................................................................................................................. 335
24.2. Hibernate Mappings............................................................................................................. 336
24.3. Hibernate Code ..................................................................................................................... 337
Chapter 25. Example: Various Mappings ................................................................................... 341
25.1. Employer/Employee ............................................................................................................. 342
25.2. Author/Work ........................................................................................................................ 344
25.3. Customer/Order/Product..................................................................................................... 346
25.4. Miscellaneous example mappings ....................................................................................... 348
25.4.1. "Typed" one-to-one association ................................................................................... 348
25.4.2. Composite key example ................................................................................................. 348
25.4.3. Many-to-many with shared composite key attribute ................................................. 350
25.4.4. Content based discrimination ....................................................................................... 351
25.4.5. Associations on alternate keys ...................................................................................... 352
Chapter 26. Best Practices ............................................................................................................ 353
Chapter 27. Database Portability Considerations ...................................................................... 355
27.1. Portability Basics .................................................................................................................. 356
27.2. Dialect .................................................................................................................................... 356
27.3. Dialect resolution .................................................................................................................. 356
27.4. Identifier generation............................................................................................................. 357
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 357
Note ................................................................................................................................................. 357
27.5. Database functions ............................................................................................................... 357
Warning.......................................................................................................................................... 358
Important ....................................................................................................................................... 358
27.6. Type mappings...................................................................................................................... 358
References ...................................................................................................................................... 358

Preface
Working with both Object-Oriented software and Relational Databases can be cumbersome
and time consuming. Development costs are significantly higher due to a paradigm mismatch
between how data is represented in objects versus relational databases. Hibernate is an
Object/Relational Mapping solution for Java environments. The term Object/Relational
Mapping refers to the technique of mapping data from an object model representation to a
relational data model representation (and visa versa). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectrelational_mapping for a good high-level discussion.

Note
While having a strong background in SQL is not required to use Hibernate, having a basic
understanding of the concepts can greatly help you understand Hibernate more fully and
quickly. Probably the single best background is an understanding of data modeling principles.
You might want to consider these resources as a good starting point:

http://www.agiledata.org/essays/dataModeling101.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_modeling

Hibernate not only takes care of the mapping from Java classes to database tables (and from
Java data types to SQL data types), but also provides data query and retrieval facilities. It can
significantly reduce development time otherwise spent with manual data handling in SQL and
JDBC. Hibernates design goal is to relieve the developer from 95% of common data
persistence-related programming tasks by eliminating the need for manual, hand-crafted data
processing using SQL and JDBC. However, unlike many other persistence solutions,
Hibernate does not hide the power of SQL from you and guarantees that your investment in
relational technology and knowledge is as valid as always.
Hibernate may not be the best solution for data-centric applications that only use storedprocedures to implement the business logic in the database, it is most useful with objectoriented domain models and business logic in the Java-based middle-tier. However, Hibernate
can certainly help you to remove or encapsulate vendor-specific SQL code and will help with
the common task of result set translation from a tabular representation to a graph of objects.
If you are new to Hibernate and Object/Relational Mapping or even Java, please follow these
steps:
1. Read Chapter 1, Tutorial for a tutorial with step-by-step instructions. The source code
for the tutorial is included in the distribution in the doc/reference/tutorial/
directory.
2. Read Chapter 2, Architecture to understand the environments where Hibernate can be
used.
3. View the eg/ directory in the Hibernate distribution. It contains a simple standalone
application. Copy your JDBC driver to the lib/ directory and edit
etc/hibernate.properties, specifying correct values for your database. From a
command prompt in the distribution directory, type ant eg (using Ant), or under
Windows, type build eg.

4. Use this reference documentation as your primary source of information. Consider

reading [JPwH] if you need more help with application design, or if you prefer a stepby-step tutorial. Also visit http://caveatemptor.hibernate.org and download the
example application from [JPwH].
5. FAQs are answered on the Hibernate website.
6. Links to third party demos, examples, and tutorials are maintained on the Hibernate
website.
7. The Community Area on the Hibernate website is a good resource for design patterns
and various integration solutions (Tomcat, JBoss AS, Struts, EJB, etc.).
There are a number of ways to become involved in the Hibernate community, including

Trying stuff out and reporting bugs. See http://hibernate.org/issuetracker.html details.

Trying your hand at fixing some bugs or implementing enhancements. Again, see
http://hibernate.org/issuetracker.html details.
http://hibernate.org/community.html lists a few ways to engage in the community.
o There are forums for users to ask questions and receive help from the
community.
o There are also IRC channels for both user and developer discussions.
Helping improve or translate this documentation. Contact us on the developer mailing
list if you have interest.
Evangelizing Hibernate within your organization.

Chapter 1. Tutorial
Table of Contents
1.1. Part 1 - The first Hibernate Application
1.1.1. Setup
1.1.2. The first class
1.1.3. The mapping file
1.1.4. Hibernate configuration
1.1.5. Building with Maven
1.1.6. Startup and helpers
1.1.7. Loading and storing objects
1.2. Part 2 - Mapping associations
1.2.1. Mapping the Person class
1.2.2. A unidirectional Set-based association
1.2.3. Working the association
1.2.4. Collection of values
1.2.5. Bi-directional associations
1.2.6. Working bi-directional links
1.3. Part 3 - The EventManager web application
1.3.1. Writing the basic servlet
1.3.2. Processing and rendering
1.3.3. Deploying and testing
1.4. Summary
Intended for new users, this chapter provides an step-by-step introduction to Hibernate,
starting with a simple application using an in-memory database. The tutorial is based on an

earlier tutorial developed by Michael Gloegl. All code is contained in the tutorials/web
directory of the project source.

Important
This tutorial expects the user have knowledge of both Java and SQL. If you have a limited
knowledge of JAVA or SQL, it is advised that you start with a good introduction to that
technology prior to attempting to learn Hibernate.

Note
The distribution contains another example application under the tutorial/eg project source
directory.

1.1. Part 1 - The first Hibernate Application

For this example, we will set up a small database application that can store events we want to
attend and information about the host(s) of these events.

Note
Although you can use whatever database you feel comfortable using, we will use HSQLDB
(an in-memory, Java database) to avoid describing installation/setup of any particular
database servers.

1.1.1. Setup
The first thing we need to do is to set up the development environment. We will be using the
"standard layout" advocated by alot of build tools such as Maven. Maven, in particular, has a
good resource describing this layout. As this tutorial is to be a web application, we will be
creating and making use of src/main/java, src/main/resources and src/main/webapp
directories.
We will be using Maven in this tutorial, taking advantage of its transitive dependency
management capabilities as well as the ability of many IDEs to automatically set up a project
for us based on the maven descriptor.
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>org.hibernate.tutorials</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-tutorial</artifactId>
<version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>First Hibernate Tutorial</name>
<build>

<!-- we dont want the version to be part of the generated war file
name -->
<finalName>${artifactId}</finalName>
</build>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
</dependency>
<!-- Because this is a web app, we also have a dependency on the
servlet api. -->
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
<artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
</dependency>
<!-- Hibernate uses slf4j for logging, for our purposes here use
the simple backend -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-simple</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javassist</groupId>
<artifactId>javassist</artifactId>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</project>

Tip
It is not a requirement to use Maven. If you wish to use something else to build this tutorial
(such as Ant), the layout will remain the same. The only change is that you will need to
manually account for all the needed dependencies. If you use something like Ivy providing
transitive dependency management you would still use the dependencies mentioned below.
Otherwise, you'd need to grab all dependencies, both explicit and transitive, and add them to
the project's classpath. If working from the Hibernate distribution bundle, this would mean
hibernate3.jar, all artifacts in the lib/required directory and all files from either the
lib/bytecode/cglib or lib/bytecode/javassist directory; additionally you will need
both the servlet-api jar and one of the slf4j logging backends.
Save this file as pom.xml in the project root directory.

1.1.2. The first class

Next, we create a class that represents the event we want to store in the database; it is a simple
JavaBean class with some properties:
package org.hibernate.tutorial.domain;
import java.util.Date;

public class Event {

private Long id;
private String title;
private Date date;
public Event() {}
public Long getId() {
return id;
}
private void setId(Long id) {
this.id = id;
}
public Date getDate() {
return date;
}
public void setDate(Date date) {
this.date = date;
}
public String getTitle() {
return title;
}
public void setTitle(String title) {
this.title = title;
}
}

This class uses standard JavaBean naming conventions for property getter and setter methods,
as well as private visibility for the fields. Although this is the recommended design, it is not
required. Hibernate can also access fields directly, the benefit of accessor methods is
robustness for refactoring.
The id property holds a unique identifier value for a particular event. All persistent entity
classes (there are less important dependent classes as well) will need such an identifier
property if we want to use the full feature set of Hibernate. In fact, most applications,
especially web applications, need to distinguish objects by identifier, so you should consider
this a feature rather than a limitation. However, we usually do not manipulate the identity of
an object, hence the setter method should be private. Only Hibernate will assign identifiers
when an object is saved. Hibernate can access public, private, and protected accessor
methods, as well as public, private and protected fields directly. The choice is up to you and
you can match it to fit your application design.
The no-argument constructor is a requirement for all persistent classes; Hibernate has to
create objects for you, using Java Reflection. The constructor can be private, however
package or public visibility is required for runtime proxy generation and efficient data
retrieval without bytecode instrumentation.
Save this file to the src/main/java/org/hibernate/tutorial/domain directory.

1.1.3. The mapping file

Hibernate needs to know how to load and store objects of the persistent class. This is where
the Hibernate mapping file comes into play. The mapping file tells Hibernate what table in the
database it has to access, and what columns in that table it should use.
The basic structure of a mapping file looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC
"-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD 3.0//EN"
"http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd">
<hibernate-mapping package="org.hibernate.tutorial.domain">
[...]
</hibernate-mapping>

Hibernate DTD is sophisticated. You can use it for auto-completion of XML mapping
elements and attributes in your editor or IDE. Opening up the DTD file in your text editor is
the easiest way to get an overview of all elements and attributes, and to view the defaults, as
well as some comments. Hibernate will not load the DTD file from the web, but first look it
up from the classpath of the application. The DTD file is included in hibernate-core.jar (it
is also included in the hibernate3.jar, if using the distribution bundle).

Important
We will omit the DTD declaration in future examples to shorten the code. It is, of course, not
optional.
Between the two hibernate-mapping tags, include a class element. All persistent entity
classes (again, there might be dependent classes later on, which are not first-class entities)
need a mapping to a table in the SQL database:
<hibernate-mapping package="org.hibernate.tutorial.domain">
<class name="Event" table="EVENTS">
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

So far we have told Hibernate how to persist and load object of class Event to the table
EVENTS. Each instance is now represented by a row in that table. Now we can continue by
mapping the unique identifier property to the tables primary key. As we do not want to care
about handling this identifier, we configure Hibernate's identifier generation strategy for a
surrogate primary key column:
<hibernate-mapping package="org.hibernate.tutorial.domain">
<class name="Event" table="EVENTS">
<id name="id" column="EVENT_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

The id element is the declaration of the identifier property. The name="id" mapping attribute
declares the name of the JavaBean property and tells Hibernate to use the getId() and
setId() methods to access the property. The column attribute tells Hibernate which column
of the EVENTS table holds the primary key value.
The nested generator element specifies the identifier generation strategy (aka how are
identifier values generated?). In this case we choose native, which offers a level of
portability depending on the configured database dialect. Hibernate supports database
generated, globally unique, as well as application assigned, identifiers. Identifier value
generation is also one of Hibernate's many extension points and you can plugin in your own
strategy.

Tip
is no longer consider the best strategy in terms of portability. for further discussion,
see Section 27.4, Identifier generation
native

Lastly, we need to tell Hibernate about the remaining entity class properties. By default, no
properties of the class are considered persistent:
<hibernate-mapping package="org.hibernate.tutorial.domain">
<class name="Event" table="EVENTS">
<id name="id" column="EVENT_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property name="date" type="timestamp" column="EVENT_DATE"/>
<property name="title"/>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

Similar to the id element, the name attribute of the property element tells Hibernate which
getter and setter methods to use. In this case, Hibernate will search for getDate(),
setDate(), getTitle() and setTitle() methods.

Note
Why does the date property mapping include the column attribute, but the title does not?
Without the column attribute, Hibernate by default uses the property name as the column
name. This works for title, however, date is a reserved keyword in most databases so you
will need to map it to a different name.
The title mapping also lacks a type attribute. The types declared and used in the mapping
files are not Java data types; they are not SQL database types either. These types are called
Hibernate mapping types, converters which can translate from Java to SQL data types and
vice versa. Again, Hibernate will try to determine the correct conversion and mapping type
itself if the type attribute is not present in the mapping. In some cases this automatic
detection using Reflection on the Java class might not have the default you expect or need.
This is the case with the date property. Hibernate cannot know if the property, which is of

java.util.Date,

should map to a SQL date, timestamp, or time column. Full date and
time information is preserved by mapping the property with a timestamp converter.

Tip
Hibernate makes this mapping type determination using reflection when the mapping files are
processed. This can take time and resources, so if startup performance is important you should
consider explicitly defining the type to use.
Save this mapping file as
src/main/resources/org/hibernate/tutorial/domain/Event.hbm.xml.

1.1.4. Hibernate configuration

At this point, you should have the persistent class and its mapping file in place. It is now time
to configure Hibernate. First let's set up HSQLDB to run in "server mode"

Note
We do this so that the data remains between runs.
We will utilize the Maven exec plugin to launch the HSQLDB server by running: mvn
exec:java -Dexec.mainClass="org.hsqldb.Server" -Dexec.args="-database.0
file:target/data/tutorial" You will see it start up and bind to a TCP/IP socket; this is where
our application will connect later. If you want to start with a fresh database during this
tutorial, shutdown HSQLDB, delete all files in the target/data directory, and start
HSQLDB again.
Hibernate will be connecting to the database on behalf of your application, so it needs to
know how to obtain connections. For this tutorial we will be using a standalone connection
pool (as opposed to a javax.sql.DataSource). Hibernate comes with support for two thirdparty open source JDBC connection pools: c3p0 and proxool. However, we will be using the
Hibernate built-in connection pool for this tutorial.

Caution
The built-in Hibernate connection pool is in no way intended for production use. It lacks
several features found on any decent connection pool.
For Hibernate's configuration, we can use a simple hibernate.properties file, a more
sophisticated hibernate.cfg.xml file, or even complete programmatic setup. Most users
prefer the XML configuration file:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-configuration PUBLIC
"-//Hibernate/Hibernate Configuration DTD 3.0//EN"
"http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/hibernate-configuration-3.0.dtd">
<hibernate-configuration>

<session-factory>
<!-- Database connection settings -->
<property
name="connection.driver_class">org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver</property>
<property
name="connection.url">jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://localhost</property>
<property name="connection.username">sa</property>
<property name="connection.password"></property>
<!-- JDBC connection pool (use the built-in) -->
<property name="connection.pool_size">1</property>
<!-- SQL dialect -->
<property
name="dialect">org.hibernate.dialect.HSQLDialect</property>
<!-- Enable Hibernate's automatic session context management -->
<property name="current_session_context_class">thread</property>
<!-- Disable the second-level cache -->
<property
name="cache.provider_class">org.hibernate.cache.internal.NoCacheProvider</p
roperty>
<!-- Echo all executed SQL to stdout -->
<property name="show_sql">true</property>
<!-- Drop and re-create the database schema on startup -->
<property name="hbm2ddl.auto">update</property>
<mapping resource="org/hibernate/tutorial/domain/Event.hbm.xml"/>
</session-factory>
</hibernate-configuration>

Note
Notice that this configuration file specifies a different DTD
You configure Hibernate's SessionFactory. SessionFactory is a global factory responsible
for a particular database. If you have several databases, for easier startup you should use
several <session-factory> configurations in several configuration files.
The first four property elements contain the necessary configuration for the JDBC
connection. The dialect property element specifies the particular SQL variant Hibernate
generates.

Tip
In most cases, Hibernate is able to properly determine which dialect to use. See Section 27.3,
Dialect resolution for more information.

Hibernate's automatic session management for persistence contexts is particularly useful in

this context. The hbm2ddl.auto option turns on automatic generation of database schemas
directly into the database. This can also be turned off by removing the configuration option, or
redirected to a file with the help of the SchemaExport Ant task. Finally, add the mapping
file(s) for persistent classes to the configuration.
Save this file as hibernate.cfg.xml into the src/main/resources directory.

1.1.5. Building with Maven

We will now build the tutorial with Maven. You will need to have Maven installed; it is
available from the Maven download page. Maven will read the /pom.xml file we created
earlier and know how to perform some basic project tasks. First, lets run the compile goal to
make sure we can compile everything so far:
[hibernateTutorial]$ mvn compile
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] ----------------------------------------------------------------------[INFO] Building First Hibernate Tutorial
[INFO]
task-segment: [compile]
[INFO] ----------------------------------------------------------------------[INFO] [resources:resources]
[INFO] Using default encoding to copy filtered resources.
[INFO] [compiler:compile]
[INFO] Compiling 1 source file to
/home/steve/projects/sandbox/hibernateTutorial/target/classes
[INFO] ----------------------------------------------------------------------[INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL
[INFO] ----------------------------------------------------------------------[INFO] Total time: 2 seconds
[INFO] Finished at: Tue Jun 09 12:25:25 CDT 2009
[INFO] Final Memory: 5M/547M
[INFO] -----------------------------------------------------------------------

1.1.6. Startup and helpers

It is time to load and store some Event objects, but first you have to complete the setup with
some infrastructure code. You have to startup Hibernate by building a global
org.hibernate.SessionFactory object and storing it somewhere for easy access in
application code. A org.hibernate.SessionFactory is used to obtain
org.hibernate.Session instances. A org.hibernate.Session represents a singlethreaded unit of work. The org.hibernate.SessionFactory is a thread-safe global object
that is instantiated once.
We will create a HibernateUtil helper class that takes care of startup and makes accessing
the org.hibernate.SessionFactory more convenient.
package org.hibernate.tutorial.util;

import org.hibernate.SessionFactory;
import org.hibernate.boot.registry.StandardServiceRegistryBuilder;
import org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration;
public class HibernateUtil {
private static final SessionFactory sessionFactory =
buildSessionFactory();
private static SessionFactory buildSessionFactory() {
try {
// Create the SessionFactory from hibernate.cfg.xml
new Configuration().configure().buildSessionFactory(
new StandardServiceRegistryBuilder().build() );
}
catch (Throwable ex) {
// Make sure you log the exception, as it might be swallowed
System.err.println("Initial SessionFactory creation failed." +
ex);
throw new ExceptionInInitializerError(ex);
}
}
public static SessionFactory getSessionFactory() {
return sessionFactory;
}
}

Save this code as src/main/java/org/hibernate/tutorial/util/HibernateUtil.java

This class not only produces the global org.hibernate.SessionFactory reference in its
static initializer; it also hides the fact that it uses a static singleton. We might just as well have
looked up the org.hibernate.SessionFactory reference from JNDI in an application
server or any other location for that matter.
If you give the org.hibernate.SessionFactory a name in your configuration, Hibernate
will try to bind it to JNDI under that name after it has been built. Another, better option is to
use a JMX deployment and let the JMX-capable container instantiate and bind a
HibernateService to JNDI. Such advanced options are discussed later.
You now need to configure a logging system. Hibernate uses commons logging and provides
two choices: Log4j and JDK 1.4 logging. Most developers prefer Log4j: copy
log4j.properties from the Hibernate distribution in the etc/ directory to your src
directory, next to hibernate.cfg.xml. If you prefer to have more verbose output than that
provided in the example configuration, you can change the settings. By default, only the
Hibernate startup message is shown on stdout.
The tutorial infrastructure is complete and you are now ready to do some real work with
Hibernate.

1.1.7. Loading and storing objects

We are now ready to start doing some real work with Hibernate. Let's start by writing an
EventManager class with a main() method:

package org.hibernate.tutorial;
import org.hibernate.Session;
import java.util.*;
import org.hibernate.tutorial.domain.Event;
import org.hibernate.tutorial.util.HibernateUtil;
public class EventManager {
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventManager mgr = new EventManager();
if (args[0].equals("store")) {
mgr.createAndStoreEvent("My Event", new Date());
}
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().close();
}
private void createAndStoreEvent(String title, Date theDate) {
Session session =
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession();
session.beginTransaction();
Event theEvent = new Event();
theEvent.setTitle(title);
theEvent.setDate(theDate);
session.save(theEvent);
session.getTransaction().commit();
}
}

In createAndStoreEvent() we created a new Event object and handed it over to Hibernate.

At that point, Hibernate takes care of the SQL and executes an INSERT on the database.
A org.hibernate.Session is designed to represent a single unit of work (a single atomic
piece of work to be performed). For now we will keep things simple and assume a one-to-one
granularity between a Hibernate org.hibernate.Session and a database transaction. To
shield our code from the actual underlying transaction system we use the Hibernate
org.hibernate.Transaction API. In this particular case we are using JDBC-based
transactional semantics, but it could also run with JTA.
What does sessionFactory.getCurrentSession() do? First, you can call it as many times
and anywhere you like once you get hold of your org.hibernate.SessionFactory. The
getCurrentSession() method always returns the "current" unit of work. Remember that we
switched the configuration option for this mechanism to "thread" in our
src/main/resources/hibernate.cfg.xml? Due to that setting, the context of a current unit
of work is bound to the current Java thread that executes the application.

Important

Hibernate offers three methods of current session tracking. The "thread" based method is not
intended for production use; it is merely useful for prototyping and tutorials such as this one.
Current session tracking is discussed in more detail later on.
A org.hibernate.Session begins when the first call to getCurrentSession() is made for
the current thread. It is then bound by Hibernate to the current thread. When the transaction
ends, either through commit or rollback, Hibernate automatically unbinds the
org.hibernate.Session from the thread and closes it for you. If you call
getCurrentSession() again, you get a new org.hibernate.Session and can start a new
unit of work.
Related to the unit of work scope, should the Hibernate org.hibernate.Session be used to
execute one or several database operations? The above example uses one
org.hibernate.Session for one operation. However this is pure coincidence; the example is
just not complex enough to show any other approach. The scope of a Hibernate
org.hibernate.Session is flexible but you should never design your application to use a
new Hibernate org.hibernate.Session for every database operation. Even though it is used
in the following examples, consider session-per-operation an anti-pattern. A real web
application is shown later in the tutorial which will help illustrate this.
See Chapter 13, Transactions and Concurrency for more information about transaction
handling and demarcation. The previous example also skipped any error handling and
rollback.
To run this, we will make use of the Maven exec plugin to call our class with the necessary
classpath setup: mvn exec:java Dexec.mainClass="org.hibernate.tutorial.EventManager" -Dexec.args="store"

Note
You may need to perform mvn compile first.
You should see Hibernate starting up and, depending on your configuration, lots of log output.
Towards the end, the following line will be displayed:
[java] Hibernate: insert into EVENTS (EVENT_DATE, title, EVENT_ID) values
(?, ?, ?)

This is the INSERT executed by Hibernate.

To list stored events an option is added to the main method:
if (args[0].equals("store")) {
mgr.createAndStoreEvent("My Event", new Date());
}
else if (args[0].equals("list")) {
List events = mgr.listEvents();
for (int i = 0; i < events.size(); i++) {
Event theEvent = (Event) events.get(i);
System.out.println(

"Event: " + theEvent.getTitle() + " Time: " +

theEvent.getDate()
);
}
}

A new listEvents() method is also added:

private List listEvents() {
Session session =
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession();
session.beginTransaction();
List result = session.createQuery("from Event").list();
session.getTransaction().commit();
return result;
}

Here, we are using a Hibernate Query Language (HQL) query to load all existing Event
objects from the database. Hibernate will generate the appropriate SQL, send it to the
database and populate Event objects with the data. You can create more complex queries with
HQL. See Chapter 16, HQL: The Hibernate Query Language for more information.
Now we can call our new functionality, again using the Maven exec plugin: mvn exec:java Dexec.mainClass="org.hibernate.tutorial.EventManager" -Dexec.args="list"

1.2. Part 2 - Mapping associations

So far we have mapped a single persistent entity class to a table in isolation. Let's expand on
that a bit and add some class associations. We will add people to the application and store a
list of events in which they participate.

1.2.1. Mapping the Person class

The first cut of the Person class looks like this:
package org.hibernate.tutorial.domain;
public class Person {
private
private
private
private

Long id;
int age;
String firstname;
String lastname;

public Person() {}
// Accessor methods for all properties, private setter for 'id'
}

Save this to a file named src/main/java/org/hibernate/tutorial/domain/Person.java

Next, create the new mapping file as
src/main/resources/org/hibernate/tutorial/domain/Person.hbm.xml

<hibernate-mapping package="org.hibernate.tutorial.domain">
<class name="Person" table="PERSON">
<id name="id" column="PERSON_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property name="age"/>
<property name="firstname"/>
<property name="lastname"/>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

Finally, add the new mapping to Hibernate's configuration:

<mapping resource="org/hibernate/tutorial/domain/Event.hbm.xml"/>
<mapping resource="org/hibernate/tutorial/domain/Person.hbm.xml"/>

Create an association between these two entities. Persons can participate in events, and events
have participants. The design questions you have to deal with are: directionality, multiplicity,
and collection behavior.

1.2.2. A unidirectional Set-based association

By adding a collection of events to the Person class, you can easily navigate to the events for
a particular person, without executing an explicit query - by calling Person#getEvents.
Multi-valued associations are represented in Hibernate by one of the Java Collection
Framework contracts; here we choose a java.util.Set because the collection will not
contain duplicate elements and the ordering is not relevant to our examples:
public class Person {
private Set events = new HashSet();
public Set getEvents() {
return events;
}
public void setEvents(Set events) {
this.events = events;
}
}

Before mapping this association, let's consider the other side. We could just keep this
unidirectional or create another collection on the Event, if we wanted to be able to navigate it
from both directions. This is not necessary, from a functional perspective. You can always
execute an explicit query to retrieve the participants for a particular event. This is a design
choice left to you, but what is clear from this discussion is the multiplicity of the association:
"many" valued on both sides is called a many-to-many association. Hence, we use Hibernate's
many-to-many mapping:
<class name="Person" table="PERSON">
<id name="id" column="PERSON_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>

<property name="age"/>
<property name="firstname"/>
<property name="lastname"/>
<set name="events" table="PERSON_EVENT">
<key column="PERSON_ID"/>
<many-to-many column="EVENT_ID" class="Event"/>
</set>
</class>

Hibernate supports a broad range of collection mappings, a set being most common. For a
many-to-many association, or n:m entity relationship, an association table is required. Each
row in this table represents a link between a person and an event. The table name is declared
using the table attribute of the set element. The identifier column name in the association,
for the person side, is defined with the key element, the column name for the event's side with
the column attribute of the many-to-many. You also have to tell Hibernate the class of the
objects in your collection (the class on the other side of the collection of references).
The database schema for this mapping is therefore:
_____________
__________________
|
|
|
|
_____________
|
EVENTS
|
|
PERSON_EVENT
|
|
|
|_____________|
|__________________|
|
PERSON
|
|
|
|
|
|_____________|
| *EVENT_ID
| <--> | *EVENT_ID
|
|
|
| EVENT_DATE |
| *PERSON_ID
| <--> | *PERSON_ID |
| TITLE
|
|__________________|
| AGE
|
|_____________|
| FIRSTNAME |
| LASTNAME
|
|_____________|

1.2.3. Working the association

Now we will bring some people and events together in a new method in EventManager:
private void addPersonToEvent(Long personId, Long eventId) {
Session session =
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession();
session.beginTransaction();
Person aPerson = (Person) session.load(Person.class, personId);
Event anEvent = (Event) session.load(Event.class, eventId);
aPerson.getEvents().add(anEvent);
session.getTransaction().commit();
}

After loading a Person and an Event, simply modify the collection using the normal
collection methods. There is no explicit call to update() or save(); Hibernate automatically
detects that the collection has been modified and needs to be updated. This is called automatic
dirty checking. You can also try it by modifying the name or the date property of any of your
objects. As long as they are in persistent state, that is, bound to a particular Hibernate
org.hibernate.Session, Hibernate monitors any changes and executes SQL in a write-

behind fashion. The process of synchronizing the memory state with the database, usually
only at the end of a unit of work, is called flushing. In our code, the unit of work ends with a
commit, or rollback, of the database transaction.
You can load person and event in different units of work. Or you can modify an object outside
of a org.hibernate.Session, when it is not in persistent state (if it was persistent before,
this state is called detached). You can even modify a collection when it is detached:
private void addPersonToEvent(Long personId, Long eventId) {
Session session =
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession();
session.beginTransaction();
Person aPerson = (Person) session
.createQuery("select p from Person p left join fetch
p.events where p.id = :pid")
.setParameter("pid", personId)
.uniqueResult(); // Eager fetch the collection so we can
use it detached
Event anEvent = (Event) session.load(Event.class, eventId);
session.getTransaction().commit();
// End of first unit of work
aPerson.getEvents().add(anEvent); // aPerson (and its collection)
is detached
// Begin second unit of work
Session session2 =
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession();
session2.beginTransaction();
session2.update(aPerson); // Reattachment of aPerson
session2.getTransaction().commit();
}

The call to update makes a detached object persistent again by binding it to a new unit of
work, so any modifications you made to it while detached can be saved to the database. This
includes any modifications (additions/deletions) you made to a collection of that entity object.
This is not much use in our example, but it is an important concept you can incorporate into
your own application. Complete this exercise by adding a new action to the main method of
the EventManager and call it from the command line. If you need the identifiers of a person
and an event - the save() method returns it (you might have to modify some of the previous
methods to return that identifier):
else if (args[0].equals("addpersontoevent")) {
Long eventId = mgr.createAndStoreEvent("My Event", new Date());
Long personId = mgr.createAndStorePerson("Foo", "Bar");
mgr.addPersonToEvent(personId, eventId);
System.out.println("Added person " + personId + " to event " +
eventId);
}

This is an example of an association between two equally important classes : two entities. As
mentioned earlier, there are other classes and types in a typical model, usually "less
important". Some you have already seen, like an int or a java.lang.String. We call these
classes value types, and their instances depend on a particular entity. Instances of these types
do not have their own identity, nor are they shared between entities. Two persons do not
reference the same firstname object, even if they have the same first name. Value types
cannot only be found in the JDK , but you can also write dependent classes yourself such as
an Address or MonetaryAmount class. In fact, in a Hibernate application all JDK classes are
considered value types.
You can also design a collection of value types. This is conceptually different from a
collection of references to other entities, but looks almost the same in Java.

1.2.4. Collection of values

Let's add a collection of email addresses to the Person entity. This will be represented as a
java.util.Set of java.lang.String instances:
private Set emailAddresses = new HashSet();
public Set getEmailAddresses() {
return emailAddresses;
}
public void setEmailAddresses(Set emailAddresses) {
this.emailAddresses = emailAddresses;
}

The mapping of this Set is as follows:

<set name="emailAddresses" table="PERSON_EMAIL_ADDR">
<key column="PERSON_ID"/>
<element type="string" column="EMAIL_ADDR"/>
</set>

The difference compared with the earlier mapping is the use of the element part which tells
Hibernate that the collection does not contain references to another entity, but is rather a
collection whose elements are values types, here specifically of type string. The lowercase
name tells you it is a Hibernate mapping type/converter. Again the table attribute of the set
element determines the table name for the collection. The key element defines the foreign-key
column name in the collection table. The column attribute in the element element defines the
column name where the email address values will actually be stored.
Here is the updated schema:
_____________
|
|
|
EVENTS
|
___________________
|_____________|
|
|
|
PERSON_EMAIL_ADDR |

__________________
|
|

|
|

|__________________|

|_____________|

PERSON_EVENT

_____________
|
PERSON

| *EVENT_ID
| <--> | *EVENT_ID
|
|
|
|___________________|
| EVENT_DATE |
| *PERSON_ID
| <--> | *PERSON_ID | <--> |
*PERSON_ID
|
| TITLE
|
|__________________|
| AGE
|
|
*EMAIL_ADDR
|
|_____________|
| FIRSTNAME |
|___________________|
| LASTNAME
|
|_____________|

You can see that the primary key of the collection table is in fact a composite key that uses
both columns. This also implies that there cannot be duplicate email addresses per person,
which is exactly the semantics we need for a set in Java.
You can now try to add elements to this collection, just like we did before by linking persons
and events. It is the same code in Java:
private void addEmailToPerson(Long personId, String emailAddress) {
Session session =
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession();
session.beginTransaction();
Person aPerson = (Person) session.load(Person.class, personId);
// adding to the emailAddress collection might trigger a lazy load
of the collection
aPerson.getEmailAddresses().add(emailAddress);
session.getTransaction().commit();
}

This time we did not use a fetch query to initialize the collection. Monitor the SQL log and try
to optimize this with an eager fetch.

1.2.5. Bi-directional associations

Next you will map a bi-directional association. You will make the association between person
and event work from both sides in Java. The database schema does not change, so you will
still have many-to-many multiplicity.

Note
A relational database is more flexible than a network programming language, in that it does
not need a navigation direction; data can be viewed and retrieved in any possible way.
First, add a collection of participants to the Event class:
private Set participants = new HashSet();
public Set getParticipants() {
return participants;
}
public void setParticipants(Set participants) {

this.participants = participants;
}

Now map this side of the association in Event.hbm.xml.

<set name="participants" table="PERSON_EVENT" inverse="true">
<key column="EVENT_ID"/>
<many-to-many column="PERSON_ID" class="Person"/>
</set>

These are normal set mappings in both mapping documents. Notice that the column names in
key and many-to-many swap in both mapping documents. The most important addition here
is the inverse="true" attribute in the set element of the Event's collection mapping.
What this means is that Hibernate should take the other side, the Person class, when it needs
to find out information about the link between the two. This will be a lot easier to understand
once you see how the bi-directional link between our two entities is created.

1.2.6. Working bi-directional links

First, keep in mind that Hibernate does not affect normal Java semantics. How did we create a
link between a Person and an Event in the unidirectional example? You add an instance of
Event to the collection of event references, of an instance of Person. If you want to make this
link bi-directional, you have to do the same on the other side by adding a Person reference to
the collection in an Event. This process of "setting the link on both sides" is absolutely
necessary with bi-directional links.
Many developers program defensively and create link management methods to correctly set
both sides (for example, in Person):
protected Set getEvents() {
return events;
}
protected void setEvents(Set events) {
this.events = events;
}
public void addToEvent(Event event) {
this.getEvents().add(event);
event.getParticipants().add(this);
}
public void removeFromEvent(Event event) {
this.getEvents().remove(event);
event.getParticipants().remove(this);
}

The get and set methods for the collection are now protected. This allows classes in the same
package and subclasses to still access the methods, but prevents everybody else from altering
the collections directly. Repeat the steps for the collection on the other side.
What about the inverse mapping attribute? For you, and for Java, a bi-directional link is
simply a matter of setting the references on both sides correctly. Hibernate, however, does not

have enough information to correctly arrange SQL INSERT and UPDATE statements (to avoid
constraint violations). Making one side of the association inverse tells Hibernate to consider
it a mirror of the other side. That is all that is necessary for Hibernate to resolve any issues
that arise when transforming a directional navigation model to a SQL database schema. The
rules are straightforward: all bi-directional associations need one side as inverse. In a one-tomany association it has to be the many-side, and in many-to-many association you can select
either side.

1.3. Part 3 - The EventManager web application

A Hibernate web application uses Session and Transaction almost like a standalone
application. However, some common patterns are useful. You can now write an
EventManagerServlet. This servlet can list all events stored in the database, and it provides
an HTML form to enter new events.

1.3.1. Writing the basic servlet

First we need create our basic processing servlet. Since our servlet only handles HTTP GET
requests, we will only implement the doGet() method:
package org.hibernate.tutorial.web;
// Imports
public class EventManagerServlet extends HttpServlet {
protected void doGet(
HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException,
IOException {
SimpleDateFormat dateFormatter = new SimpleDateFormat( "dd.MM.yyyy"
);
try {
// Begin unit of work
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession().beginTransaction();
// Process request and render page...
// End unit of work
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession().getTransaction().comm
it();
}
catch (Exception ex) {
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession().getTransaction().roll
back();
if ( ServletException.class.isInstance( ex ) ) {
throw ( ServletException ) ex;
}
else {
throw new ServletException( ex );
}

}
}
}

Save this servlet as

src/main/java/org/hibernate/tutorial/web/EventManagerServlet.java

The pattern applied here is called session-per-request. When a request hits the servlet, a new
Hibernate Session is opened through the first call to getCurrentSession() on the
SessionFactory. A database transaction is then started. All data access occurs inside a
transaction irrespective of whether the data is read or written. Do not use the auto-commit
mode in applications.
Do not use a new Hibernate Session for every database operation. Use one Hibernate
Session that is scoped to the whole request. Use getCurrentSession(), so that it is
automatically bound to the current Java thread.
Next, the possible actions of the request are processed and the response HTML is rendered.
We will get to that part soon.
Finally, the unit of work ends when processing and rendering are complete. If any problems
occurred during processing or rendering, an exception will be thrown and the database
transaction rolled back. This completes the session-per-request pattern. Instead of the
transaction demarcation code in every servlet, you could also write a servlet filter. See the
Hibernate website and Wiki for more information about this pattern called Open Session in
View. You will need it as soon as you consider rendering your view in JSP, not in a servlet.

1.3.2. Processing and rendering

Now you can implement the processing of the request and the rendering of the page.
// Write HTML header
PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
out.println("<html><head><title>Event
Manager</title></head><body>");
// Handle actions
if ( "store".equals(request.getParameter("action")) ) {
String eventTitle = request.getParameter("eventTitle");
String eventDate = request.getParameter("eventDate");
if ( "".equals(eventTitle) || "".equals(eventDate) ) {
out.println("<b><i>Please enter event title and
date.</i></b>");
}
else {
createAndStoreEvent(eventTitle,
dateFormatter.parse(eventDate));
out.println("<b><i>Added event.</i></b>");
}
}
// Print page

printEventForm(out);
listEvents(out, dateFormatter);
// Write HTML footer
out.println("</body></html>");
out.flush();
out.close();

This coding style, with a mix of Java and HTML, would not scale in a more complex
application;keep in mind that we are only illustrating basic Hibernate concepts in this tutorial.
The code prints an HTML header and a footer. Inside this page, an HTML form for event
entry and a list of all events in the database are printed. The first method is trivial and only
outputs HTML:
private void printEventForm(PrintWriter out) {
out.println("<h2>Add new event:</h2>");
out.println("<form>");
out.println("Title: <input name='eventTitle' length='50'/><br/>");
out.println("Date (e.g. 24.12.2009): <input name='eventDate'
length='10'/><br/>");
out.println("<input type='submit' name='action' value='store'/>");
out.println("</form>");
}

The listEvents() method uses the Hibernate Session bound to the current thread to
execute a query:
private void listEvents(PrintWriter out, SimpleDateFormat
dateFormatter) {
List result = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory()
.getCurrentSession().createCriteria(Event.class).list();
if (result.size() > 0) {
out.println("<h2>Events in database:</h2>");
out.println("<table border='1'>");
out.println("<tr>");
out.println("<th>Event title</th>");
out.println("<th>Event date</th>");
out.println("</tr>");
Iterator it = result.iterator();
while (it.hasNext()) {
Event event = (Event) it.next();
out.println("<tr>");
out.println("<td>" + event.getTitle() + "</td>");
out.println("<td>" + dateFormatter.format(event.getDate())
+ "</td>");
out.println("</tr>");
}
out.println("</table>");
}
}

Finally, the store action is dispatched to the createAndStoreEvent() method, which also
uses the Session of the current thread:
protected void createAndStoreEvent(String title, Date theDate) {
Event theEvent = new Event();
theEvent.setTitle(title);

theEvent.setDate(theDate);
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory()
.getCurrentSession().save(theEvent);
}

The servlet is now complete. A request to the servlet will be processed in a single Session
and Transaction. As earlier in the standalone application, Hibernate can automatically bind
these objects to the current thread of execution. This gives you the freedom to layer your code
and access the SessionFactory in any way you like. Usually you would use a more
sophisticated design and move the data access code into data access objects (the DAO
pattern). See the Hibernate Wiki for more examples.

1.3.3. Deploying and testing

To deploy this application for testing we must create a Web ARchive (WAR). First we must
define the WAR descriptor as src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app version="2.4"
xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee
http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd">
<servlet>
<servlet-name>Event Manager</servlet-name>
<servletclass>org.hibernate.tutorial.web.EventManagerServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Event Manager</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/eventmanager</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

To build and deploy call mvn package in your project directory and copy the hibernatetutorial.war file into your Tomcat webapps directory.

Note
If you do not have Tomcat installed, download it from http://tomcat.apache.org/ and follow
the installation instructions. Our application requires no changes to the standard Tomcat
configuration.
Once deployed and Tomcat is running, access the application at
http://localhost:8080/hibernate-tutorial/eventmanager.

Make sure you watch the

Tomcat log to see Hibernate initialize when the first request hits your servlet (the static
initializer in HibernateUtil is called) and to get the detailed output if any exceptions occurs.

1.4. Summary

This tutorial covered the basics of writing a simple standalone Hibernate application and a
small web application. More tutorials are available from the Hibernate website.

Chapter 2. Architecture
Table of Contents
2.1. Overview
2.1.1. Minimal architecture
2.1.2. Comprehensive architecture
2.1.3. Basic APIs
2.2. Contextual sessions

2.1. Overview
The diagram below provides a high-level view of the Hibernate architecture:

Unfortunately we cannot provide a detailed view of all possible runtime architectures.

Hibernate is sufficiently flexible to be used in a number of ways in many, many architectures.
We will, however, illustrate 2 specifically since they are extremes.

2.1.1. Minimal architecture

The "minimal" architecture has the application manage its own JDBC connections and
provide those connections to Hibernate; additionally the application manages transactions for
itself. This approach uses a minimal subset of Hibernate APIs.

2.1.2. Comprehensive architecture

The "comprehensive" architecture abstracts the application away from the underlying
JDBC/JTA APIs and allows Hibernate to manage the details.

2.1.3. Basic APIs

Here are quick discussions about some of the API objects depicted in the preceding diagrams
(you will see them again in more detail in later chapters).

SessionFactory (org.hibernate.SessionFactory)
A thread-safe, immutable cache of compiled mappings for a single database. A factory
for org.hibernate.Session instances. A client of
org.hibernate.connection.ConnectionProvider. Optionally maintains a second
level cache of data that is reusable between transactions at a process or cluster level.
Session (org.hibernate.Session)
A single-threaded, short-lived object representing a conversation between the
application and the persistent store. Wraps a JDBC java.sql.Connection. Factory
for org.hibernate.Transaction. Maintains a first level cache of persistent the
application's persistent objects and collections; this cache is used when navigating the
object graph or looking up objects by identifier.
Persistent objects and collections
Short-lived, single threaded objects containing persistent state and business function.
These can be ordinary JavaBeans/POJOs. They are associated with exactly one
org.hibernate.Session. Once the org.hibernate.Session is closed, they will be
detached and free to use in any application layer (for example, directly as data transfer
objects to and from presentation). Chapter 11, Working with objects discusses
transient, persistent and detached object states.
Transient and detached objects and collections
Instances of persistent classes that are not currently associated with a
org.hibernate.Session. They may have been instantiated by the application and not
yet persisted, or they may have been instantiated by a closed
org.hibernate.Session. Chapter 11, Working with objects discusses transient,
persistent and detached object states.
Transaction (org.hibernate.Transaction)
(Optional) A single-threaded, short-lived object used by the application to specify
atomic units of work. It abstracts the application from the underlying JDBC, JTA or
CORBA transaction. A org.hibernate.Session might span several
org.hibernate.Transactions in some cases. However, transaction demarcation,
either using the underlying API or org.hibernate.Transaction, is never optional.
ConnectionProvider (org.hibernate.connection.ConnectionProvider)
(Optional) A factory for, and pool of, JDBC connections. It abstracts the application
from underlying javax.sql.DataSource or java.sql.DriverManager. It is not
exposed to application, but it can be extended and/or implemented by the developer.
TransactionFactory (org.hibernate.TransactionFactory)
(Optional) A factory for org.hibernate.Transaction instances. It is not exposed to
the application, but it can be extended and/or implemented by the developer.

Extension Interfaces
Hibernate offers a range of optional extension interfaces you can implement to
customize the behavior of your persistence layer. See the API documentation for
details.

2.2. Contextual sessions

Most applications using Hibernate need some form of "contextual" session, where a given
session is in effect throughout the scope of a given context. However, across applications the
definition of what constitutes a context is typically different; different contexts define
different scopes to the notion of current. Applications using Hibernate prior to version 3.0
tended to utilize either home-grown ThreadLocal-based contextual sessions, helper classes
such as HibernateUtil, or utilized third-party frameworks, such as Spring or Pico, which
provided proxy/interception-based contextual sessions.
Starting with version 3.0.1, Hibernate added the SessionFactory.getCurrentSession()
method. Initially, this assumed usage of JTA transactions, where the JTA transaction defined
both the scope and context of a current session. Given the maturity of the numerous standalone JTA TransactionManager implementations, most, if not all, applications should be
using JTA transaction management, whether or not they are deployed into a J2EE container.
Based on that, the JTA-based contextual sessions are all you need to use.
However, as of version 3.1, the processing behind SessionFactory.getCurrentSession()
is now pluggable. To that end, a new extension interface,
org.hibernate.context.spi.CurrentSessionContext, and a new configuration
parameter, hibernate.current_session_context_class, have been added to allow
pluggability of the scope and context of defining current sessions.
See the Javadocs for the org.hibernate.context.spi.CurrentSessionContext interface
for a detailed discussion of its contract. It defines a single method, currentSession(), by
which the implementation is responsible for tracking the current contextual session. Out-ofthe-box, Hibernate comes with three implementations of this interface:

org.hibernate.context.internal.JTASessionContext: current sessions are

tracked and scoped by a JTA transaction. The processing here is exactly the same

as in

the older JTA-only approach. See the Javadocs for details.

org.hibernate.context.internal.ThreadLocalSessionContext:current

sessions

are tracked by thread of execution. See the Javadocs for details.

org.hibernate.context.internal.ManagedSessionContext:

current sessions are

tracked by thread of execution. However, you are responsible to bind and unbind a
Session instance with static methods on this class: it does not open, flush, or close a
Session.

The first two implementations provide a "one session - one database transaction"
programming model. This is also known and used as session-per-request. The beginning and
end of a Hibernate session is defined by the duration of a database transaction. If you use
programmatic transaction demarcation in plain JSE without JTA, you are advised to use the
Hibernate Transaction API to hide the underlying transaction system from your code. If you

use JTA, you can utilize the JTA interfaces to demarcate transactions. If you execute in an
EJB container that supports CMT, transaction boundaries are defined declaratively and you do
not need any transaction or session demarcation operations in your code. Refer to Chapter 13,
Transactions and Concurrency for more information and code examples.
The hibernate.current_session_context_class configuration parameter defines which
org.hibernate.context.spi.CurrentSessionContext implementation should be used.
For backwards compatibility, if this configuration parameter is not set but a
org.hibernate.engine.transaction.jta.platform.spi.JtaPlatform is configured,
Hibernate will use the org.hibernate.context.internal.JTASessionContext. Typically,
the value of this parameter would just name the implementation class to use. For the three outof-the-box implementations, however, there are three corresponding short names: "jta",
"thread", and "managed".

Chapter 3. Configuration
Table of Contents
3.1. Programmatic configuration
3.2. Obtaining a SessionFactory
3.3. JDBC connections
3.4. Optional configuration properties
3.4.1. SQL Dialects
3.4.2. Outer Join Fetching
3.4.3. Binary Streams
3.4.4. Second-level and query cache
3.4.5. Query Language Substitution
3.4.6. Hibernate statistics
3.5. Logging
3.6. Implementing a NamingStrategy
3.7. Implementing a PersisterClassProvider
3.8. XML configuration file
3.9. Java EE Application Server integration
3.9.1. Transaction strategy configuration
3.9.2. JNDI-bound SessionFactory
3.9.3. Current Session context management with JTA
Hibernate is designed to operate in many different environments and, as such, there is a broad
range of configuration parameters. Fortunately, most have sensible default values and
Hibernate is distributed with an example hibernate.properties file in etc/ that displays
the various options. Simply put the example file in your classpath and customize it to suit
your needs.

3.1. Programmatic configuration

An instance of org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration represents an entire set of mappings of
an application's Java types to an SQL database. The org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration is
used to build an immutable org.hibernate.SessionFactory. The mappings are compiled
from various XML mapping files.

You can obtain a org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration instance by instantiating it directly

and specifying XML mapping documents. If the mapping files are in the classpath, use
addResource(). For example:
Configuration cfg = new Configuration()
.addResource("Item.hbm.xml")
.addResource("Bid.hbm.xml");

An alternative way is to specify the mapped class and allow Hibernate to find the mapping
document for you:
Configuration cfg = new Configuration()
.addClass(org.hibernate.auction.Item.class)
.addClass(org.hibernate.auction.Bid.class);

Hibernate will then search for mapping files named

/org/hibernate/auction/Item.hbm.xml and /org/hibernate/auction/Bid.hbm.xml in
the classpath. This approach eliminates any hardcoded filenames.
A org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration also allows you to specify configuration properties.
For example:
Configuration cfg = new Configuration()
.addClass(org.hibernate.auction.Item.class)
.addClass(org.hibernate.auction.Bid.class)
.setProperty("hibernate.dialect",
"org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLInnoDBDialect")
.setProperty("hibernate.connection.datasource",
"java:comp/env/jdbc/test")
.setProperty("hibernate.order_updates", "true");

This is not the only way to pass configuration properties to Hibernate. Some alternative
options include:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Pass an instance of java.util.Properties to Configuration.setProperties().

Place a file named hibernate.properties in a root directory of the classpath.
Set System properties using java -Dproperty=value.
Include <property> elements in hibernate.cfg.xml (this is discussed later).

If you want to get started quicklyhibernate.properties is the easiest approach.

The org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration is intended as a startup-time object that will be
discarded once a SessionFactory is created.

3.2. Obtaining a SessionFactory

When all mappings have been parsed by the org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration, the
application must obtain a factory for org.hibernate.Session instances. This factory is
intended to be shared by all application threads:
SessionFactory sessions = cfg.buildSessionFactory();

Hibernate does allow your application to instantiate more than one

org.hibernate.SessionFactory. This is useful if you are using more than one database.

3.3. JDBC connections

It is advisable to have the org.hibernate.SessionFactory create and pool JDBC
connections for you. If you take this approach, opening a org.hibernate.Session is as
simple as:
Session session = sessions.openSession(); // open a new Session

Once you start a task that requires access to the database, a JDBC connection will be obtained
from the pool.
Before you can do this, you first need to pass some JDBC connection properties to Hibernate.
All Hibernate property names and semantics are defined on the class
org.hibernate.cfg.Environment. The most important settings for JDBC connection
configuration are outlined below.
Hibernate will obtain and pool connections using java.sql.DriverManager if you set the
following properties:
Table 3.1. Hibernate JDBC Properties
Property name

Purpose

hibernate.connection.driver_class JDBC driver class

hibernate.connection.url

JDBC URL

hibernate.connection.username

database user

hibernate.connection.password

database user password

hibernate.connection.pool_size

maximum number of pooled connections

Hibernate's own connection pooling algorithm is, however, quite rudimentary. It is intended
to help you get started and is not intended for use in a production system, or even for
performance testing. You should use a third party pool for best performance and stability. Just
replace the hibernate.connection.pool_size property with connection pool specific settings.
This will turn off Hibernate's internal pool. For example, you might like to use c3p0.
C3P0 is an open source JDBC connection pool distributed along with Hibernate in the lib
directory. Hibernate will use its org.hibernate.connection.C3P0ConnectionProvider
for connection pooling if you set hibernate.c3p0.* properties. If you would like to use
Proxool, refer to the packaged hibernate.properties and the Hibernate web site for more
information.
The following is an example hibernate.properties file for c3p0:
hibernate.connection.driver_class = org.postgresql.Driver
hibernate.connection.url = jdbc:postgresql://localhost/mydatabase

hibernate.connection.username = myuser
hibernate.connection.password = secret
hibernate.c3p0.min_size=5
hibernate.c3p0.max_size=20
hibernate.c3p0.timeout=1800
hibernate.c3p0.max_statements=50
hibernate.dialect = org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQL82Dialect

For use inside an application server, you should almost always configure Hibernate to obtain
connections from an application server javax.sql.Datasource registered in JNDI. You will
need to set at least one of the following properties:
Table 3.2. Hibernate Datasource Properties
Property name
Purpose
hibernate.connection.datasource datasource JNDI name
hibernate.jndi.url

URL of the JNDI provider (optional)

hibernate.jndi.class

class of the JNDI InitialContextFactory (optional)

hibernate.connection.username database user (optional)

hibernate.connection.password database user password (optional)

Here is an example hibernate.properties file for an application server provided JNDI

datasource:
hibernate.connection.datasource = java:/comp/env/jdbc/test
hibernate.transaction.factory_class = \
org.hibernate.transaction.JTATransactionFactory
hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_class = \
org.hibernate.transaction.JBossTransactionManagerLookup
hibernate.dialect = org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQL82Dialect

JDBC connections obtained from a JNDI datasource will automatically participate in the
container-managed transactions of the application server.
Arbitrary connection properties can be given by prepending "hibernate.connection" to the
connection property name. For example, you can specify a charSet connection property using
hibernate.connection.charSet.
You can define your own plugin strategy for obtaining JDBC connections by implementing
the interface org.hibernate.connection.ConnectionProvider, and specifying your
custom implementation via the hibernate.connection.provider_class property.

3.4. Optional configuration properties

There are a number of other properties that control the behavior of Hibernate at runtime. All
are optional and have reasonable default values.

Warning

Some of these properties are "system-level" only. System-level properties can be set only via
java -Dproperty=value or hibernate.properties. They cannot be set by the other
techniques described above.
Table 3.3. Hibernate Configuration Properties
Property name

Purpose
The classname of a Hibernate
which allows
Hibernate to generate SQL optimized for a particular
relational database.
org.hibernate.dialect.Dialect

hibernate.dialect

e.g. full.classname.of.Dialect
In most cases Hibernate will actually be able to choose
the correct org.hibernate.dialect.Dialect
implementation based on the JDBC metadata returned
by the JDBC driver.

hibernate.show_sql

Write all SQL statements to console. This is an

alternative to setting the log category
org.hibernate.SQL to debug.
e.g. true | false
Pretty print the SQL in the log and console.

hibernate.format_sql
e.g. true | false
hibernate.default_schema

hibernate.default_catalog

Qualify unqualified table names with the given

schema/tablespace in generated SQL.
e.g. SCHEMA_NAME
Qualifies unqualified table names with the given
catalog in generated SQL.
e.g. CATALOG_NAME

hibernate.session_factory_name

The org.hibernate.SessionFactory will be

automatically bound to this name in JNDI after it has
been created.
e.g. jndi/composite/name

hibernate.max_fetch_depth

Sets a maximum "depth" for the outer join fetch tree

for single-ended associations (one-to-one, many-toone). A 0 disables default outer join fetching.
e.g. recommended values between 0 and 3

hibernate.default_batch_fetch_size

Sets a default size for Hibernate batch fetching of

associations.

Property name

Purpose
e.g. recommended values 4, 8, 16

hibernate.default_entity_mode

Sets a default mode for entity representation for all

sessions opened from this SessionFactory, defaults
to pojo.
e.g. dynamic-map | pojo

hibernate.order_updates

Forces Hibernate to order SQL updates by the primary

key value of the items being updated. This will result
in fewer transaction deadlocks in highly concurrent
systems.
e.g. true | false

hibernate.generate_statistics

If enabled, Hibernate will collect statistics useful for

performance tuning.
e.g. true | false

hibernate.use_identifier_rollback

If enabled, generated identifier properties will be reset

to default values when objects are deleted.
e.g. true | false

hibernate.use_sql_comments

If turned on, Hibernate will generate comments inside

the SQL, for easier debugging, defaults to false.
e.g. true | false

Setting is relevant when using @GeneratedValue. It

indicates whether or not the new
IdentifierGenerator implementations are used for
javax.persistence.GenerationType.AUTO,
hibernate.id.new_generator_mappings javax.persistence.GenerationType.TABLE and
javax.persistence.GenerationType.SEQUENCE.
Default to false to keep backward compatibility.
e.g. true | false

Note
We recommend all new projects which make use of to use @GeneratedValue to also set
hibernate.id.new_generator_mappings=true as the new generators are more efficient
and closer to the JPA 2 specification semantic. However they are not backward compatible
with existing databases (if a sequence or a table is used for id generation).
Table 3.4. Hibernate JDBC and Connection Properties

Property name
hibernate.jdbc.fetch_size

hibernate.jdbc.batch_size

Purpose
A non-zero value determines the JDBC fetch size
(calls Statement.setFetchSize()).
A non-zero value enables use of JDBC2 batch
updates by Hibernate.
e.g. recommended values between 5 and 30

hibernate.jdbc.batch_versioned_data

Set this property to true if your JDBC driver returns

correct row counts from executeBatch(). It is
usually safe to turn this option on. Hibernate will then
use batched DML for automatically versioned data.
Defaults to false.
e.g. true | false

hibernate.jdbc.factory_class

Select a custom org.hibernate.jdbc.Batcher.

Most applications will not need this configuration
property.

e.g. classname.of.BatcherFactory
Enables use of JDBC2 scrollable resultsets by
Hibernate. This property is only necessary when
using user-supplied JDBC connections. Hibernate
hibernate.jdbc.use_scrollable_resultset
uses connection metadata otherwise.
e.g. true | false
Use streams when writing/reading binary or
serializable types to/from JDBC. *system-level
hibernate.jdbc.use_streams_for_binary property*
e.g. true | false
Enables use of JDBC3
to
retrieve natively generated keys after insert. Requires
JDBC3+ driver and JRE1.4+, set to false if your
hibernate.jdbc.use_get_generated_keys driver has problems with the Hibernate identifier
generators. By default, it tries to determine the driver
capabilities using connection metadata.
PreparedStatement.getGeneratedKeys()

e.g. true|false
The classname of a custom
org.hibernate.connection.ConnectionProvider

hibernate.connection.provider_class

which provides JDBC connections to Hibernate.

e.g. classname.of.ConnectionProvider

hibernate.connection.isolation

Sets the JDBC transaction isolation level. Check

java.sql.Connection for meaningful values, but

Property name

Purpose
note that most databases do not support all isolation
levels and some define additional, non-standard
isolations.
e.g. 1, 2, 4, 8

hibernate.connection.autocommit

Enables autocommit for JDBC pooled connections (it

is not recommended).
e.g. true | false

hibernate.connection.release_mode

Specifies when Hibernate should release JDBC

connections. By default, a JDBC connection is held
until the session is explicitly closed or disconnected.
For an application server JTA datasource, use
after_statement to aggressively release
connections after every JDBC call. For a non-JTA
connection, it often makes sense to release the
connection at the end of each transaction, by using
after_transaction. auto will choose
after_statement for the JTA and CMT transaction
strategies and after_transaction for the JDBC
transaction strategy.
e.g. auto (default) | on_close | after_transaction
| after_statement
This setting only affects Sessions returned from
SessionFactory.openSession. For Sessions
obtained through
SessionFactory.getCurrentSession, the
CurrentSessionContext implementation configured
for use controls the connection release mode for those
Sessions. See Section 2.2, Contextual sessions

hibernate.connection.<propertyName>

Pass the JDBC property <propertyName> to

DriverManager.getConnection().

hibernate.jndi.<propertyName>

Pass the property <propertyName> to the JNDI

InitialContextFactory.

Table 3.5. Hibernate Cache Properties

Property name

Purpose
The classname of a custom CacheProvider.

hibernate.cache.provider_class

e.g. classname.of.CacheProvider
hibernate.cache.use_minimal_puts

Optimizes second-level cache operation to

Property name

Purpose
minimize writes, at the cost of more frequent
reads. This setting is most useful for clustered
caches and, in Hibernate, is enabled by default
for clustered cache implementations.
e.g. true|false

hibernate.cache.use_query_cache

Enables the query cache. Individual queries

still have to be set cachable.

e.g. true|false
Can be used to completely disable the second
level cache, which is enabled by default for
hibernate.cache.use_second_level_cach
classes which specify a <cache> mapping.
e
e.g. true|false

hibernate.cache.query_cache_factory

hibernate.cache.region_prefix

The classname of a custom QueryCache

interface, defaults to the built-in
StandardQueryCache.
e.g. classname.of.QueryCache
A prefix to use for second-level cache region
names.
e.g. prefix

hibernate.cache.use_structured_entrie
s

Forces Hibernate to store data in the secondlevel cache in a more human-friendly format.

e.g. true|false
Enables the automatic eviction of a bidirectional association's collection cache when
an element in the ManyToOne collection is
hibernate.cache.auto_evict_collection
added/updated/removed without properly
_cache
managing the change on the OneToMany side.
e.g. true|false (default: false)
Setting used to give the name of the default
org.hibernate.annotations.CacheConcur
hibernate.cache.default_cache_concurr rencyStrategy to use when either
ency_strategy
@Cacheable or @Cache is used.
@Cache(strategy="..") is used to override

this default.

Table 3.6. Hibernate Transaction Properties

Property name

hibernate.transaction.factory_class

Purpose
The classname of a
TransactionFactory to use with
Hibernate Transaction API (defaults to
JDBCTransactionFactory).
e.g.
classname.of.TransactionFactory

A JNDI name used by

jta.UserTransaction

JTATransactionFactory to obtain
JTA UserTransaction from the

the

application server.
e.g. jndi/composite/name
The classname of a
TransactionManagerLookup.

It is
required when JVM-level caching is
hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_clas enabled or when using hilo generator in a
JTA environment.
s
e.g.
classname.of.TransactionManagerLo
okup

If enabled, the session will be

automatically flushed during the before
completion phase of the transaction.
hibernate.transaction.flush_before_comple Built-in and automatic session context
tion
management is preferred, see Section 2.2,
Contextual sessions.
e.g. true | false
If enabled, the session will be
automatically closed during the after
completion phase of the transaction.
Built-in and automatic session context
hibernate.transaction.auto_close_session
management is preferred, see Section 2.2,
Contextual sessions.
e.g. true | false

Table 3.7. Miscellaneous Properties

Property name

Purpose
Supply a custom strategy for the scoping of the
hibernate.current_session_cont
"current" Session. See Section 2.2, Contextual
ext_class
sessions for more information about the built-in

Property name

Purpose
strategies.
e.g. jta | thread | managed | custom.Class
Chooses the HQL parser implementation.

hibernate.query.factory_class

hibernate.query.substitutions

e.g.
org.hibernate.hql.internal.ast.ASTQueryTrans
latorFactory or
org.hibernate.hql.internal.classic.ClassicQu
eryTranslatorFactory

Is used to map from tokens in Hibernate queries to

SQL tokens (tokens might be function or literal names,
for example).
e.g. hqlLiteral=SQL_LITERAL,
hqlFunction=SQLFUNC

hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto

Automatically validates or exports schema DDL to the

database when the SessionFactory is created. With
create-drop, the database schema will be dropped
when the SessionFactory is closed explicitly.
e.g. validate | update | create | create-drop
Comma-separated names of the optional files
containing SQL DML statements executed during the
SessionFactory creation. This is useful for testing or
demoing: by adding INSERT statements for example
you can populate your database with a minimal set of
data when it is deployed.

hibernate.hbm2ddl.import_files

File order matters, the statements of a give file are

executed before the statements of the following files.
These statements are only executed if the schema is
created ie if hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto is set to
create or create-drop.
e.g. /humans.sql,/dogs.sql
The classname of a custom
ImportSqlCommandExtractor (defaults to the built-in
SingleLineSqlCommandExtractor). This is useful for

implementing dedicated parser that extracts single

SQL statements from each import file. Hibernate
hibernate.hbm2ddl.import_files
provides also MultipleLinesSqlCommandExtractor
_sql_extractor
which supports instructions/comments and quoted
strings spread over multiple lines (mandatory
semicolon at the end of each statement).
e.g. classname.of.ImportSqlCommandExtractor

Property name

Purpose
Enables the use of bytecode manipulation instead of
runtime reflection. This is a System-level property and
cannot be set in hibernate.cfg.xml. Reflection can
hibernate.bytecode.use_reflect sometimes be useful when troubleshooting. Hibernate
ion_optimizer
always requires javassist even if you turn off the
optimizer.
e.g. true | false
hibernate.bytecode.provider

At the moment, javassist is the only supported

bytecode provider.
e.g. javassist

3.4.1. SQL Dialects

Always set the hibernate.dialect property to the correct
org.hibernate.dialect.Dialect subclass for your database. If you specify a dialect,
Hibernate will use sensible defaults for some of the other properties listed above. This means
that you will not have to specify them manually.
Table 3.8. Hibernate SQL Dialects (hibernate.dialect)
RDBMS

Dialect

CUBRID 8.3 and later

org.hibernate.dialect.CUBRIDDialect

DB2

org.hibernate.dialect.DB2Dialect

DB2 AS/400

org.hibernate.dialect.DB2400Dialect

DB2 OS390

org.hibernate.dialect.DB2390Dialect

Firebird

org.hibernate.dialect.FirebirdDialect

FrontBase

org.hibernate.dialect.FrontbaseDialect

H2

org.hibernate.dialect.H2Dialect

HyperSQL (HSQL)

org.hibernate.dialect.HSQLDialect

Informix

org.hibernate.dialect.InformixDialect

Ingres

org.hibernate.dialect.IngresDialect

Ingres 9

org.hibernate.dialect.Ingres9Dialect

Ingres 10

org.hibernate.dialect.Ingres10Dialect

Interbase

org.hibernate.dialect.InterbaseDialect

InterSystems Cache 2007.1 org.hibernate.dialect.Cache71Dialect

JDataStore

org.hibernate.dialect.JDataStoreDialect

Mckoi SQL

org.hibernate.dialect.MckoiDialect

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 org.hibernate.dialect.SQLServerDialect

RDBMS
Dialect
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 org.hibernate.dialect.SQLServer2005Dialect
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 org.hibernate.dialect.SQLServer2008Dialect
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 org.hibernate.dialect.SQLServer2012Dialect
Mimer SQL

org.hibernate.dialect.MimerSQLDialect

MySQL

org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect

MySQL with InnoDB

org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLInnoDBDialect

MySQL with MyISAM

org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLMyISAMDialect

MySQL5

org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL5Dialect

MySQL5 with InnoDB

org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL5InnoDBDialect

Oracle 8i

org.hibernate.dialect.Oracle8iDialect

Oracle 9i

org.hibernate.dialect.Oracle9iDialect

Oracle 10g and later

org.hibernate.dialect.Oracle10gDialect

Oracle TimesTen

org.hibernate.dialect.TimesTenDialect

Pointbase

org.hibernate.dialect.PointbaseDialect

PostgreSQL 8.1

org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQL81Dialect

PostgreSQL 8.2

org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQL82Dialect

PostgreSQL 9 and later

org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQL9Dialect

Progress

org.hibernate.dialect.ProgressDialect

SAP DB

org.hibernate.dialect.SAPDBDialect

SAP HANA (column store) org.hibernate.dialect.HANAColumnStoreDialect

SAP HANA (row store)

org.hibernate.dialect.HANARowStoreDialect

Sybase

org.hibernate.dialect.SybaseDialect

Sybase 11

org.hibernate.dialect.Sybase11Dialect

Sybase ASE 15.5

org.hibernate.dialect.SybaseASE15Dialect

Sybase ASE 15.7

org.hibernate.dialect.SybaseASE157Dialect

Sybase Anywhere

org.hibernate.dialect.SybaseAnywhereDialect

Teradata

org.hibernate.dialect.TeradataDialect

Unisys OS 2200 RDMS

org.hibernate.dialect.RDMSOS2200Dialect

3.4.2. Outer Join Fetching

If your database supports ANSI, Oracle or Sybase style outer joins, outer join fetching will
often increase performance by limiting the number of round trips to and from the database.
This is, however, at the cost of possibly more work performed by the database itself. Outer
join fetching allows a whole graph of objects connected by many-to-one, one-to-many, manyto-many and one-to-one associations to be retrieved in a single SQL SELECT.

Outer join fetching can be disabled globally by setting the property

hibernate.max_fetch_depth to 0. A setting of 1 or higher enables outer join fetching for
one-to-one and many-to-one associations that have been mapped with fetch="join".
See Section 20.1, Fetching strategies for more information.

3.4.3. Binary Streams

Oracle limits the size of byte arrays that can be passed to and/or from its JDBC driver. If you
wish to use large instances of binary or serializable type, you should enable
hibernate.jdbc.use_streams_for_binary. This is a system-level setting only.

3.4.4. Second-level and query cache

The properties prefixed by hibernate.cache allow you to use a process or cluster scoped
second-level cache system with Hibernate. See the Section 20.2, The Second Level Cache
for more information.

3.4.5. Query Language Substitution

You can define new Hibernate query tokens using hibernate.query.substitutions. For
example:
hibernate.query.substitutions true=1, false=0

This would cause the tokens true and false to be translated to integer literals in the
generated SQL.
hibernate.query.substitutions toLowercase=LOWER

This would allow you to rename the SQL LOWER function.

3.4.6. Hibernate statistics

If you enable hibernate.generate_statistics, Hibernate exposes a number of metrics
that are useful when tuning a running system via SessionFactory.getStatistics().
Hibernate can even be configured to expose these statistics via JMX. Read the Javadoc of the
interfaces in org.hibernate.stats for more information.

3.5. Logging
Important
Completely out of date. Hibernate uses JBoss Logging starting in 4.0. This will get
documented as we migrate this content to the Developer Guide.
Hibernate utilizes Simple Logging Facade for Java (SLF4J) in order to log various system
events. SLF4J can direct your logging output to several logging frameworks (NOP, Simple,

log4j version 1.2, JDK 1.4 logging, JCL or logback) depending on your chosen binding. In
order to setup logging you will need slf4j-api.jar in your classpath together with the jar
file for your preferred binding - slf4j-log4j12.jar in the case of Log4J. See the SLF4J
documentation for more detail. To use Log4j you will also need to place a
log4j.properties file in your classpath. An example properties file is distributed with
Hibernate in the src/ directory.
It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with Hibernate's log messages. A lot of work
has been put into making the Hibernate log as detailed as possible, without making it
unreadable. It is an essential troubleshooting device. The most interesting log categories are
the following:
Table 3.9. Hibernate Log Categories
Category

Function

org.hibernate.SQL

Log all SQL DML statements as they are executed

org.hibernate.type

Log all JDBC parameters

org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl

Log all SQL DDL statements as they are executed

org.hibernate.pretty

Log the state of all entities (max 20 entities)

associated with the session at flush time

org.hibernate.cache

Log all second-level cache activity

org.hibernate.transaction

Log transaction related activity

org.hibernate.jdbc

Log all JDBC resource acquisition

org.hibernate.hql.internal.ast.AST

Log HQL and SQL ASTs during query parsing

org.hibernate.secure

Log all JAAS authorization requests

org.hibernate

Log everything. This is a lot of information but it

is useful for troubleshooting

When developing applications with Hibernate, you should almost always work with debug
enabled for the category org.hibernate.SQL, or, alternatively, the property
hibernate.show_sql enabled.

3.6. Implementing a NamingStrategy

The interface org.hibernate.cfg.NamingStrategy allows you to specify a "naming
standard" for database objects and schema elements.
You can provide rules for automatically generating database identifiers from Java identifiers
or for processing "logical" column and table names given in the mapping file into "physical"
table and column names. This feature helps reduce the verbosity of the mapping document,
eliminating repetitive noise (TBL_ prefixes, for example). The default strategy used by
Hibernate is quite minimal.
You can specify a different strategy by calling Configuration.setNamingStrategy()
before adding mappings:

SessionFactory sf = new Configuration()

.setNamingStrategy(ImprovedNamingStrategy.INSTANCE)
.addFile("Item.hbm.xml")
.addFile("Bid.hbm.xml")
.buildSessionFactory();
org.hibernate.cfg.ImprovedNamingStrategy

is a built-in strategy that might be a useful

starting point for some applications.

3.7. Implementing a PersisterClassProvider

You can configure the persister implementation used to persist your entities and collections:

by default, Hibernate uses persisters that make sense in a relational model and follow
Java Persistence's specification
you can define a PersisterClassProvider implementation that provides the
persister class used of a given entity or collection
finally, you can override them on a per entity and collection basis in the mapping
using @Persister or its XML equivalent

The latter in the list the higher in priority.

You can pass the PersisterClassProvider instance to the Configuration object.
SessionFactory sf = new Configuration()
.setPersisterClassProvider(customPersisterClassProvider)
.addAnnotatedClass(Order.class)
.buildSessionFactory();

The persister class provider methods, when returning a non null persister class, override the
default Hibernate persisters. The entity name or the collection role are passed to the methods.
It is a nice way to centralize the overriding logic of the persisters instead of spreading them on
each entity or collection mapping.

3.8. XML configuration file

An alternative approach to configuration is to specify a full configuration in a file named
hibernate.cfg.xml. This file can be used as a replacement for the hibernate.properties
file or, if both are present, to override properties.
The XML configuration file is by default expected to be in the root of your CLASSPATH. Here
is an example:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-configuration PUBLIC
"-//Hibernate/Hibernate Configuration DTD//EN"
"http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/hibernate-configuration-3.0.dtd">
<hibernate-configuration>
<!-- a SessionFactory instance listed as /jndi/name -->
<session-factory

name="java:hibernate/SessionFactory">
<!-- properties -->
<property
name="connection.datasource">java:/comp/env/jdbc/MyDB</property>
<property
name="dialect">org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect</property>
<property name="show_sql">false</property>
<property name="transaction.factory_class">
org.hibernate.transaction.JTATransactionFactory
</property>
<property
name="jta.UserTransaction">java:comp/UserTransaction</property>
<!-- mapping files -->
<mapping resource="org/hibernate/auction/Item.hbm.xml"/>
<mapping resource="org/hibernate/auction/Bid.hbm.xml"/>
<!-- cache settings -->
<class-cache class="org.hibernate.auction.Item" usage="readwrite"/>
<class-cache class="org.hibernate.auction.Bid" usage="read-only"/>
<collection-cache collection="org.hibernate.auction.Item.bids"
usage="read-write"/>
</session-factory>
</hibernate-configuration>

The advantage of this approach is the externalization of the mapping file names to
configuration. The hibernate.cfg.xml is also more convenient once you have to tune the
Hibernate cache. It is your choice to use either hibernate.properties or
hibernate.cfg.xml. Both are equivalent, except for the above mentioned benefits of using
the XML syntax.
With the XML configuration, starting Hibernate is then as simple as:
SessionFactory sf = new Configuration().configure().buildSessionFactory();

You can select a different XML configuration file using:

SessionFactory sf = new Configuration()
.configure("catdb.cfg.xml")
.buildSessionFactory();

3.9. Java EE Application Server integration

Hibernate has the following integration points for J2EE infrastructure:

Container-managed datasources: Hibernate can use JDBC connections managed by

the container and provided through JNDI. Usually, a JTA compatible
TransactionManager and a ResourceManager take care of transaction management
(CMT), especially distributed transaction handling across several datasources. You
can also demarcate transaction boundaries programmatically (BMT), or you might

want to use the optional Hibernate Transaction API for this to keep your code
portable.

Automatic JNDI binding: Hibernate can bind its SessionFactory to JNDI after
startup.

JTA Session binding: the Hibernate Session can be automatically bound to the scope
of JTA transactions. Simply lookup the SessionFactory from JNDI and get the
current Session. Let Hibernate manage flushing and closing the Session when your
JTA transaction completes. Transaction demarcation is either declarative (CMT) or
programmatic (BMT/UserTransaction).

JMX deployment: if you have a JMX capable application server (e.g. JBoss AS), you
can choose to deploy Hibernate as a managed MBean. This saves you the one line
startup code to build your SessionFactory from a Configuration. The container
will startup your HibernateService and also take care of service dependencies
(datasource has to be available before Hibernate starts, etc).

Depending on your environment, you might have to set the configuration option
hibernate.connection.aggressive_release to true if your application server shows
"connection containment" exceptions.

3.9.1. Transaction strategy configuration

The Hibernate Session API is independent of any transaction demarcation system in your
architecture. If you let Hibernate use JDBC directly through a connection pool, you can begin
and end your transactions by calling the JDBC API. If you run in a J2EE application server,
you might want to use bean-managed transactions and call the JTA API and
UserTransaction when needed.
To keep your code portable between these two (and other) environments we recommend the
optional Hibernate Transaction API, which wraps and hides the underlying system. You
have to specify a factory class for Transaction instances by setting the Hibernate
configuration property hibernate.transaction.factory_class.
There are three standard, or built-in, choices:
org.hibernate.transaction.JDBCTransactionFactory

delegates to database (JDBC) transactions (default)

org.hibernate.transaction.JTATransactionFactory

delegates to container-managed transactions if an existing transaction is underway in

this context (for example, EJB session bean method). Otherwise, a new transaction is
started and bean-managed transactions are used.
org.hibernate.transaction.CMTTransactionFactory

delegates to container-managed JTA transactions

You can also define your own transaction strategies (for a CORBA transaction service, for
example).
Some features in Hibernate (i.e., the second level cache, Contextual Sessions with JTA, etc.)
require access to the JTA TransactionManager in a managed environment. In an application
server, since J2EE does not standardize a single mechanism, you have to specify how
Hibernate should obtain a reference to the TransactionManager:
Table 3.10. JTA TransactionManagers
Transaction Factory

Application Server

org.hibernate.transaction.JBossTransactionManag
erLookup

JBoss AS

org.hibernate.transaction.WeblogicTransactionMa
nagerLookup

Weblogic

org.hibernate.transaction.WebSphereTransactionM
anagerLookup

WebSphere

org.hibernate.transaction.WebSphereExtendedJTAT
ransactionLookup

WebSphere 6

org.hibernate.transaction.OrionTransactionManag
erLookup

Orion

org.hibernate.transaction.ResinTransactionManag
erLookup

Resin

org.hibernate.transaction.JOTMTransactionManage
rLookup

JOTM

org.hibernate.transaction.JOnASTransactionManag
erLookup

JOnAS

org.hibernate.transaction.JRun4TransactionManag
erLookup

JRun4

org.hibernate.transaction.BESTransactionManager
Lookup

Borland ES

org.hibernate.transaction.JBossTSStandaloneTran
sactionManagerLookup

JBoss TS used standalone (ie.

outside JBoss AS and a JNDI
environment generally). Known
to work for
org.jboss.jbossts:jbossjta:
4.11.0.Final

3.9.2. JNDI-bound SessionFactory

A JNDI-bound Hibernate SessionFactory can simplify the lookup function of the factory
and create new Sessions. This is not, however, related to a JNDI bound Datasource; both
simply use the same registry.
If you wish to have the SessionFactory bound to a JNDI namespace, specify a name (e.g.
java:hibernate/SessionFactory) using the property
hibernate.session_factory_name. If this property is omitted, the SessionFactory will
not be bound to JNDI. This is especially useful in environments with a read-only JNDI default
implementation (in Tomcat, for example).

When binding the SessionFactory to JNDI, Hibernate will use the values of
hibernate.jndi.url, hibernate.jndi.class to instantiate an initial context. If they are
not specified, the default InitialContext will be used.
Hibernate will automatically place the SessionFactory in JNDI after you call
cfg.buildSessionFactory(). This means you will have this call in some startup code, or
utility class in your application, unless you use JMX deployment with the HibernateService
(this is discussed later in greater detail).
If you use a JNDI SessionFactory, an EJB or any other class, you can obtain the
SessionFactory using a JNDI lookup.
It is recommended that you bind the SessionFactory to JNDI in a managed environment and
use a static singleton otherwise. To shield your application code from these details, we also
recommend to hide the actual lookup code for a SessionFactory in a helper class, such as
HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory(). Note that such a class is also a convenient way to
startup Hibernatesee chapter 1.

3.9.3. Current Session context management with JTA

The easiest way to handle Sessions and transactions is Hibernate's automatic "current"
Session management. For a discussion of contextual sessions see Section 2.2, Contextual
sessions. Using the "jta" session context, if there is no Hibernate Session associated with
the current JTA transaction, one will be started and associated with that JTA transaction the
first time you call sessionFactory.getCurrentSession(). The Sessions retrieved via
getCurrentSession() in the "jta" context are set to automatically flush before the
transaction completes, close after the transaction completes, and aggressively release JDBC
connections after each statement. This allows the Sessions to be managed by the life cycle of
the JTA transaction to which it is associated, keeping user code clean of such management
concerns. Your code can either use JTA programmatically through UserTransaction, or
(recommended for portable code) use the Hibernate Transaction API to set transaction
boundaries. If you run in an EJB container, declarative transaction demarcation with CMT is
preferred.

Chapter 4. Persistent Classes

Table of Contents
4.1. A simple POJO example
4.1.1. Implement a no-argument constructor
4.1.2. Provide an identifier property
4.1.3. Prefer non-final classes (semi-optional)
4.1.4. Declare accessors and mutators for persistent fields (optional)
4.2. Implementing inheritance
4.3. Implementing equals() and hashCode()
4.4. Dynamic models
4.5. Tuplizers
4.6. EntityNameResolvers

Persistent classes are classes in an application that implement the entities of the business
problem (e.g. Customer and Order in an E-commerce application). The term "persistent" here
means that the classes are able to be persisted, not that they are in the persistent state (see
Section 11.1, Hibernate object states for discussion).
Hibernate works best if these classes follow some simple rules, also known as the Plain Old
Java Object (POJO) programming model. However, none of these rules are hard
requirements. Indeed, Hibernate assumes very little about the nature of your persistent
objects. You can express a domain model in other ways (using trees of java.util.Map
instances, for example).

4.1. A simple POJO example

Example 4.1. Simple POJO representing a cat
package eg;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.Date;
public class Cat {
private Long id; // identifier
private Date birthdate;
private Color color;
private char sex;
private float weight;
private int litterId;
private Cat mother;
private Set kittens = new HashSet();
private void setId(Long id) {
this.xml:id=id;
}
public Long getId() {
return id;
}
void setBirthdate(Date date) {
birthdate = date;
}
public Date getBirthdate() {
return birthdate;
}
void setWeight(float weight) {
this.weight = weight;
}
public float getWeight() {
return weight;
}
public Color getColor() {
return color;
}
void setColor(Color color) {
this.color = color;

}
void setSex(char sex) {
this.sex=sex;
}
public char getSex() {
return sex;
}
void setLitterId(int id) {
this.litterId = id;
}
public int getLitterId() {
return litterId;
}
void setMother(Cat mother) {
this.mother = mother;
}
public Cat getMother() {
return mother;
}
void setKittens(Set kittens) {
this.kittens = kittens;
}
public Set getKittens() {
return kittens;
}
// addKitten not needed by Hibernate
public void addKitten(Cat kitten) {
kitten.setMother(this);
kitten.setLitterId( kittens.size() );
kittens.add(kitten);
}
}

The four main rules of persistent classes are explored in more detail in the following sections.

4.1.1. Implement a no-argument constructor

has a no-argument constructor. All persistent classes must have a default constructor
(which can be non-public) so that Hibernate can instantiate them using
java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(). It is recommended that this constructor
be defined with at least package visibility in order for runtime proxy generation to work
properly.
Cat

4.1.2. Provide an identifier property

Note
Historically this was considered option. While still not (yet) enforced, this should be
considered a deprecated feature as it will be completely required to provide a identifier
property in an upcoming release.

has a property named id. This property maps to the primary key column(s) of the
underlying database table. The type of the identifier property can be any "basic" type (see
???). See Section 9.4, Components as composite identifiers for information on mapping
composite (multi-column) identifiers.
Cat

Note
Identifiers do not necessarily need to identify column(s) in the database physically defined as
a primary key. They should just identify columns that can be used to uniquely identify rows in
the underlying table.
We recommend that you declare consistently-named identifier properties on persistent classes
and that you use a nullable (i.e., non-primitive) type.

4.1.3. Prefer non-final classes (semi-optional)

A central feature of Hibernate, proxies (lazy loading), depends upon the persistent class being
either non-final, or the implementation of an interface that declares all public methods. You
can persist final classes that do not implement an interface with Hibernate; you will not,
however, be able to use proxies for lazy association fetching which will ultimately limit your
options for performance tuning. To persist a final class which does not implement a "full"
interface you must disable proxy generation. See Example 4.2, Disabling proxies in
hbm.xml and Example 4.3, Disabling proxies in annotations.
Example 4.2. Disabling proxies in hbm.xml
<class name="Cat" lazy="false"...>...</class>

Example 4.3. Disabling proxies in annotations

@Entity @Proxy(lazy=false) public class Cat { ... }

If the final class does implement a proper interface, you could alternatively tell Hibernate to
use the interface instead when generating the proxies. See Example 4.4, Proxying an
interface in hbm.xml and Example 4.5, Proxying an interface in annotations.
Example 4.4. Proxying an interface in hbm.xml
<class name="Cat" proxy="ICat"...>...</class>

Example 4.5. Proxying an interface in annotations

@Entity @Proxy(proxyClass=ICat.class) public class Cat implements ICat {
... }

You should also avoid declaring public final methods as this will again limit the ability to
generate proxies from this class. If you want to use a class with public final methods, you
must explicitly disable proxying. Again, see Example 4.2, Disabling proxies in hbm.xml
and Example 4.3, Disabling proxies in annotations.

4.1.4. Declare accessors and mutators for persistent fields (optional)

declares accessor methods for all its persistent fields. Many other ORM tools directly
persist instance variables. It is better to provide an indirection between the relational schema
and internal data structures of the class. By default, Hibernate persists JavaBeans style
properties and recognizes method names of the form getFoo, isFoo and setFoo. If required,
you can switch to direct field access for particular properties.
Cat

Properties need not be declared public. Hibernate can persist a property declared with
package, protected or private visibility as well.

4.2. Implementing inheritance

A subclass must also observe the first and second rules. It inherits its identifier property from
the superclass, Cat. For example:
package eg;
public class DomesticCat extends Cat {
private String name;
public String getName() {
return name;
}
protected void setName(String name) {
this.name=name;
}
}

4.3. Implementing equals() and hashCode()

You have to override the equals() and hashCode() methods if you:

intend to put instances of persistent classes in a Set (the recommended way to

represent many-valued associations); and
intend to use reattachment of detached instances

Hibernate guarantees equivalence of persistent identity (database row) and Java identity only
inside a particular session scope. When you mix instances retrieved in different sessions, you
must implement equals() and hashCode() if you wish to have meaningful semantics for
Sets.
The most obvious way is to implement equals()/hashCode() by comparing the identifier
value of both objects. If the value is the same, both must be the same database row, because
they are equal. If both are added to a Set, you will only have one element in the Set).
Unfortunately, you cannot use that approach with generated identifiers. Hibernate will only

assign identifier values to objects that are persistent; a newly created instance will not have
any identifier value. Furthermore, if an instance is unsaved and currently in a Set, saving it
will assign an identifier value to the object. If equals() and hashCode() are based on the
identifier value, the hash code would change, breaking the contract of the Set. See the
Hibernate website for a full discussion of this problem. This is not a Hibernate issue, but
normal Java semantics of object identity and equality.
It is recommended that you implement equals() and hashCode() using Business key
equality. Business key equality means that the equals() method compares only the properties
that form the business key. It is a key that would identify our instance in the real world (a
natural candidate key):
public class Cat {
...
public boolean equals(Object other) {
if (this == other) return true;
if ( !(other instanceof Cat) ) return false;
final Cat cat = (Cat) other;
if ( !cat.getLitterId().equals( getLitterId() ) ) return false;
if ( !cat.getMother().equals( getMother() ) ) return false;
return true;
}
public int hashCode() {
int result;
result = getMother().hashCode();
result = 29 * result + getLitterId();
return result;
}
}

A business key does not have to be as solid as a database primary key candidate (see
Section 13.1.3, Considering object identity). Immutable or unique properties are usually
good candidates for a business key.

4.4. Dynamic models

Note
The following features are currently considered experimental and may change in the near
future.
Persistent entities do not necessarily have to be represented as POJO classes or as JavaBean
objects at runtime. Hibernate also supports dynamic models (using Maps of Maps at runtime).
With this approach, you do not write persistent classes, only mapping files.

By default, Hibernate works in normal POJO mode. You can set a default entity
representation mode for a particular SessionFactory using the default_entity_mode
configuration option (see Table 3.3, Hibernate Configuration Properties).
The following examples demonstrate the representation using Maps. First, in the mapping file
an entity-name has to be declared instead of, or in addition to, a class name:
<hibernate-mapping>
<class entity-name="Customer">
<id name="id"
type="long"
column="ID">
<generator class="sequence"/>
</id>
<property name="name"
column="NAME"
type="string"/>
<property name="address"
column="ADDRESS"
type="string"/>
<many-to-one name="organization"
column="ORGANIZATION_ID"
class="Organization"/>
<bag name="orders"
inverse="true"
lazy="false"
cascade="all">
<key column="CUSTOMER_ID"/>
<one-to-many class="Order"/>
</bag>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

Even though associations are declared using target class names, the target type of associations
can also be a dynamic entity instead of a POJO.
After setting the default entity mode to dynamic-map for the SessionFactory, you can, at
runtime, work with Maps of Maps:
Session s = openSession();
Transaction tx = s.beginTransaction();
// Create a customer
Map david = new HashMap();
david.put("name", "David");
// Create an organization
Map foobar = new HashMap();
foobar.put("name", "Foobar Inc.");

// Link both
david.put("organization", foobar);
// Save both
s.save("Customer", david);
s.save("Organization", foobar);
tx.commit();
s.close();

One of the main advantages of dynamic mapping is quick turnaround time for prototyping,
without the need for entity class implementation. However, you lose compile-time type
checking and will likely deal with many exceptions at runtime. As a result of the Hibernate
mapping, the database schema can easily be normalized and sound, allowing to add a proper
domain model implementation on top later on.
Entity representation modes can also be set on a per Session basis:
Session dynamicSession = pojoSession.getSession(EntityMode.MAP);
// Create a customer
Map david = new HashMap();
david.put("name", "David");
dynamicSession.save("Customer", david);
...
dynamicSession.flush();
dynamicSession.close()
...
// Continue on pojoSession

Please note that the call to getSession() using an EntityMode is on the Session API, not
the SessionFactory. That way, the new Session shares the underlying JDBC connection,
transaction, and other context information. This means you do not have to call flush() and
close() on the secondary Session, and also leave the transaction and connection handling to
the primary unit of work.

4.5. Tuplizers
and its sub-interfaces are responsible for managing a
particular representation of a piece of data given that representation's
org.hibernate.EntityMode. If a given piece of data is thought of as a data structure, then a
tuplizer is the thing that knows how to create such a data structure, how to extract values from
such a data structure and how to inject values into such a data structure. For example, for the
POJO entity mode, the corresponding tuplizer knows how create the POJO through its
constructor. It also knows how to access the POJO properties using the defined property
accessors.
org.hibernate.tuple.Tuplizer

There are two (high-level) types of Tuplizers:

org.hibernate.tuple.entity.EntityTuplizer

which is responsible for managing

the above mentioned contracts in regards to entities

org.hibernate.tuple.component.ComponentTuplizer

components

which does the same for

Users can also plug in their own tuplizers. Perhaps you require that java.util.Map
implementation other than java.util.HashMap be used while in the dynamic-map entitymode. Or perhaps you need to define a different proxy generation strategy than the one used
by default. Both would be achieved by defining a custom tuplizer implementation. Tuplizer
definitions are attached to the entity or component mapping they are meant to manage. Going
back to the example of our Customer entity, Example 4.6, Specify custom tuplizers in
annotations shows how to specify a custom
org.hibernate.tuple.entity.EntityTuplizer using annotations while Example 4.7,
Specify custom tuplizers in hbm.xml shows how to do the same in hbm.xml
Example 4.6. Specify custom tuplizers in annotations
@Entity
@Tuplizer(impl = DynamicEntityTuplizer.class)
public interface Cuisine {
@Id
@GeneratedValue
public Long getId();
public void setId(Long id);
public String getName();
public void setName(String name);
@Tuplizer(impl = DynamicComponentTuplizer.class)
public Country getCountry();
public void setCountry(Country country);
}

Example 4.7. Specify custom tuplizers in hbm.xml

<hibernate-mapping>
<class entity-name="Customer">
<!-Override the dynamic-map entity-mode
tuplizer for the customer entity
-->
<tuplizer entity-mode="dynamic-map"
class="CustomMapTuplizerImpl"/>
<id name="id" type="long" column="ID">
<generator class="sequence"/>
</id>
<!-- other properties -->
...
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

4.6. EntityNameResolvers
is a contract for resolving the entity name of a given
entity instance. The interface defines a single method resolveEntityName which is passed
the entity instance and is expected to return the appropriate entity name (null is allowed and
org.hibernate.EntityNameResolver

would indicate that the resolver does not know how to resolve the entity name of the given
entity instance). Generally speaking, an org.hibernate.EntityNameResolver is going to be
most useful in the case of dynamic models. One example might be using proxied interfaces as
your domain model. The hibernate test suite has an example of this exact style of usage under
the org.hibernate.test.dynamicentity.tuplizer2. Here is some of the code from that package for
illustration.
/**
* A very trivial JDK Proxy InvocationHandler implementation where we proxy
an
* interface as the domain model and simply store persistent state in an
internal
* Map. This is an extremely trivial example meant only for illustration.
*/
public final class DataProxyHandler implements InvocationHandler {
private String entityName;
private HashMap data = new HashMap();
public DataProxyHandler(String entityName, Serializable id) {
this.entityName = entityName;
data.put( "Id", id );
}
public Object invoke(Object proxy, Method method, Object[] args)
throws Throwable {
String methodName = method.getName();
if ( methodName.startsWith( "set" ) ) {
String propertyName = methodName.substring( 3 );
data.put( propertyName, args[0] );
}
else if ( methodName.startsWith( "get" ) ) {
String propertyName = methodName.substring( 3 );
return data.get( propertyName );
}
else if ( "toString".equals( methodName ) ) {
return entityName + "#" + data.get( "Id" );
}
else if ( "hashCode".equals( methodName ) ) {
return new Integer( this.hashCode() );
}
return null;
}
public String getEntityName() {
return entityName;
}
public HashMap getData() {
return data;
}
}
public class ProxyHelper {
public static String extractEntityName(Object object) {
// Our custom java.lang.reflect.Proxy instances actually bundle
// their appropriate entity name, so we simply extract it from
there
// if this represents one of our proxies; otherwise, we return null
if ( Proxy.isProxyClass( object.getClass() ) ) {

InvocationHandler handler = Proxy.getInvocationHandler( object

);
if ( DataProxyHandler.class.isAssignableFrom(
handler.getClass() ) ) {
DataProxyHandler myHandler = ( DataProxyHandler ) handler;
return myHandler.getEntityName();
}
}
return null;
}
// various other utility methods ....
}
/**
* The EntityNameResolver implementation.
*
* IMPL NOTE : An EntityNameResolver really defines a strategy for how
entity names
* should be resolved. Since this particular impl can handle resolution
for all of our
* entities we want to take advantage of the fact that SessionFactoryImpl
keeps these
* in a Set so that we only ever have one instance registered. Why? Well,
when it
* comes time to resolve an entity name, Hibernate must iterate over all
the registered
* resolvers. So keeping that number down helps that process be as speedy
as possible.
* Hence the equals and hashCode implementations as is
*/
public class MyEntityNameResolver implements EntityNameResolver {
public static final MyEntityNameResolver INSTANCE = new
MyEntityNameResolver();
public String resolveEntityName(Object entity) {
return ProxyHelper.extractEntityName( entity );
}
public boolean equals(Object obj) {
return getClass().equals( obj.getClass() );
}
public int hashCode() {
return getClass().hashCode();
}
}
public class MyEntityTuplizer extends PojoEntityTuplizer {
public MyEntityTuplizer(EntityMetamodel entityMetamodel,
PersistentClass mappedEntity) {
super( entityMetamodel, mappedEntity );
}
public EntityNameResolver[] getEntityNameResolvers() {
return new EntityNameResolver[] {
MyEntityNameResolver.INSTANCE };
}

public String determineConcreteSubclassEntityName(Object

entityInstance, SessionFactoryImplementor factory) {
String entityName = ProxyHelper.extractEntityName( entityInstance
);
if ( entityName == null ) {
entityName = super.determineConcreteSubclassEntityName(
entityInstance, factory );
}
return entityName;
}
...

In order to register an org.hibernate.EntityNameResolver users must either:

1. Implement a custom tuplizer (see Section 4.5, Tuplizers), implementing the
getEntityNameResolvers method
2. Register it with the org.hibernate.impl.SessionFactoryImpl (which is the
implementation class for org.hibernate.SessionFactory) using the
registerEntityNameResolver method.

Chapter 5. Basic O/R Mapping

Table of Contents
5.1. Mapping declaration
5.1.1. Entity
5.1.2. Identifiers
5.1.3. Optimistic locking properties (optional)
5.1.4. Property
5.1.5. Embedded objects (aka components)
5.1.6. Inheritance strategy
5.1.7. Mapping one to one and one to many associations
5.1.8. Natural-id
5.1.9. Any
5.1.10. Properties
5.1.11. Some hbm.xml specificities
5.2. Hibernate types
5.2.1. Entities and values
5.2.2. Basic value types
5.2.3. Custom value types
5.3. Mapping a class more than once
5.4. SQL quoted identifiers
5.5. Generated properties
5.6. Column transformers: read and write expressions
5.7. Auxiliary database objects

5.1. Mapping declaration

Object/relational mappings can be defined in three approaches:

using Java 5 annotations (via the Java Persistence 2 annotations)

using JPA 2 XML deployment descriptors (described in chapter XXX)
using the Hibernate legacy XML files approach known as hbm.xml

Annotations are split in two categories, the logical mapping annotations (describing the object
model, the association between two entities etc.) and the physical mapping annotations
(describing the physical schema, tables, columns, indexes, etc). We will mix annotations from
both categories in the following code examples.
JPA annotations are in the javax.persistence.* package. Hibernate specific extensions are
in org.hibernate.annotations.*. You favorite IDE can auto-complete annotations and
their attributes for you (even without a specific "JPA" plugin, since JPA annotations are plain
Java 5 annotations).
Here is an example of mapping
package eg;
@Entity
@Table(name="cats") @Inheritance(strategy=SINGLE_TABLE)
@DiscriminatorValue("C") @DiscriminatorColumn(name="subclass",
discriminatorType=CHAR)
public class Cat {
@Id @GeneratedValue
public Integer getId() { return id; }
public void setId(Integer id) { this.id = id; }
private Integer id;
public BigDecimal getWeight() { return weight; }
public void setWeight(BigDecimal weight) { this.weight = weight; }
private BigDecimal weight;
@Temporal(DATE) @NotNull @Column(updatable=false)
public Date getBirthdate() { return birthdate; }
public void setBirthdate(Date birthdate) { this.birthdate = birthdate; }
private Date birthdate;
@org.hibernate.annotations.Type(type="eg.types.ColorUserType")
@NotNull @Column(updatable=false)
public ColorType getColor() { return color; }
public void setColor(ColorType color) { this.color = color; }
private ColorType color;
@NotNull @Column(updatable=false)
public String getSex() { return sex; }
public void setSex(String sex) { this.sex = sex; }
private String sex;
@NotNull @Column(updatable=false)
public Integer getLitterId() { return litterId; }
public void setLitterId(Integer litterId) { this.litterId = litterId; }
private Integer litterId;
@ManyToOne @JoinColumn(name="mother_id", updatable=false)
public Cat getMother() { return mother; }
public void setMother(Cat mother) { this.mother = mother; }
private Cat mother;

@OneToMany(mappedBy="mother") @OrderBy("litterId")
public Set<Cat> getKittens() { return kittens; }
public void setKittens(Set<Cat> kittens) { this.kittens = kittens; }
private Set<Cat> kittens = new HashSet<Cat>();
}
@Entity @DiscriminatorValue("D")
public class DomesticCat extends Cat {
public String getName() { return name; }
public void setName(String name) { this.name = name }
private String name;
}
@Entity
public class Dog { ... }

The legacy hbm.xml approach uses an XML schema designed to be readable and handeditable. The mapping language is Java-centric, meaning that mappings are constructed
around persistent class declarations and not table declarations.
Please note that even though many Hibernate users choose to write the XML by hand, a
number of tools exist to generate the mapping document. These include XDoclet, Middlegen
and AndroMDA.
Here is an example mapping:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC
"-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD 3.0//EN"
"http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd">
<hibernate-mapping package="eg">
<class name="Cat"
table="cats"
discriminator-value="C">
<id name="id">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<discriminator column="subclass"
type="character"/>
<property name="weight"/>
<property name="birthdate"
type="date"
not-null="true"
update="false"/>
<property name="color"
type="eg.types.ColorUserType"
not-null="true"
update="false"/>
<property name="sex"

not-null="true"
update="false"/>
<property name="litterId"
column="litterId"
update="false"/>
<many-to-one name="mother"
column="mother_id"
update="false"/>
<set name="kittens"
inverse="true"
order-by="litter_id">
<key column="mother_id"/>
<one-to-many class="Cat"/>
</set>
<subclass name="DomesticCat"
discriminator-value="D">
<property name="name"
type="string"/>
</subclass>
</class>
<class name="Dog">
<!-- mapping for Dog could go here -->
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

We will now discuss the concepts of the mapping documents (both annotations and XML).
We will only describe, however, the document elements and attributes that are used by
Hibernate at runtime. The mapping document also contains some extra optional attributes and
elements that affect the database schemas exported by the schema export tool (for example,
the not-null attribute).

5.1.1. Entity
An entity is a regular Java object (aka POJO) which will be persisted by Hibernate.
To mark an object as an entity in annotations, use the @Entity annotation.
@Entity
public class Flight implements Serializable {
Long id;
@Id
public Long getId() { return id; }
public void setId(Long id) { this.id = id; }
}

That's pretty much it, the rest is optional. There are however any options to tweak your entity
mapping, let's explore them.
lets you define the table the entity will be persisted into. If undefined, the table name
is the unqualified class name of the entity. You can also optionally define the catalog, the
schema as well as unique constraints on the table.
@Table

@Entity
@Table(name="TBL_FLIGHT",
schema="AIR_COMMAND",
uniqueConstraints=
@UniqueConstraint(
name="flight_number",
columnNames={"comp_prefix", "flight_number"} ) )
public class Flight implements Serializable {
@Column(name="comp_prefix")
public String getCompagnyPrefix() { return companyPrefix; }
@Column(name="flight_number")
public String getNumber() { return number; }
}

The constraint name is optional (generated if left undefined). The column names composing
the constraint correspond to the column names as defined before the Hibernate
NamingStrategy is applied.

Tip
Be sure to use the database-level column names for the columnNames property of a
@UniqueConstraint. For example, whilst for simple types the database-level column name
may be the same as the entity-level property name, this is often not the case for relational
properties.
lets you define the shortcut name of the entity you can used in JP-QL and
HQL queries. It defaults to the unqualified class name of the class.
@Entity.name

Hibernate goes beyond the JPA specification and provide additional configurations. Some of
them are hosted on @org.hibernate.annotations.Entity:

dynamicInsert / dynamicUpdate

(defaults to false): specifies that INSERT / UPDATE

SQL should be generated at runtime and contain only the columns whose values are
not null. The dynamic-update and dynamic-insert settings are not inherited by
subclasses. Although these settings can increase performance in some cases, they can
actually decrease performance in others.
selectBeforeUpdate (defaults to false): specifies that Hibernate should never
perform an SQL UPDATE unless it is certain that an object is actually modified. Only
when a transient object has been associated with a new session using update(), will
Hibernate perform an extra SQL SELECT to determine if an UPDATE is actually
required. Use of select-before-update will usually decrease performance. It is
useful to prevent a database update trigger being called unnecessarily if you reattach a
graph of detached instances to a Session.

(defaults to IMPLICIT): determines whether implicit or explicit query

polymorphisms is used. Implicit polymorphisms means that instances of the class will
be returned by a query that names any superclass or implemented interface or class,
and that instances of any subclass of the class will be returned by a query that names
the class itself. Explicit polymorphisms means that class instances will be returned
only by queries that explicitly name that class. Queries that name the class will return
only instances of subclasses mapped. For most purposes, the default
polymorphisms=IMPLICIT is appropriate. Explicit polymorphisms is useful when two
different classes are mapped to the same table This allows a "lightweight" class that
contains a subset of the table columns.
persister: specifies a custom ClassPersister. The persister attribute lets you
customize the persistence strategy used for the class. You can, for example, specify
your own subclass of org.hibernate.persister.EntityPersister, or you can
even provide a completely new implementation of the interface
org.hibernate.persister.ClassPersister that implements, for example,
persistence via stored procedure calls, serialization to flat files or LDAP. See
org.hibernate.test.CustomPersister for a simple example of "persistence" to a
Hashtable.
optimisticLock (defaults to VERSION): determines the optimistic locking strategy. If
you enable dynamicUpdate, you will have a choice of optimistic locking strategies:
o version: check the version/timestamp columns
o all: check all columns
o dirty: check the changed columns, allowing some concurrent updates
o none: do not use optimistic locking
polymorphisms

It is strongly recommended that you use version/timestamp columns for optimistic

locking with Hibernate. This strategy optimizes performance and correctly handles
modifications made to detached instances (i.e. when Session.merge() is used).

Tip
Be sure to import @javax.persistence.Entity to mark a class as an entity. It's a common
mistake to import @org.hibernate.annotations.Entity by accident.
Some entities are not mutable. They cannot be updated by the application. This allows
Hibernate to make some minor performance optimizations.. Use the @Immutable annotation.
You can also alter how Hibernate deals with lazy initialization for this class. On @Proxy, use
lazy=false to disable lazy fetching (not recommended). You can also specify an interface to
use for lazy initializing proxies (defaults to the class itself): use proxyClass on @Proxy.
Hibernate will initially return proxies ( using bytecode provider defined by
hibernate.bytecode.provider) that implement the named interface. The persistent object
will load when a method of the proxy is invoked. See "Initializing collections and proxies"
below.
specifies a "batch size" for fetching instances of this class by identifier. Not yet
loaded instances are loaded batch-size at a time (default 1).
@BatchSize

You can specific an arbitrary SQL WHERE condition to be used when retrieving objects of
this class. Use @Where for that.
In the same vein, @Check lets you define an SQL expression used to generate a multi-row
check constraint for automatic schema generation.
There is no difference between a view and a base table for a Hibernate mapping. This is
transparent at the database level, although some DBMS do not support views properly,
especially with updates. Sometimes you want to use a view, but you cannot create one in the
database (i.e. with a legacy schema). In this case, you can map an immutable and read-only
entity to a given SQL subselect expression using
@org.hibernate.annotations.Subselect:
@Entity
@Subselect("select item.name, max(bid.amount), count(*) "
+ "from item "
+ "join bid on bid.item_id = item.id "
+ "group by item.name")
@Synchronize( {"item", "bid"} ) //tables impacted
public class Summary {
@Id
public String getId() { return id; }
...
}

Declare the tables to synchronize this entity with, ensuring that auto-flush happens correctly
and that queries against the derived entity do not return stale data. The <subselect> is
available both as an attribute and a nested mapping element.
We will now explore the same options using the hbm.xml structure. You can declare a
persistent class using the class element. For example:
<class
name="ClassName"
table="tableName"
discriminator-value="discriminator_value"
mutable="true|false"
schema="owner"
catalog="catalog"
proxy="ProxyInterface"
dynamic-update="true|false"
dynamic-insert="true|false"
select-before-update="true|false"

polymorphism="implicit|explicit"
where="arbitrary sql where condition"
persister="PersisterClass"
batch-size="N"
optimistic-lock="none|version|dirty|all"
lazy="true|false"
entity-name="EntityName"
check="arbitrary sql check condition"
rowxml:id="rowid"
subselect="SQL expression"
abstract="true|false"
node="element-name"

(16)
(17)
(18)
(19)
(20)
(21)

/>

(optional): the fully qualified Java class name of the persistent class or interface. If
this attribute is missing, it is assumed that the mapping is for a non-POJO entity.
table (optional - defaults to the unqualified class name): the name of its database table.
name

(optional - defaults to the class name): a value that distinguishes

individual subclasses that is used for polymorphic behavior. Acceptable values include
null and not null.
mutable (optional - defaults to true): specifies that instances of the class are (not)
mutable.
schema (optional): overrides the schema name specified by the root <hibernatemapping> element.
catalog (optional): overrides the catalog name specified by the root <hibernatemapping> element.
proxy (optional): specifies an interface to use for lazy initializing proxies. You can
specify the name of the class itself.
dynamic-update (optional - defaults to false): specifies that UPDATE SQL should be
generated at runtime and can contain only those columns whose values have changed.
dynamic-insert (optional - defaults to false): specifies that INSERT SQL should be
generated at runtime and contain only the columns whose values are not null.
select-before-update (optional - defaults to false): specifies that Hibernate should
never perform an SQL UPDATE unless it is certain that an object is actually modified.
Only when a transient object has been associated with a new session using update(),
will Hibernate perform an extra SQL SELECT to determine if an UPDATE is actually
required.
polymorphisms (optional - defaults to implicit): determines whether implicit or
explicit query polymorphisms is used.
where (optional): specifies an arbitrary SQL WHERE condition to be used when retrieving
objects of this class.
persister (optional): specifies a custom ClassPersister.
discriminator-value

(optional - defaults to 1): specifies a "batch size" for fetching instances of

this class by identifier.
optimistic-lock (optional - defaults to version): determines the optimistic locking
strategy.
lazy (optional): lazy fetching can be disabled by setting lazy="false".
entity-name (optional - defaults to the class name): Hibernate allows a class to be
mapped multiple times, potentially to different tables. It also allows entity mappings that
are represented by Maps or XML at the Java level. In these cases, you should provide an
explicit arbitrary name for the entity. See Section 4.4, Dynamic models and ??? for
more information.
check (optional): an SQL expression used to generate a multi-row check constraint for
automatic schema generation.
rowid (optional): Hibernate can use ROWIDs on databases. On Oracle, for example,
Hibernate can use the rowid extra column for fast updates once this option has been set
to rowid. A ROWID is an implementation detail and represents the physical location of
a stored tuple.
subselect (optional): maps an immutable and read-only entity to a database subselect.
This is useful if you want to have a view instead of a base table. See below for more
information.
abstract (optional): is used to mark abstract superclasses in <union-subclass>
hierarchies.
batch-size

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(17)

(18)
(19)

(20)

(21)

It is acceptable for the named persistent class to be an interface. You can declare
implementing classes of that interface using the <subclass> element. You can persist any
static inner class. Specify the class name using the standard form i.e. e.g.Foo$Bar.
Here is how to do a virtual view (subselect) in XML:
<class name="Summary">
<subselect>
select item.name, max(bid.amount), count(*)
from item
join bid on bid.item_id = item.id
group by item.name
</subselect>
<synchronize table="item"/>
<synchronize table="bid"/>
<id name="name"/>
...
</class>

The <subselect> is available both as an attribute and a nested mapping element.

5.1.2. Identifiers
Mapped classes must declare the primary key column of the database table. Most classes will
also have a JavaBeans-style property holding the unique identifier of an instance.
Mark the identifier property with @Id.

@Entity
public class Person {
@Id Integer getId() { ... }
...
}

In hbm.xml, use the <id> element which defines the mapping from that property to the
primary key column.
<id
name="propertyName"
type="typename"
column="column_name"
unsaved-value="null|any|none|undefined|id_value"
access="field|property|ClassName">
node="element-name|@attribute-name|element/@attribute|."
<generator class="generatorClass"/>
</id>
name

(optional): the name of the identifier property.

type

(optional): a name that indicates the Hibernate type.

column

(optional - defaults to the property name): the name of the primary key column.

(optional - defaults to a "sensible" value): an identifier property value

that indicates an instance is newly instantiated (unsaved), distinguishing it from
detached instances that were saved or loaded in a previous session.
access (optional - defaults to property): the strategy Hibernate should use for
accessing the property value.
unsaved-value

If the name attribute is missing, it is assumed that the class has no identifier property.
The unsaved-value attribute is almost never needed in Hibernate and indeed has no
corresponding element in annotations.
You can also declare the identifier as a composite identifier. This allows access to legacy data
with composite keys. Its use is strongly discouraged for anything else.
5.1.2.1. Composite identifier
You can define a composite primary key through several syntaxes:

use a component type to represent the identifier and map it as a property in the entity:
you then annotated the property as @EmbeddedId. The component type has to be
Serializable.

map multiple properties as @Id properties: the identifier type is then the entity class
itself and needs to be Serializable. This approach is unfortunately not standard and
only supported by Hibernate.
map multiple properties as @Id properties and declare an external class to be the
identifier type. This class, which needs to be Serializable, is declared on the entity
via the @IdClass annotation. The identifier type must contain the same properties as
the identifier properties of the entity: each property name must be the same, its type
must be the same as well if the entity property is of a basic type, its type must be the
type of the primary key of the associated entity if the entity property is an association
(either a @OneToOne or a @ManyToOne).

As you can see the last case is far from obvious. It has been inherited from the dark ages of
EJB 2 for backward compatibilities and we recommend you not to use it (for simplicity sake).
Let's explore all three cases using examples.
5.1.2.1.1. id as a property using a component type

Here is a simple example of @EmbeddedId.

@Entity
class User {
@EmbeddedId
@AttributeOverride(name="firstName", column=@Column(name="fld_firstname"
)
UserId id;
Integer age;
}
@Embeddable
class UserId implements Serializable {
String firstName;
String lastName;
}

You can notice that the UserId class is serializable. To override the column mapping, use
@AttributeOverride.
An embedded id can itself contains the primary key of an associated entity.
@Entity
class Customer {
@EmbeddedId CustomerId id;
boolean preferredCustomer;
@MapsId("userId")
@JoinColumns({
@JoinColumn(name="userfirstname_fk", referencedColumnName="firstName"
),
@JoinColumn(name="userlastname_fk", referencedColumnName="lastName")
})
@OneToOne User user;
}

@Embeddable
class CustomerId implements Serializable {
UserId userId;
String customerNumber;
//implements equals and hashCode
}
@Entity
class User {
@EmbeddedId UserId id;
Integer age;
}
@Embeddable
class UserId implements Serializable {
String firstName;
String lastName;
//implements equals and hashCode
}

In the embedded id object, the association is represented as the identifier of the associated
entity. But you can link its value to a regular association in the entity via the @MapsId
annotation. The @MapsId value correspond to the property name of the embedded id object
containing the associated entity's identifier. In the database, it means that the Customer.user
and the CustomerId.userId properties share the same underlying column (user_fk in this
case).

Tip
The component type used as identifier must implement equals() and hashCode().
In practice, your code only sets the Customer.user property and the user id value is copied
by Hibernate into the CustomerId.userId property.

Warning
The id value can be copied as late as flush time, don't rely on it until after flush time.
While not supported in JPA, Hibernate lets you place your association directly in the
embedded id component (instead of having to use the @MapsId annotation).
@Entity
class Customer {
@EmbeddedId CustomerId id;
boolean preferredCustomer;
}
@Embeddable
class CustomerId implements Serializable {
@OneToOne
@JoinColumns({
@JoinColumn(name="userfirstname_fk", referencedColumnName="firstName"
),

@JoinColumn(name="userlastname_fk", referencedColumnName="lastName")
})
User user;
String customerNumber;
//implements equals and hashCode
}
@Entity
class User {
@EmbeddedId UserId id;
Integer age;
}
@Embeddable
class UserId implements Serializable {
String firstName;
String lastName;
//implements equals and hashCode
}

Let's now rewrite these examples using the hbm.xml syntax.

<composite-id
name="propertyName"
class="ClassName"
mapped="true|false"
access="field|property|ClassName"
node="element-name|.">
<key-property name="propertyName" type="typename"
column="column_name"/>
<key-many-to-one name="propertyName" class="ClassName"
column="column_name"/>
......
</composite-id>

First a simple example:

<class name="User">
<composite-id name="id" class="UserId">
<key-property name="firstName" column="fld_firstname"/>
<key-property name="lastName"/>
</composite-id>
</class>

Then an example showing how an association can be mapped.

<class name="Customer">
<composite-id name="id" class="CustomerId">
<key-property name="firstName" column="userfirstname_fk"/>
<key-property name="lastName" column="userfirstname_fk"/>
<key-property name="customerNumber"/>
</composite-id>
<property name="preferredCustomer"/>

<many-to-one name="user">
<column name="userfirstname_fk" updatable="false"
insertable="false"/>
<column name="userlastname_fk" updatable="false" insertable="false"/>
</many-to-one>
</class>
<class name="User">
<composite-id name="id" class="UserId">
<key-property name="firstName"/>
<key-property name="lastName"/>
</composite-id>
<property name="age"/>
</class>

Notice a few things in the previous example:

the order of the properties (and column) matters. It must be the same between the
association and the primary key of the associated entity
the many to one uses the same columns as the primary key and thus must be marked as
read only (insertable and updatable to false).
unlike with @MapsId, the id value of the associated entity is not transparently copied,
check the foreign id generator for more information.

The last example shows how to map association directly in the embedded id component.
<class name="Customer">
<composite-id name="id" class="CustomerId">
<key-many-to-one name="user">
<column name="userfirstname_fk"/>
<column name="userlastname_fk"/>
</key-many-to-one>
<key-property name="customerNumber"/>
</composite-id>
<property name="preferredCustomer"/>
</class>
<class name="User">
<composite-id name="id" class="UserId">
<key-property name="firstName"/>
<key-property name="lastName"/>
</composite-id>
<property name="age"/>
</class>

This is the recommended approach to map composite identifier. The following options should
not be considered unless some constraint are present.
5.1.2.1.2. Multiple id properties without identifier type

Another, arguably more natural, approach is to place @Id on multiple properties of your
entity. This approach is only supported by Hibernate (not JPA compliant) but does not require
an extra embeddable component.

@Entity
class Customer implements Serializable {
@Id @OneToOne
@JoinColumns({
@JoinColumn(name="userfirstname_fk", referencedColumnName="firstName"
),
@JoinColumn(name="userlastname_fk", referencedColumnName="lastName")
})
User user;
@Id String customerNumber;
boolean preferredCustomer;
//implements equals and hashCode
}
@Entity
class User {
@EmbeddedId UserId id;
Integer age;
}
@Embeddable
class UserId implements Serializable {
String firstName;
String lastName;
//implements equals and hashCode
}

In this case Customer is its own identifier representation: it must implement Serializable
and must implement equals() and hashCode().
In hbm.xml, the same mapping is:
<class name="Customer">
<composite-id>
<key-many-to-one name="user">
<column name="userfirstname_fk"/>
<column name="userlastname_fk"/>
</key-many-to-one>
<key-property name="customerNumber"/>
</composite-id>
<property name="preferredCustomer"/>
</class>
<class name="User">
<composite-id name="id" class="UserId">
<key-property name="firstName"/>
<key-property name="lastName"/>
</composite-id>
<property name="age"/>
</class>
5.1.2.1.3. Multiple id properties with with a dedicated identifier type

on an entity points to the class (component) representing the identifier of the class.
The properties marked @Id on the entity must have their corresponding property on the
@IdClass. The return type of search twin property must be either identical for basic properties
or must correspond to the identifier class of the associated entity for an association.
@IdClass

Warning
This approach is inherited from the EJB 2 days and we recommend against its use. But, after
all it's your application and Hibernate supports it.
@Entity
@IdClass(CustomerId.class)
class Customer implements Serializable {
@Id @OneToOne
@JoinColumns({
@JoinColumn(name="userfirstname_fk", referencedColumnName="firstName"
),
@JoinColumn(name="userlastname_fk", referencedColumnName="lastName")
})
User user;
@Id String customerNumber;
boolean preferredCustomer;
}
class CustomerId implements Serializable {
UserId user;
String customerNumber;
//implements equals and hashCode
}
@Entity
class User {
@EmbeddedId UserId id;
Integer age;
//implements equals and hashCode
}
@Embeddable
class UserId implements Serializable {
String firstName;
String lastName;
//implements equals and hashCode
}
Customer and CustomerId do have the same properties customerNumber as well
CustomerId must be Serializable and implement equals() and hashCode().

as user.

While not JPA standard, Hibernate let's you declare the vanilla associated property in the
@IdClass.
@Entity
@IdClass(CustomerId.class)

class Customer implements Serializable {

@Id @OneToOne
@JoinColumns({
@JoinColumn(name="userfirstname_fk", referencedColumnName="firstName"
),
@JoinColumn(name="userlastname_fk", referencedColumnName="lastName")
})
User user;
@Id String customerNumber;
boolean preferredCustomer;
}
class CustomerId implements Serializable {
@OneToOne User user;
String customerNumber;
//implements equals and hashCode
}
@Entity
class User {
@EmbeddedId UserId id;
Integer age;
//implements equals and hashCode
}
@Embeddable
class UserId implements Serializable {
String firstName;
String lastName;
}

This feature is of limited interest though as you are likely to have chosen the @IdClass
approach to stay JPA compliant or you have a quite twisted mind.
Here are the equivalent on hbm.xml files:
<class name="Customer">
<composite-id class="CustomerId" mapped="true">
<key-many-to-one name="user">
<column name="userfirstname_fk"/>
<column name="userlastname_fk"/>
</key-many-to-one>
<key-property name="customerNumber"/>
</composite-id>
<property name="preferredCustomer"/>
</class>
<class name="User">
<composite-id name="id" class="UserId">
<key-property name="firstName"/>
<key-property name="lastName"/>
</composite-id>
<property name="age"/>
</class>

5.1.2.2. Identifier generator

Hibernate can generate and populate identifier values for you automatically. This is the
recommended approach over "business" or "natural" id (especially composite ids).
Hibernate offers various generation strategies, let's explore the most common ones first that
happens to be standardized by JPA:

IDENTITY: supports identity columns in DB2, MySQL, MS SQL Server, Sybase and
HypersonicSQL. The returned identifier is of type long, short or int.
SEQUENCE (called seqhilo in Hibernate): uses a hi/lo algorithm to efficiently
generate identifiers of type long, short or int, given a named database sequence.
TABLE (called MultipleHiLoPerTableGenerator in Hibernate) : uses a hi/lo
algorithm to efficiently generate identifiers of type long, short or int, given a table
and column as a source of hi values. The hi/lo algorithm generates identifiers that are
unique only for a particular database.
AUTO: selects IDENTITY, SEQUENCE or TABLE depending upon the capabilities of the
underlying database.

Important
We recommend all new projects to use the new enhanced identifier generators. They are
deactivated by default for entities using annotations but can be activated using
hibernate.id.new_generator_mappings=true. These new generators are more efficient
and closer to the JPA 2 specification semantic.
However they are not backward compatible with existing Hibernate based application (if a
sequence or a table is used for id generation). See XXXXXXX ??? for more information on
how to activate them.
To mark an id property as generated, use the @GeneratedValue annotation. You can specify
the strategy used (default to AUTO) by setting strategy.
@Entity
public class Customer {
@Id @GeneratedValue
Integer getId() { ... };
}
@Entity
public class Invoice {
@Id @GeneratedValue(strategy=GenerationType.IDENTITY)
Integer getId() { ... };
}
SEQUENCE and TABLE require additional configurations
@SequenceGenerator and @TableGenerator:

that you can set using

name: name of the generator

table / sequenceName: name of the table or the sequence (defaulting
hibernate_sequences and hibernate_sequence)

respectively to

catalog / schema:
initialValue: the value from which the id is to start generating
allocationSize: the amount to increment by when allocating id

numbers from the

generator
In addition, the TABLE strategy also let you customize:

pkColumnName: the column name containing the entity identifier

valueColumnName: the column name containing the identifier value
pkColumnValue: the entity identifier
uniqueConstraints: any potential column constraint on the table containing the

ids

To link a table or sequence generator definition with an actual generated property, use the
same name in both the definition name and the generator value generator as shown below.
@Id
@GeneratedValue(
strategy=GenerationType.SEQUENCE,
generator="SEQ_GEN")
@javax.persistence.SequenceGenerator(
name="SEQ_GEN",
sequenceName="my_sequence",
allocationSize=20
)
public Integer getId() { ... }

The scope of a generator definition can be the application or the class. Class-defined
generators are not visible outside the class and can override application level generators.
Application level generators are defined in JPA's XML deployment descriptors (see
XXXXXX ???):
<table-generator name="EMP_GEN"
table="GENERATOR_TABLE"
pk-column-name="key"
value-column-name="hi"
pk-column-value="EMP"
allocation-size="20"/>
//and the annotation equivalent
@javax.persistence.TableGenerator(
name="EMP_GEN",
table="GENERATOR_TABLE",
pkColumnName = "key",
valueColumnName = "hi"
pkColumnValue="EMP",
allocationSize=20
)
<sequence-generator name="SEQ_GEN"
sequence-name="my_sequence"
allocation-size="20"/>
//and the annotation equivalent
@javax.persistence.SequenceGenerator(

name="SEQ_GEN",
sequenceName="my_sequence",
allocationSize=20
)

If a JPA XML descriptor (like META-INF/orm.xml) is used to define the generators, EMP_GEN
and SEQ_GEN are application level generators.

Note
Package level definition is not supported by the JPA specification. However, you can use the
@GenericGenerator at the package level (see ???).
These are the four standard JPA generators. Hibernate goes beyond that and provide
additional generators or additional options as we will see below. You can also write your own
custom identifier generator by implementing org.hibernate.id.IdentifierGenerator.
To define a custom generator, use the @GenericGenerator annotation (and its plural counter
part @GenericGenerators) that describes the class of the identifier generator or its short cut
name (as described below) and a list of key/value parameters. When using
@GenericGenerator and assigning it via @GeneratedValue.generator, the
@GeneratedValue.strategy is ignored: leave it blank.
@Id @GeneratedValue(generator="system-uuid")
@GenericGenerator(name="system-uuid", strategy = "uuid")
public String getId() {
@Id @GeneratedValue(generator="trigger-generated")
@GenericGenerator(
name="trigger-generated",
strategy = "select",
parameters = @Parameter(name="key", value = "socialSecurityNumber")
)
public String getId() {

The hbm.xml approach uses the optional <generator> child element inside <id>. If any
parameters are required to configure or initialize the generator instance, they are passed using
the <param> element.
<id name="id" type="long" column="cat_id">
<generator class="org.hibernate.id.TableHiLoGenerator">
<param name="table">uid_table</param>
<param name="column">next_hi_value_column</param>
</generator>
</id>
5.1.2.2.1. Various additional generators

All generators implement the interface org.hibernate.id.IdentifierGenerator. This is a

very simple interface. Some applications can choose to provide their own specialized
implementations, however, Hibernate provides a range of built-in implementations. The
shortcut names for the built-in generators are as follows:

increment

generates identifiers of type long, short or int that are unique only when no other
process is inserting data into the same table. Do not use in a cluster.
identity

supports identity columns in DB2, MySQL, MS SQL Server, Sybase and

HypersonicSQL. The returned identifier is of type long, short or int.
sequence

uses a sequence in DB2, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SAP DB, McKoi or a generator in

Interbase. The returned identifier is of type long, short or int
hilo

uses a hi/lo algorithm to efficiently generate identifiers of type long, short or int,
given a table and column (by default hibernate_unique_key and next_hi
respectively) as a source of hi values. The hi/lo algorithm generates identifiers that are
unique only for a particular database.
seqhilo

uses a hi/lo algorithm to efficiently generate identifiers of type long, short or int,
given a named database sequence.
uuid

Generates a 128-bit UUID based on a custom algorithm. The value generated is

represented as a string of 32 hexidecimal digits. Users can also configure it to use a
separator (config parameter "separator") which separates the hexidecimal digits into
8{sep}8{sep}4{sep}8{sep}4. Note specifically that this is different than the IETF
RFC 4122 representation of 8-4-4-4-12. If you need RFC 4122 compliant UUIDs,
consider using "uuid2" generator discussed below.
uuid2

Generates a IETF RFC 4122 compliant (variant 2) 128-bit UUID. The exact "version"
(the RFC term) generated depends on the pluggable "generation strategy" used (see
below). Capable of generating values as java.util.UUID, java.lang.String or as a
byte array of length 16 (byte[16]). The "generation strategy" is defined by the
interface org.hibernate.id.UUIDGenerationStrategy. The generator defines 2
configuration parameters for defining which generation strategy to use:
uuid_gen_strategy_class

Names the UUIDGenerationStrategy class to use

uuid_gen_strategy

Names the UUIDGenerationStrategy instance to use

Out of the box, comes with the following strategies:

org.hibernate.id.uuid.StandardRandomStrategy (the default) - generates

"version 3" (aka, "random") UUID values via the randomUUID method of
java.util.UUID
org.hibernate.id.uuid.CustomVersionOneStrategy - generates "version

1" UUID values, using IP address since mac address not available. If you need
mac address to be used, consider leveraging one of the existing third party
UUID generators which sniff out mac address and integrating it via the
org.hibernate.id.UUIDGenerationStrategy contract. Two such libraries
known at time of this writing include http://johannburkard.de/software/uuid/
and http://commons.apache.org/sandbox/id/uuid.html
guid

uses a database-generated GUID string on MS SQL Server and MySQL.

native

selects identity, sequence or hilo depending upon the capabilities of the

underlying database.
assigned

lets the application assign an identifier to the object before save() is called. This is
the default strategy if no <generator> element is specified.
select

retrieves a primary key, assigned by a database trigger, by selecting the row by some
unique key and retrieving the primary key value.
foreign

uses the identifier of another associated object. It is usually used in conjunction with a
<one-to-one> primary key association.
sequence-identity

a specialized sequence generation strategy that utilizes a database sequence for the
actual value generation, but combines this with JDBC3 getGeneratedKeys to return
the generated identifier value as part of the insert statement execution. This strategy is
only supported on Oracle 10g drivers targeted for JDK 1.4. Comments on these insert
statements are disabled due to a bug in the Oracle drivers.
5.1.2.2.2. Hi/lo algorithm

The hilo and seqhilo generators provide two alternate implementations of the hi/lo
algorithm. The first implementation requires a "special" database table to hold the next
available "hi" value. Where supported, the second uses an Oracle-style sequence.
<id name="id" type="long" column="cat_id">
<generator class="hilo">
<param name="table">hi_value</param>
<param name="column">next_value</param>
<param name="max_lo">100</param>
</generator>
</id>
<id name="id" type="long" column="cat_id">
<generator class="seqhilo">
<param name="sequence">hi_value</param>
<param name="max_lo">100</param>
</generator>
</id>

Unfortunately, you cannot use hilo when supplying your own Connection to Hibernate.
When Hibernate uses an application server datasource to obtain connections enlisted with
JTA, you must configure the hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_class.
5.1.2.2.3. UUID algorithm

The UUID contains: IP address, startup time of the JVM that is accurate to a quarter second,
system time and a counter value that is unique within the JVM. It is not possible to obtain a
MAC address or memory address from Java code, so this is the best option without using JNI.
5.1.2.2.4. Identity columns and sequences

For databases that support identity columns (DB2, MySQL, Sybase, MS SQL), you can use
identity key generation. For databases that support sequences (DB2, Oracle, PostgreSQL,
Interbase, McKoi, SAP DB) you can use sequence style key generation. Both of these
strategies require two SQL queries to insert a new object. For example:
<id name="id" type="long" column="person_id">
<generator class="sequence">
<param name="sequence">person_id_sequence</param>
</generator>
</id>
<id name="id" type="long" column="person_id" unsaved-value="0">
<generator class="identity"/>
</id>

For cross-platform development, the native strategy will, depending on the capabilities of
the underlying database, choose from the identity, sequence and hilo strategies.
5.1.2.2.5. Assigned identifiers

If you want the application to assign identifiers, as opposed to having Hibernate generate
them, you can use the assigned generator. This special generator uses the identifier value
already assigned to the object's identifier property. The generator is used when the primary
key is a natural key instead of a surrogate key. This is the default behavior if you do not
specify @GeneratedValue nor <generator> elements.

The assigned generator makes Hibernate use unsaved-value="undefined". This forces

Hibernate to go to the database to determine if an instance is transient or detached, unless
there is a version or timestamp property, or you define Interceptor.isUnsaved().
5.1.2.2.6. Primary keys assigned by triggers

Hibernate does not generate DDL with triggers. It is for legacy schemas only.
<id name="id" type="long" column="person_id">
<generator class="select">
<param name="key">socialSecurityNumber</param>
</generator>
</id>

In the above example, there is a unique valued property named socialSecurityNumber. It is

defined by the class, as a natural key and a surrogate key named person_id, whose value is
generated by a trigger.
5.1.2.2.7. Identity copy (foreign generator)

Finally, you can ask Hibernate to copy the identifier from another associated entity. In the
Hibernate jargon, it is known as a foreign generator but the JPA mapping reads better and is
encouraged.
@Entity
class MedicalHistory implements Serializable {
@Id @OneToOne
@JoinColumn(name = "person_id")
Person patient;
}
@Entity
public class Person implements Serializable {
@Id @GeneratedValue Integer id;
}

Or alternatively
@Entity
class MedicalHistory implements Serializable {
@Id Integer id;
@MapsId @OneToOne
@JoinColumn(name = "patient_id")
Person patient;
}
@Entity
class Person {
@Id @GeneratedValue Integer id;
}

In hbm.xml use the following approach:

<class name="MedicalHistory">
<id name="id">

<generator class="foreign">
<param name="property">patient</param>
</generator>
</id>
<one-to-one name="patient" class="Person" constrained="true"/>
</class>

5.1.2.3. Enhanced identifier generators

Starting with release 3.2.3, there are 2 new generators which represent a re-thinking of 2
different aspects of identifier generation. The first aspect is database portability; the second is
optimization Optimization means that you do not have to query the database for every request
for a new identifier value. These two new generators are intended to take the place of some of
the named generators described above, starting in 3.3.x. However, they are included in the
current releases and can be referenced by FQN.
The first of these new generators is
org.hibernate.id.enhanced.SequenceStyleGenerator which is intended, firstly, as a
replacement for the sequence generator and, secondly, as a better portability generator than
native. This is because native generally chooses between identity and sequence which

have largely different semantics that can cause subtle issues in applications eyeing portability.
org.hibernate.id.enhanced.SequenceStyleGenerator, however, achieves portability in
a different manner. It chooses between a table or a sequence in the database to store its
incrementing values, depending on the capabilities of the dialect being used. The difference
between this and native is that table-based and sequence-based storage have the same exact
semantic. In fact, sequences are exactly what Hibernate tries to emulate with its table-based
generators. This generator has a number of configuration parameters:

(optional, defaults to hibernate_sequence): the name of the

sequence or table to be used.
initial_value (optional, defaults to 1): the initial value to be retrieved from the
sequence/table. In sequence creation terms, this is analogous to the clause typically
named "STARTS WITH".
increment_size (optional - defaults to 1): the value by which subsequent calls to the
sequence/table should differ. In sequence creation terms, this is analogous to the
clause typically named "INCREMENT BY".
force_table_use (optional - defaults to false): should we force the use of a table as
the backing structure even though the dialect might support sequence?
value_column (optional - defaults to next_val): only relevant for table structures, it
is the name of the column on the table which is used to hold the value.
prefer_sequence_per_entity (optional - defaults to false): should we create
separate sequence for each entity that share current generator based on its name?
sequence_per_entity_suffix (optional - defaults to _SEQ): suffix added to the
name of a dedicated sequence.
optimizer (optional - defaults to none): See Section 5.1.2.3.1, Identifier generator
optimization
sequence_name

The second of these new generators is org.hibernate.id.enhanced.TableGenerator,

which is intended, firstly, as a replacement for the table generator, even though it actually
functions much more like org.hibernate.id.MultipleHiLoPerTableGenerator, and
secondly, as a re-implementation of org.hibernate.id.MultipleHiLoPerTableGenerator

that utilizes the notion of pluggable optimizers. Essentially this generator defines a table
capable of holding a number of different increment values simultaneously by using multiple
distinctly keyed rows. This generator has a number of configuration parameters:

table_name

(optional - defaults to hibernate_sequences): the name of the table to

be used.

(optional - defaults to next_val): the name of the column on the

table that is used to hold the value.
segment_column_name (optional - defaults to sequence_name): the name of the
column on the table that is used to hold the "segment key". This is the value which
identifies which increment value to use.
segment_value (optional - defaults to default): The "segment key" value for the
segment from which we want to pull increment values for this generator.
segment_value_length (optional - defaults to 255): Used for schema generation; the
column size to create this segment key column.
initial_value (optional - defaults to 1): The initial value to be retrieved from the
table.
increment_size (optional - defaults to 1): The value by which subsequent calls to the
table should differ.
optimizer (optional - defaults to ??): See Section 5.1.2.3.1, Identifier generator
optimization.
value_column_name

5.1.2.3.1. Identifier generator optimization

For identifier generators that store values in the database, it is inefficient for them to hit the
database on each and every call to generate a new identifier value. Instead, you can group a
bunch of them in memory and only hit the database when you have exhausted your inmemory value group. This is the role of the pluggable optimizers. Currently only the two
enhanced generators (Section 5.1.2.3, Enhanced identifier generators support this operation.

(generally this is the default if no optimizer was specified): this will not perform
any optimizations and hit the database for each and every request.
hilo: applies a hi/lo algorithm around the database retrieved values. The values from
the database for this optimizer are expected to be sequential. The values retrieved from
the database structure for this optimizer indicates the "group number". The
increment_size is multiplied by that value in memory to define a group "hi value".
pooled: as with the case of hilo, this optimizer attempts to minimize the number of
hits to the database. Here, however, we simply store the starting value for the "next
group" into the database structure rather than a sequential value in combination with
an in-memory grouping algorithm. Here, increment_size refers to the values coming
from the database.
none

5.1.2.4. Partial identifier generation

Hibernate supports the automatic generation of some of the identifier properties. Simply use
the @GeneratedValue annotation on one or several id properties.

Warning

The Hibernate team has always felt such a construct as fundamentally wrong. Try hard to fix
your data model before using this feature.
@Entity
public class CustomerInventory implements Serializable {
@Id
@TableGenerator(name = "inventory",
table = "U_SEQUENCES",
pkColumnName = "S_ID",
valueColumnName = "S_NEXTNUM",
pkColumnValue = "inventory",
allocationSize = 1000)
@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.TABLE, generator = "inventory")
Integer id;
@Id @ManyToOne(cascade = CascadeType.MERGE)
Customer customer;
}
@Entity
public class Customer implements Serializable {
@Id
private int id;
}

You can also generate properties inside an @EmbeddedId class.

5.1.3. Optimistic locking properties (optional)

When using long transactions or conversations that span several database transactions, it is
useful to store versioning data to ensure that if the same entity is updated by two
conversations, the last to commit changes will be informed and not override the other
conversation's work. It guarantees some isolation while still allowing for good scalability and
works particularly well in read-often write-sometimes situations.
You can use two approaches: a dedicated version number or a timestamp.
A version or timestamp property should never be null for a detached instance. Hibernate will
detect any instance with a null version or timestamp as transient, irrespective of what other
unsaved-value strategies are specified. Declaring a nullable version or timestamp property
is an easy way to avoid problems with transitive reattachment in Hibernate. It is especially
useful for people using assigned identifiers or composite keys.
5.1.3.1. Version number
You can add optimistic locking capability to an entity using the @Version annotation:
@Entity
public class Flight implements Serializable {
...
@Version
@Column(name="OPTLOCK")
public Integer getVersion() { ... }
}

The version property will be mapped to the OPTLOCK column, and the entity manager will use
it to detect conflicting updates (preventing lost updates you might otherwise see with the lastcommit-wins strategy).
The version column may be a numeric. Hibernate supports any kind of type provided that you
define and implement the appropriate UserVersionType.
The application must not alter the version number set up by Hibernate in any way. To
artificially increase the version number, check in Hibernate Entity Manager's reference
documentation LockModeType.OPTIMISTIC_FORCE_INCREMENT or
LockModeType.PESSIMISTIC_FORCE_INCREMENT.
If the version number is generated by the database (via a trigger for example), make sure to
use @org.hibernate.annotations.Generated(GenerationTime.ALWAYS).
To declare a version property in hbm.xml, use:
<version
column="version_column"
name="propertyName"
type="typename"
access="field|property|ClassName"
unsaved-value="null|negative|undefined"
generated="never|always"
insert="true|false"
node="element-name|@attribute-name|element/@attribute|."
/>

(optional - defaults to the property name): the name of the column holding the
version number.
name: the name of a property of the persistent class.
column

type

(optional - defaults to integer): the type of the version number.

(optional - defaults to property): the strategy Hibernate uses to access the

property value.
unsaved-value (optional - defaults to undefined): a version property value that
indicates that an instance is newly instantiated (unsaved), distinguishing it from
detached instances that were saved or loaded in a previous session. Undefined specifies
that the identifier property value should be used.
generated (optional - defaults to never): specifies that this version property value is
generated by the database. See the discussion of generated properties for more
information.
access

(optional - defaults to true): specifies whether the version column should be

included in SQL insert statements. It can be set to false if the database column is
defined with a default value of 0.
insert

5.1.3.2. Timestamp
Alternatively, you can use a timestamp. Timestamps are a less safe implementation of
optimistic locking. However, sometimes an application might use the timestamps in other
ways as well.
Simply mark a property of type Date or Calendar as @Version.
@Entity
public class Flight implements Serializable {
...
@Version
public Date getLastUpdate() { ... }
}

When using timestamp versioning you can tell Hibernate where to retrieve the timestamp
value from - database or JVM - by optionally adding the
@org.hibernate.annotations.Source annotation to the property. Possible values for the
value attribute of the annotation are org.hibernate.annotations.SourceType.VM and
org.hibernate.annotations.SourceType.DB. The default is SourceType.DB which is also
used in case there is no @Source annotation at all.
Like in the case of version numbers, the timestamp can also be generated by the database
instead of Hibernate. To do that, use
@org.hibernate.annotations.Generated(GenerationTime.ALWAYS).

In hbm.xml, use the <timestamp> element:

<timestamp
column="timestamp_column"
name="propertyName"
access="field|property|ClassName"
unsaved-value="null|undefined"
source="vm|db"
generated="never|always"
node="element-name|@attribute-name|element/@attribute|."
/>

(optional - defaults to the property name): the name of a column holding the
timestamp.
name: the name of a JavaBeans style property of Java type Date or Timestamp of the
persistent class.
column

(optional - defaults to property): the strategy Hibernate uses for accessing the
property value.
unsaved-value (optional - defaults to null): a version property value that indicates that
an instance is newly instantiated (unsaved), distinguishing it from detached instances
that were saved or loaded in a previous session. Undefined specifies that the identifier
property value should be used.
source (optional - defaults to vm): Where should Hibernate retrieve the timestamp value
from? From the database, or from the current JVM? Database-based timestamps incur an
overhead because Hibernate must hit the database in order to determine the "next value".
It is safer to use in clustered environments. Not all Dialects are known to support the
retrieval of the database's current timestamp. Others may also be unsafe for usage in
locking due to lack of precision (Oracle 8, for example).
generated (optional - defaults to never): specifies that this timestamp property value is
actually generated by the database. See the discussion of generated properties for more
information.
access

Note
<Timestamp> is equivalent to <version type="timestamp">. And <timestamp
source="db"> is equivalent to <version type="dbtimestamp">

5.1.4. Property
You need to decide which property needs to be made persistent in a given entity. This differs
slightly between the annotation driven metadata and the hbm.xml files.
5.1.4.1. Property mapping with annotations
In the annotations world, every non static non transient property (field or method depending
on the access type) of an entity is considered persistent, unless you annotate it as @Transient.
Not having an annotation for your property is equivalent to the appropriate @Basic
annotation.
The @Basic annotation allows you to declare the fetching strategy for a property. If set to
LAZY, specifies that this property should be fetched lazily when the instance variable is first
accessed. It requires build-time bytecode instrumentation, if your classes are not
instrumented, property level lazy loading is silently ignored. The default is EAGER. You can
also mark a property as not optional thanks to the @Basic.optional attribute. This will
ensure that the underlying column are not nullable (if possible). Note that a better approach is
to use the @NotNull annotation of the Bean Validation specification.
Let's look at a few examples:
public transient int counter; //transient property
private String firstname; //persistent property
@Transient
String getLengthInMeter() { ... } //transient property

String getName() {... } // persistent property

@Basic
int getLength() { ... } // persistent property
@Basic(fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
String getDetailedComment() { ... } // persistent property
@Temporal(TemporalType.TIME)
java.util.Date getDepartureTime() { ... } // persistent property
@Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
Starred getNote() { ... } //enum persisted as String in database
counter,

a transient field, and lengthInMeter, a method annotated as @Transient, and will

be ignored by the Hibernate. name, length, and firstname properties are mapped persistent
and eagerly fetched (the default for simple properties). The detailedComment property value
will be lazily fetched from the database once a lazy property of the entity is accessed for the
first time. Usually you don't need to lazy simple properties (not to be confused with lazy
association fetching). The recommended alternative is to use the projection capability of JPQL (Java Persistence Query Language) or Criteria queries.
JPA support property mapping of all basic types supported by Hibernate (all basic Java types ,
their respective wrappers and serializable classes). Hibernate Annotations supports out of the
box enum type mapping either into a ordinal column (saving the enum ordinal) or a string
based column (saving the enum string representation): the persistence representation,
defaulted to ordinal, can be overridden through the @Enumerated annotation as shown in the
note property example.
In plain Java APIs, the temporal precision of time is not defined. When dealing with temporal
data you might want to describe the expected precision in database. Temporal data can have
DATE, TIME, or TIMESTAMP precision (ie the actual date, only the time, or both). Use the
@Temporal annotation to fine tune that.
indicates that the property should be persisted in a Blob or a Clob depending on the
property type: java.sql.Clob, Character[], char[] and java.lang.String will be persisted
in a Clob. java.sql.Blob, Byte[], byte[] and Serializable type will be persisted in a
Blob.
@Lob

@Lob
public String getFullText() {
return fullText;
}
@Lob
public byte[] getFullCode() {
return fullCode;
}

If the property type implements java.io.Serializable and is not a basic type, and if the
property is not annotated with @Lob, then the Hibernate serializable type is used.
5.1.4.1.1. Type

You can also manually specify a type using the @org.hibernate.annotations.Type and
some parameters if needed. @Type.type could be:
1. The name of a Hibernate basic type: integer, string, character, date,
timestamp, float, binary, serializable, object, blob etc.
2. The name of a Java class with a default basic type: int, float, char,
java.lang.String, java.util.Date, java.lang.Integer, java.sql.Clob

etc.

3. The name of a serializable Java class.

4. The class name of a custom type: com.illflow.type.MyCustomType etc.
If you do not specify a type, Hibernate will use reflection upon the named property and guess
the correct Hibernate type. Hibernate will attempt to interpret the name of the return class of
the property getter using, in order, rules 2, 3, and 4.
and @org.hibernate.annotations.TypeDefs
allows you to declare type definitions. These annotations can be placed at the class or package
level. Note that these definitions are global for the session factory (even when defined at the
class level). If the type is used on a single entity, you can place the definition on the entity
itself. Otherwise, it is recommended to place the definition at the package level. In the
example below, when Hibernate encounters a property of class PhoneNumer, it delegates the
persistence strategy to the custom mapping type PhoneNumberType. However, properties
belonging to other classes, too, can delegate their persistence strategy to PhoneNumberType,
by explicitly using the @Type annotation.
@org.hibernate.annotations.TypeDef

Note
Package level annotations are placed in a file named package-info.java in the appropriate
package. Place your annotations before the package declaration.
@TypeDef(
name = "phoneNumber",
defaultForType = PhoneNumber.class,
typeClass = PhoneNumberType.class
)
@Entity
public class ContactDetails {
[...]
private PhoneNumber localPhoneNumber;
@Type(type="phoneNumber")
private OverseasPhoneNumber overseasPhoneNumber;
[...]
}

The following example shows the usage of the parameters attribute to customize the
TypeDef.
//in org/hibernate/test/annotations/entity/package-info.java
@TypeDefs(
{
@TypeDef(
name="caster",
typeClass = CasterStringType.class,

parameters = {
@Parameter(name="cast", value="lower")
}
)
}
)
package org.hibernate.test.annotations.entity;
//in org/hibernate/test/annotations/entity/Forest.java
public class Forest {
@Type(type="caster")
public String getSmallText() {
...
}

When using composite user type, you will have to express column definitions. The @Columns
has been introduced for that purpose.
@Type(type="org.hibernate.test.annotations.entity.MonetaryAmountUserType")
@Columns(columns = {
@Column(name="r_amount"),
@Column(name="r_currency")
})
public MonetaryAmount getAmount() {
return amount;
}
public class MonetaryAmount implements Serializable {
private BigDecimal amount;
private Currency currency;
...
}
5.1.4.1.2. Access type

By default the access type of a class hierarchy is defined by the position of the @Id or
@EmbeddedId annotations. If these annotations are on a field, then only fields are considered
for persistence and the state is accessed via the field. If these annotations are on a getter, then
only the getters are considered for persistence and the state is accessed via the getter/setter.
That works well in practice and is the recommended approach.

Note
The placement of annotations within a class hierarchy has to be consistent (either field or on
property) to be able to determine the default access type. It is recommended to stick to one
single annotation placement strategy throughout your whole application.
However in some situations, you need to:

force the access type of the entity hierarchy

override the access type of a specific entity in the class hierarchy
override the access type of an embeddable type

The best use case is an embeddable class used by several entities that might not use the same
access type. In this case it is better to force the access type at the embeddable class level.
To force the access type on a given class, use the @Access annotation as showed below:
@Entity
public class Order {
@Id private Long id;
public Long getId() { return id; }
public void setId(Long id) { this.id = id; }
@Embedded private Address address;
public Address getAddress() { return address; }
public void setAddress() { this.address = address; }
}
@Entity
public class User {
private Long id;
@Id public Long getId() { return id; }
public void setId(Long id) { this.id = id; }
private Address address;
@Embedded public Address getAddress() { return address; }
public void setAddress() { this.address = address; }
}
@Embeddable
@Access(AcessType.PROPERTY)
public class Address {
private String street1;
public String getStreet1() { return street1; }
public void setStreet1() { this.street1 = street1; }
private hashCode; //not persistent
}

You can also override the access type of a single property while keeping the other properties
standard.
@Entity
public class Order {
@Id private Long id;
public Long getId() { return id; }
public void setId(Long id) { this.id = id; }
@Transient private String userId;
@Transient private String orderId;
@Access(AccessType.PROPERTY)
public String getOrderNumber() { return userId + ":" + orderId; }
public void setOrderNumber() { this.userId = ...; this.orderId = ...; }
}

In this example, the default access type is FIELD except for the orderNumber property. Note
that the corresponding field, if any must be marked as @Transient or transient.

@org.hibernate.annotations.AccessType

The annotation @org.hibernate.annotations.AccessType should be considered

deprecated for FIELD and PROPERTY access. It is still useful however if you need to use a
custom access type.
5.1.4.1.3. Optimistic lock

It is sometimes useful to avoid increasing the version number even if a given property is dirty
(particularly collections). You can do that by annotating the property (or collection) with
@OptimisticLock(excluded=true).
More formally, specifies that updates to this property do not require acquisition of the
optimistic lock.
5.1.4.1.4. Declaring column attributes

The column(s) used for a property mapping can be defined using the @Column annotation. Use
it to override default values (see the JPA specification for more information on the defaults).
You can use this annotation at the property level for properties that are:

not annotated at all

annotated with @Basic
annotated with @Version
annotated with @Lob
annotated with @Temporal

@Entity
public class Flight implements Serializable {
...
@Column(updatable = false, name = "flight_name", nullable = false, length=5
0)
public String getName() { ... }

The name property is mapped to the flight_name column, which is not nullable, has a length
of 50 and is not updatable (making the property immutable).
This annotation can be applied to regular properties as well as @Id or @Version properties.
@Column(
name="columnName";
boolean unique() default false;
boolean nullable() default true;
boolean insertable() default true;
boolean updatable() default true;
String columnDefinition() default "";

String table() default "";

int length() default 255;
int precision() default 0; // decimal precision
int scale() default 0; // decimal scale
name

(optional): the column name (default to the property name)

unique

(optional): set a unique constraint on this column or not (default false)

nullable

(optional): set the column as nullable (default true).

insertable

(optional): whether or not the column will be part of the insert statement

(default true)
updatable (optional): whether or not the column will be part of the update statement
(default true)
columnDefinition (optional): override the sql DDL fragment for this particular column
(non portable)
table (optional): define the targeted table (default primary table)
length

(optional): column length (default 255)

precision
scale

(optional): column decimal precision (default 0)

(optional): column decimal scale if useful (default 0)

5.1.4.1.5. Formula

Sometimes, you want the Database to do some computation for you rather than in the JVM,
you might also create some kind of virtual column. You can use a SQL fragment (aka
formula) instead of mapping a property into a column. This kind of property is read only (its
value is calculated by your formula fragment).
@Formula("obj_length * obj_height * obj_width")
public long getObjectVolume()

The SQL fragment can be as complex as you want and even include subselects.
5.1.4.1.6. Non-annotated property defaults

If a property is not annotated, the following rules apply:

If the property is of a single type, it is mapped as @Basic

Otherwise, if the type of the property is annotated as @Embeddable, it is mapped as
@Embedded
Otherwise, if the type of the property is Serializable, it is mapped as @Basic in a
column holding the object in its serialized version
Otherwise, if the type of the property is java.sql.Clob or java.sql.Blob, it is
mapped as @Lob with the appropriate LobType

5.1.4.2. Property mapping with hbm.xml

The <property> element declares a persistent JavaBean style property of the class.
<property
name="propertyName"
column="column_name"
type="typename"
update="true|false"
insert="true|false"
formula="arbitrary SQL expression"
access="field|property|ClassName"
lazy="true|false"
unique="true|false"
not-null="true|false"
optimistic-lock="true|false"
generated="never|insert|always"
node="element-name|@attribute-name|element/@attribute|."
index="index_name"
unique_key="unique_key_id"
length="L"
precision="P"
scale="S"
/>
name:

the name of the property, with an initial lowercase letter.

(optional - defaults to the property name): the name of the mapped database
table column. This can also be specified by nested <column> element(s).
type (optional): a name that indicates the Hibernate type.
column

(optional - defaults to true): specifies that the mapped columns

should be included in SQL UPDATE and/or INSERT statements. Setting both to false
allows a pure "derived" property whose value is initialized from some other property
that maps to the same column(s), or by a trigger or other application.
formula (optional): an SQL expression that defines the value for a computed property.
Computed properties do not have a column mapping of their own.
access (optional - defaults to property): the strategy Hibernate uses for accessing the
property value.
lazy (optional - defaults to false): specifies that this property should be fetched lazily
update, insert

when the instance variable is first accessed. It requires build-time bytecode

instrumentation.
unique (optional): enables the DDL generation of a unique constraint for the columns.
Also, allow this to be the target of a property-ref.
not-null (optional): enables the DDL generation of a nullability constraint for the
columns.
optimistic-lock (optional - defaults to true): specifies that updates to this property
do or do not require acquisition of the optimistic lock. In other words, it determines if a
version increment should occur when this property is dirty.
generated (optional - defaults to never): specifies that this property value is actually
generated by the database. See the discussion of generated properties for more
information.
typename could be:
1. The name of a Hibernate basic type: integer, string, character, date,
timestamp, float, binary, serializable, object, blob etc.
2. The name of a Java class with a default basic type: int, float, char,
java.lang.String, java.util.Date, java.lang.Integer, java.sql.Clob

etc.

3. The name of a serializable Java class.

4. The class name of a custom type: com.illflow.type.MyCustomType etc.
If you do not specify a type, Hibernate will use reflection upon the named property and guess
the correct Hibernate type. Hibernate will attempt to interpret the name of the return class of
the property getter using, in order, rules 2, 3, and 4. In certain cases you will need the type
attribute. For example, to distinguish between Hibernate.DATE and Hibernate.TIMESTAMP,
or to specify a custom type.
The access attribute allows you to control how Hibernate accesses the property at runtime.
By default, Hibernate will call the property get/set pair. If you specify access="field",
Hibernate will bypass the get/set pair and access the field directly using reflection. You can
specify your own strategy for property access by naming a class that implements the interface
org.hibernate.property.PropertyAccessor.
A powerful feature is derived properties. These properties are by definition read-only. The
property value is computed at load time. You declare the computation as an SQL expression.
This then translates to a SELECT clause subquery in the SQL query that loads an instance:
<property name="totalPrice"
formula="( SELECT SUM (li.quantity*p.price) FROM LineItem li, Product p
WHERE li.productId = p.productId
AND li.customerId = customerId
AND li.orderNumber = orderNumber )"/>

You can reference the entity table by not declaring an alias on a particular column. This
would be customerId in the given example. You can also use the nested <formula> mapping
element if you do not want to use the attribute.

5.1.5. Embedded objects (aka components)

Embeddable objects (or components) are objects whose properties are mapped to the same
table as the owning entity's table. Components can, in turn, declare their own properties,
components or collections
It is possible to declare an embedded component inside an entity and even override its column
mapping. Component classes have to be annotated at the class level with the @Embeddable
annotation. It is possible to override the column mapping of an embedded object for a
particular entity using the @Embedded and @AttributeOverride annotation in the associated
property:
@Entity
public class Person implements Serializable {
// Persistent component using defaults
Address homeAddress;
@Embedded
@AttributeOverrides( {
@AttributeOverride(name="iso2", column = @Column(name="bornIso2
") ),
@AttributeOverride(name="name", column = @Column(name="bornCoun
tryName") )
} )
Country bornIn;
...
}
@Embeddable
public class Address implements Serializable {
String city;
Country nationality; //no overriding here
}
@Embeddable
public class Country implements Serializable {
private String iso2;
@Column(name="countryName") private String name;
public String getIso2() { return iso2; }
public void setIso2(String iso2) { this.iso2 = iso2; }
public String getName() { return name; }
public void setName(String name) { this.name = name; }
...
}

An embeddable object inherits the access type of its owning entity (note that you can override
that using the @Access annotation).
The Person entity has two component properties, homeAddress and bornIn. homeAddress
property has not been annotated, but Hibernate will guess that it is a persistent component by
looking for the @Embeddable annotation in the Address class. We also override the mapping
of a column name (to bornCountryName) with the @Embedded and @AttributeOverride
annotations for each mapped attribute of Country. As you can see, Country is also a nested
component of Address, again using auto-detection by Hibernate and JPA defaults. Overriding
columns of embedded objects of embedded objects is through dotted expressions.

@Embedded
@AttributeOverrides( {
@AttributeOverride(name="city", column = @Column(name="fld_city
") ),
@AttributeOverride(name="nationality.iso2", column = @Column(na
me="nat_Iso2") ),
@AttributeOverride(name="nationality.name", column = @Column(na
me="nat_CountryName") )
//nationality columns in homeAddress are overridden
} )
Address homeAddress;

Hibernate Annotations supports something that is not explicitly supported by the JPA
specification. You can annotate a embedded object with the @MappedSuperclass annotation
to make the superclass properties persistent (see @MappedSuperclass for more informations).
You can also use association annotations in an embeddable object (ie @OneToOne,
@ManyToOne, @OneToMany or @ManyToMany). To override the association columns you can use
@AssociationOverride.
If you want to have the same embeddable object type twice in the same entity, the column
name defaulting will not work as several embedded objects would share the same set of
columns. In plain JPA, you need to override at least one set of columns. Hibernate, however,
allows you to enhance the default naming mechanism through the NamingStrategy interface.
You can write a strategy that prevent name clashing in such a situation.
DefaultComponentSafeNamingStrategy is an example of this.
If a property of the embedded object points back to the owning entity, annotate it with the
@Parent annotation. Hibernate will make sure this property is properly loaded with the entity
reference.
In XML, use the <component> element.
<component
name="propertyName"
class="className"
insert="true|false"
update="true|false"
access="field|property|ClassName"
lazy="true|false"
optimistic-lock="true|false"
unique="true|false"
node="element-name|."
>

<property ...../>
<many-to-one .... />
........
</component>
name:

the name of the property.

(optional - defaults to the property type determined by reflection): the name of

the component (child) class.
insert: do the mapped columns appear in SQL INSERTs?
class

update:

do the mapped columns appear in SQL UPDATEs?

(optional - defaults to property): the strategy Hibernate uses for accessing the
property value.
lazy (optional - defaults to false): specifies that this component should be fetched
lazily when the instance variable is first accessed. It requires build-time bytecode
instrumentation.
optimistic-lock (optional - defaults to true): specifies that updates to this component
either do or do not require acquisition of the optimistic lock. It determines if a version
increment should occur when this property is dirty.
unique (optional - defaults to false): specifies that a unique constraint exists upon all
mapped columns of the component.
access

The child <property> tags map properties of the child class to table columns.
The <component> element allows a <parent> subelement that maps a property of the
component class as a reference back to the containing entity.
The <dynamic-component> element allows a Map to be mapped as a component, where the
property names refer to keys of the map. See Section 9.5, Dynamic components for more
information. This feature is not supported in annotations.

5.1.6. Inheritance strategy

Java is a language supporting polymorphism: a class can inherit from another. Several
strategies are possible to persist a class hierarchy:

Single table per class hierarchy strategy: a single table hosts all the instances of a class
hierarchy
Joined subclass strategy: one table per class and subclass is present and each table
persist the properties specific to a given subclass. The state of the entity is then stored
in its corresponding class table and all its superclasses
Table per class strategy: one table per concrete class and subclass is present and each
table persist the properties of the class and its superclasses. The state of the entity is
then stored entirely in the dedicated table for its class.

5.1.6.1. Single table per class hierarchy strategy

With this approach the properties of all the subclasses in a given mapped class hierarchy are
stored in a single table.

Each subclass declares its own persistent properties and subclasses. Version and id properties
are assumed to be inherited from the root class. Each subclass in a hierarchy must define a
unique discriminator value. If this is not specified, the fully qualified Java class name is used.
@Entity
@Inheritance(strategy=InheritanceType.SINGLE_TABLE)
@DiscriminatorColumn(
name="planetype",
discriminatorType=DiscriminatorType.STRING
)
@DiscriminatorValue("Plane")
public class Plane { ... }
@Entity
@DiscriminatorValue("A320")
public class A320 extends Plane { ... }

In hbm.xml, for the table-per-class-hierarchy mapping strategy, the <subclass> declaration is

used. For example:
<subclass
name="ClassName"
discriminator-value="discriminator_value"
proxy="ProxyInterface"
lazy="true|false"
dynamic-update="true|false"
dynamic-insert="true|false"
entity-name="EntityName"
node="element-name"
extends="SuperclassName">
<property .... />
.....
</subclass>
name:

the fully qualified class name of the subclass.

(optional - defaults to the class name): a value that distinguishes

individual subclasses.
proxy (optional): specifies a class or interface used for lazy initializing proxies.
discriminator-value

(optional - defaults to true): setting lazy="false" disables the use of lazy

fetching.
lazy

For information about inheritance mappings see Chapter 10, Inheritance mapping.
5.1.6.1.1. Discriminator

Discriminators are required for polymorphic persistence using the table-per-class-hierarchy

mapping strategy. It declares a discriminator column of the table. The discriminator column
contains marker values that tell the persistence layer what subclass to instantiate for a

particular row. Hibernate Core supports the follwoing restricted set of types as discriminator
column: string, character, integer, byte, short, boolean, yes_no, true_false.
Use the @DiscriminatorColumn to define the discriminator column as well as the
discriminator type.

Note
The enum DiscriminatorType used in javax.persitence.DiscriminatorColumn only
contains the values STRING, CHAR and INTEGER which means that not all Hibernate supported
types are available via the @DiscriminatorColumn annotation.

You can also use @DiscriminatorFormula to express in SQL a virtual discriminator column.
This is particularly useful when the discriminator value can be extracted from one or more
columns of the table. Both @DiscriminatorColumn and @DiscriminatorFormula are to be
set on the root entity (once per persisted hierarchy).
allows to optionally specify
Hibernate specific discriminator options which are not standardized in JPA. The available
options are force and insert. The force attribute is useful if the table contains rows with
"extra" discriminator values that are not mapped to a persistent class. This could for example
occur when working with a legacy database. If force is set to true Hibernate will specify the
allowed discriminator values in the SELECT query, even when retrieving all instances of the
root class. The second option - insert - tells Hibernate whether or not to include the
discriminator column in SQL INSERTs. Usually the column should be part of the INSERT
statement, but if your discriminator column is also part of a mapped composite identifier you
have to set this option to false.
@org.hibernate.annotations.DiscriminatorOptions

Tip
There is also a @org.hibernate.annotations.ForceDiscriminator annotation which is
deprecated since version 3.6. Use @DiscriminatorOptions instead.
Finally, use @DiscriminatorValue on each class of the hierarchy to specify the value stored
in the discriminator column for a given entity. If you do not set @DiscriminatorValue on a
class, the fully qualified class name is used.
@Entity
@Inheritance(strategy=InheritanceType.SINGLE_TABLE)
@DiscriminatorColumn(
name="planetype",
discriminatorType=DiscriminatorType.STRING
)
@DiscriminatorValue("Plane")
public class Plane { ... }
@Entity
@DiscriminatorValue("A320")
public class A320 extends Plane { ... }

In hbm.xml, the <discriminator> element is used to define the discriminator column or

formula:
<discriminator
column="discriminator_column"
type="discriminator_type"
force="true|false"
insert="true|false"
formula="arbitrary sql expression"
/>
column
type

(optional - defaults to class): the name of the discriminator column.

(optional - defaults to string): a name that indicates the Hibernate type

(optional - defaults to false): "forces" Hibernate to specify the allowed

discriminator values, even when retrieving all instances of the root class.
insert (optional - defaults to true): set this to false if your discriminator column is
also part of a mapped composite identifier. It tells Hibernate not to include the column
in SQL INSERTs.
formula (optional): an arbitrary SQL expression that is executed when a type has to be
evaluated. It allows content-based discrimination.
force

Actual values of the discriminator column are specified by the discriminator-value

attribute of the <class> and <subclass> elements.
The formula attribute allows you to declare an arbitrary SQL expression that will be used to
evaluate the type of a row. For example:
<discriminator
formula="case when CLASS_TYPE in ('a', 'b', 'c') then 0 else 1 end"
type="integer"/>

5.1.6.2. Joined subclass strategy

Each subclass can also be mapped to its own table. This is called the table-per-subclass
mapping strategy. An inherited state is retrieved by joining with the table of the superclass. A
discriminator column is not required for this mapping strategy. Each subclass must, however,
declare a table column holding the object identifier. The primary key of this table is also a
foreign key to the superclass table and described by the @PrimaryKeyJoinColumns or the
<key> element.
@Entity @Table(name="CATS")
@Inheritance(strategy=InheritanceType.JOINED)
public class Cat implements Serializable {
@Id @GeneratedValue(generator="cat-uuid")
@GenericGenerator(name="cat-uuid", strategy="uuid")
String getId() { return id; }

...
}
@Entity @Table(name="DOMESTIC_CATS")
@PrimaryKeyJoinColumn(name="CAT")
public class DomesticCat extends Cat {
public String getName() { return name; }
}

Note
The table name still defaults to the non qualified class name. Also if
@PrimaryKeyJoinColumn is not set, the primary key / foreign key columns are assumed to
have the same names as the primary key columns of the primary table of the superclass.
In hbm.xml, use the <joined-subclass> element. For example:
<joined-subclass
name="ClassName"
table="tablename"
proxy="ProxyInterface"
lazy="true|false"
dynamic-update="true|false"
dynamic-insert="true|false"
schema="schema"
catalog="catalog"
extends="SuperclassName"
persister="ClassName"
subselect="SQL expression"
entity-name="EntityName"
node="element-name">
<key .... >
<property .... />
.....
</joined-subclass>
name:

the fully qualified class name of the subclass.

table:
proxy

the name of the subclass table.

(optional): specifies a class or interface to use for lazy initializing proxies.

(optional, defaults to true): setting lazy="false" disables the use of lazy

fetching.
lazy

Use the <key> element to declare the primary key / foreign key column. The mapping at the
start of the chapter would then be re-written as:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC
"-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD//EN"
"http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd">
<hibernate-mapping package="eg">
<class name="Cat" table="CATS">
<id name="id" column="uid" type="long">
<generator class="hilo"/>
</id>
<property name="birthdate" type="date"/>
<property name="color" not-null="true"/>
<property name="sex" not-null="true"/>
<property name="weight"/>
<many-to-one name="mate"/>
<set name="kittens">
<key column="MOTHER"/>
<one-to-many class="Cat"/>
</set>
<joined-subclass name="DomesticCat" table="DOMESTIC_CATS">
<key column="CAT"/>
<property name="name" type="string"/>
</joined-subclass>
</class>
<class name="eg.Dog">
<!-- mapping for Dog could go here -->
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

For information about inheritance mappings see Chapter 10, Inheritance mapping.
5.1.6.3. Table per class strategy
A third option is to map only the concrete classes of an inheritance hierarchy to tables. This is
called the table-per-concrete-class strategy. Each table defines all persistent states of the class,
including the inherited state. In Hibernate, it is not necessary to explicitly map such
inheritance hierarchies. You can map each class as a separate entity root. However, if you
wish use polymorphic associations (e.g. an association to the superclass of your hierarchy),
you need to use the union subclass mapping.
@Entity
@Inheritance(strategy = InheritanceType.TABLE_PER_CLASS)
public class Flight implements Serializable { ... }

Or in hbm.xml:
<union-subclass
name="ClassName"
table="tablename"
proxy="ProxyInterface"

lazy="true|false"
dynamic-update="true|false"
dynamic-insert="true|false"
schema="schema"
catalog="catalog"
extends="SuperclassName"
abstract="true|false"
persister="ClassName"
subselect="SQL expression"
entity-name="EntityName"
node="element-name">
<property .... />
.....
</union-subclass>
name:

the fully qualified class name of the subclass.

table:
proxy

the name of the subclass table.

(optional): specifies a class or interface to use for lazy initializing proxies.

(optional, defaults to true): setting lazy="false" disables the use of lazy

fetching.
lazy

No discriminator column or key column is required for this mapping strategy.

For information about inheritance mappings see Chapter 10, Inheritance mapping.
5.1.6.4. Inherit properties from superclasses
This is sometimes useful to share common properties through a technical or a business
superclass without including it as a regular mapped entity (ie no specific table for this entity).
For that purpose you can map them as @MappedSuperclass.
@MappedSuperclass
public class BaseEntity {
@Basic
@Temporal(TemporalType.TIMESTAMP)
public Date getLastUpdate() { ... }
public String getLastUpdater() { ... }
...
}
@Entity class Order extends BaseEntity {
@Id public Integer getId() { ... }
...
}

In database, this hierarchy will be represented as an Order table having the id, lastUpdate
and lastUpdater columns. The embedded superclass property mappings are copied into their
entity subclasses. Remember that the embeddable superclass is not the root of the hierarchy
though.

Note
Properties from superclasses not mapped as @MappedSuperclass are ignored.

Note
The default access type (field or methods) is used, unless you use the @Access annotation.

Note
The same notion can be applied to @Embeddable objects to persist properties from their
superclasses. You also need to use @MappedSuperclass to do that (this should not be
considered as a standard EJB3 feature though)

Note
It is allowed to mark a class as @MappedSuperclass in the middle of the mapped inheritance
hierarchy.

Note
Any class in the hierarchy non annotated with @MappedSuperclass nor @Entity will be
ignored.
You can override columns defined in entity superclasses at the root entity level using the
@AttributeOverride annotation.
@MappedSuperclass
public class FlyingObject implements Serializable {
public int getAltitude() {
return altitude;
}
@Transient
public int getMetricAltitude() {
return metricAltitude;
}
@ManyToOne
public PropulsionType getPropulsion() {
return metricAltitude;
}
...
}
@Entity
@AttributeOverride( name="altitude", column = @Column(name="fld_altitude")
)
@AssociationOverride(
name="propulsion",
joinColumns = @JoinColumn(name="fld_propulsion_fk")

)
public class Plane extends FlyingObject {
...
}

The altitude property will be persisted in an fld_altitude column of table Plane and the
propulsion association will be materialized in a fld_propulsion_fk foreign key column.
You can define @AttributeOverride(s) and @AssociationOverride(s) on @Entity classes,
@MappedSuperclass classes and properties pointing to an @Embeddable object.
In hbm.xml, simply map the properties of the superclass in the <class> element of the entity
that needs to inherit them.
5.1.6.5. Mapping one entity to several tables
While not recommended for a fresh schema, some legacy databases force your to map a single
entity on several tables.
Using the @SecondaryTable or @SecondaryTables class level annotations. To express that a
column is in a particular table, use the table parameter of @Column or @JoinColumn.
@Entity
@Table(name="MainCat")
@SecondaryTables({
@SecondaryTable(name="Cat1", pkJoinColumns={
@PrimaryKeyJoinColumn(name="cat_id", referencedColumnName="id")
),
@SecondaryTable(name="Cat2", uniqueConstraints={@UniqueConstraint(colum
nNames={"storyPart2"})})
})
public class Cat implements Serializable {
private
private
private
private

Integer id;
String name;
String storyPart1;
String storyPart2;

@Id @GeneratedValue
public Integer getId() {
return id;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
@Column(table="Cat1")
public String getStoryPart1() {
return storyPart1;
}
@Column(table="Cat2")
public String getStoryPart2() {
return storyPart2;
}
}

In this example, name will be in MainCat. storyPart1 will be in Cat1 and storyPart2 will
be in Cat2. Cat1 will be joined to MainCat using the cat_id as a foreign key, and Cat2 using
id (ie the same column name, the MainCat id column has). Plus a unique constraint on
storyPart2 has been set.
There is also additional tuning accessible via the @org.hibernate.annotations.Table
annotation:

fetch:

If set to JOIN, the default, Hibernate will use an inner join to retrieve a
secondary table defined by a class or its superclasses and an outer join for a secondary
table defined by a subclass. If set to SELECT then Hibernate will use a sequential select
for a secondary table defined on a subclass, which will be issued only if a row turns
out to represent an instance of the subclass. Inner joins will still be used to retrieve a
secondary defined by the class and its superclasses.
inverse: If true, Hibernate will not try to insert or update the properties defined by
this join. Default to false.
optional: If enabled (the default), Hibernate will insert a row only if the properties
defined by this join are non-null and will always use an outer join to retrieve the
properties.
foreignKey: defines the Foreign Key name of a secondary table pointing back to the
primary table.

Make sure to use the secondary table name in the appliesto property
@Entity
@Table(name="MainCat")
@SecondaryTable(name="Cat1")
@org.hibernate.annotations.Table(
appliesTo="Cat1",
fetch=FetchMode.SELECT,
optional=true)
public class Cat implements Serializable {
private
private
private
private

Integer id;
String name;
String storyPart1;
String storyPart2;

@Id @GeneratedValue
public Integer getId() {
return id;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
@Column(table="Cat1")
public String getStoryPart1() {
return storyPart1;
}
@Column(table="Cat2")
public String getStoryPart2() {
return storyPart2;
}

In hbm.xml, use the <join> element.

<join
table="tablename"
schema="owner"
catalog="catalog"
fetch="join|select"
inverse="true|false"
optional="true|false">
<key ... />
<property ... />
...
</join>
table:

the name of the joined table.

schema (optional): overrides

mapping> element.
catalog (optional):
mapping> element.

the schema name specified by the root <hibernate-

overrides the catalog name specified by the root <hibernate-

(optional - defaults to join): if set to join, the default, Hibernate will use an
inner join to retrieve a <join> defined by a class or its superclasses. It will use an outer
join for a <join> defined by a subclass. If set to select then Hibernate will use a
sequential select for a <join> defined on a subclass. This will be issued only if a row
represents an instance of the subclass. Inner joins will still be used to retrieve a <join>
defined by the class and its superclasses.
inverse (optional - defaults to false): if enabled, Hibernate will not insert or update
the properties defined by this join.
optional (optional - defaults to false): if enabled, Hibernate will insert a row only if
the properties defined by this join are non-null. It will always use an outer join to
retrieve the properties.
fetch

For example, address information for a person can be mapped to a separate table while
preserving value type semantics for all properties:
<class name="Person"
table="PERSON">
<id name="id" column="PERSON_ID">...</id>
<join table="ADDRESS">
<key column="ADDRESS_ID"/>
<property name="address"/>

<property name="zip"/>
<property name="country"/>
</join>
...

This feature is often only useful for legacy data models. We recommend fewer tables than
classes and a fine-grained domain model. However, it is useful for switching between
inheritance mapping strategies in a single hierarchy, as explained later.

5.1.7. Mapping one to one and one to many associations

To link one entity to an other, you need to map the association property as a to one
association. In the relational model, you can either use a foreign key or an association table, or
(a bit less common) share the same primary key value between the two entities.
To mark an association, use either @ManyToOne or @OnetoOne.
and @OneToOne have a parameter named targetEntity which describes the
target entity name. You usually don't need this parameter since the default value (the type of
the property that stores the association) is good in almost all cases. However this is useful
when you want to use interfaces as the return type instead of the regular entity.
@ManyToOne

Setting a value of the cascade attribute to any meaningful value other than nothing will
propagate certain operations to the associated object. The meaningful values are divided into
three categories.
1. basic operations, which include: persist, merge, delete, save-update, evict,
replicate, lock and refresh;
2. special values: delete-orphan or all ;
3. comma-separated combinations of operation names:
cascade="persist,merge,evict" or cascade="all,delete-orphan". See
Section 11.11, Transitive persistence for a full explanation. Note that single valued
many-to-one associations do not support orphan delete.
By default, single point associations are eagerly fetched in JPA 2. You can mark it as lazily
fetched by using @ManyToOne(fetch=FetchType.LAZY) in which case Hibernate will proxy
the association and load it when the state of the associated entity is reached. You can force
Hibernate not to use a proxy by using @LazyToOne(NO_PROXY). In this case, the property is
fetched lazily when the instance variable is first accessed. This requires build-time bytecode
instrumentation. lazy="false" specifies that the association will always be eagerly fetched.
With the default JPA options, single-ended associations are loaded with a subsequent select if
set to LAZY, or a SQL JOIN is used for EAGER associations. You can however adjust the
fetching strategy, ie how data is fetched by using @Fetch. FetchMode can be SELECT (a select
is triggered when the association needs to be loaded) or JOIN (use a SQL JOIN to load the
association while loading the owner entity). JOIN overrides any lazy attribute (an association
loaded through a JOIN strategy cannot be lazy).
5.1.7.1. Using a foreign key or an association table

An ordinary association to another persistent class is declared using a

@ManyToOne if several entities can point to the the target entity

@OneToOne if only a single entity can point to the the target entity

and a foreign key in one table is referencing the primary key column(s) of the target table.
@Entity
public class Flight implements Serializable {
@ManyToOne( cascade = {CascadeType.PERSIST, CascadeType.MERGE} )
@JoinColumn(name="COMP_ID")
public Company getCompany() {
return company;
}
...
}

The @JoinColumn attribute is optional, the default value(s) is the concatenation of the name of
the relationship in the owner side, _ (underscore), and the name of the primary key column in
the owned side. In this example company_id because the property name is company and the
column id of Company is id.
@Entity
public class Flight implements Serializable {
@ManyToOne( cascade = {CascadeType.PERSIST, CascadeType.MERGE}, targetE
ntity=CompanyImpl.class )
@JoinColumn(name="COMP_ID")
public Company getCompany() {
return company;
}
...
}
public interface Company {
...
}

You can also map a to one association through an association table. This association table
described by the @JoinTable annotation will contains a foreign key referencing back the
entity table (through @JoinTable.joinColumns) and a a foreign key referencing the target
entity table (through @JoinTable.inverseJoinColumns).
@Entity
public class Flight implements Serializable {
@ManyToOne( cascade = {CascadeType.PERSIST, CascadeType.MERGE} )
@JoinTable(name="Flight_Company",
joinColumns = @JoinColumn(name="FLIGHT_ID"),
inverseJoinColumns = @JoinColumn(name="COMP_ID")
)
public Company getCompany() {
return company;
}
...
}

Note

You can use a SQL fragment to simulate a physical join column using the
@JoinColumnOrFormula / @JoinColumnOrformulas annotations (just like you can use a SQL
fragment to simulate a property column via the @Formula annotation).
@Entity
public class Ticket implements Serializable {
@ManyToOne
@JoinColumnOrFormula(formula="(firstname + ' ' + lastname)")
public Person getOwner() {
return person;
}
...
}

You can mark an association as mandatory by using the optional=false attribute. We

recommend to use Bean Validation's @NotNull annotation as a better alternative however. As
a consequence, the foreign key column(s) will be marked as not nullable (if possible).
When Hibernate cannot resolve the association because the expected associated element is not
in database (wrong id on the association column), an exception is raised. This might be
inconvenient for legacy and badly maintained schemas. You can ask Hibernate to ignore such
elements instead of raising an exception using the @NotFound annotation.
Example 5.1. @NotFound annotation
@Entity
public class Child {
...
@ManyToOne
@NotFound(action=NotFoundAction.IGNORE)
public Parent getParent() { ... }
...
}

Sometimes you want to delegate to your database the deletion of cascade when a given entity
is deleted. In this case Hibernate generates a cascade delete constraint at the database level.
Example 5.2. @OnDelete annotation
@Entity
public class Child {
...
@ManyToOne
@OnDelete(action=OnDeleteAction.CASCADE)
public Parent getParent() { ... }
...
}

Foreign key constraints, while generated by Hibernate, have a fairly unreadable name. You
can override the constraint name using @ForeignKey.
Example 5.3. @ForeignKey annotation

@Entity
public class Child {
...
@ManyToOne
@ForeignKey(name="FK_PARENT")
public Parent getParent() { ... }
...
}
alter table Child add constraint FK_PARENT foreign key (parent_id) referenc
es Parent

Sometimes, you want to link one entity to an other not by the target entity primary key but by
a different unique key. You can achieve that by referencing the unique key column(s) in
@JoinColumn.referenceColumnName.
@Entity
class Person {
@Id Integer personNumber;
String firstName;
@Column(name="I")
String initial;
String lastName;
}
@Entity
class Home {
@ManyToOne
@JoinColumns({
@JoinColumn(name="first_name", referencedColumnName="firstName"),
@JoinColumn(name="init", referencedColumnName="I"),
@JoinColumn(name="last_name", referencedColumnName="lastName"),
})
Person owner
}

This is not encouraged however and should be reserved to legacy mappings.

In hbm.xml, mapping an association is similar. The main difference is that a @OneToOne is
mapped as <many-to-one unique="true"/>, let's dive into the subject.
<many-to-one
name="propertyName"
column="column_name"
class="ClassName"
cascade="cascade_style"
fetch="join|select"
update="true|false"

insert="true|false"
property-ref="propertyNameFromAssociatedClass"
access="field|property|ClassName"
unique="true|false"
not-null="true|false"
optimistic-lock="true|false"
lazy="proxy|no-proxy|false"
not-found="ignore|exception"
entity-name="EntityName"
formula="arbitrary SQL expression"
node="element-name|@attribute-name|element/@attribute|."
embed-xml="true|false"
index="index_name"
unique_key="unique_key_id"
foreign-key="foreign_key_name"
/>
name:

the name of the property.

column (optional): the name of the

nested <column> element(s).

foreign key column. This can also be specified by

(optional - defaults to the property type determined by reflection): the name of

the associated class.
cascade (optional): specifies which operations should be cascaded from the parent
object to the associated object.
fetch (optional - defaults to select): chooses between outer-join fetching or sequential
select fetching.
update, insert (optional - defaults to true): specifies that the mapped columns
should be included in SQL UPDATE and/or INSERT statements. Setting both to false
allows a pure "derived" association whose value is initialized from another property that
maps to the same column(s), or by a trigger or other application.
property-ref (optional): the name of a property of the associated class that is joined to
this foreign key. If not specified, the primary key of the associated class is used.
access (optional - defaults to property): the strategy Hibernate uses for accessing the
property value.
unique (optional): enables the DDL generation of a unique constraint for the foreignkey column. By allowing this to be the target of a property-ref, you can make the
association multiplicity one-to-one.
not-null (optional): enables the DDL generation of a nullability constraint for the
foreign key columns.
class

(optional - defaults to true): specifies that updates to this property

do or do not require acquisition of the optimistic lock. In other words, it determines if a
version increment should occur when this property is dirty.
lazy (optional - defaults to proxy): by default, single point associations are proxied.
lazy="no-proxy" specifies that the property should be fetched lazily when the instance
variable is first accessed. This requires build-time bytecode instrumentation.
lazy="false" specifies that the association will always be eagerly fetched.
not-found (optional - defaults to exception): specifies how foreign keys that reference
missing rows will be handled. ignore will treat a missing row as a null association.
entity-name (optional): the entity name of the associated class.
optimistic-lock

formula

(optional): an SQL expression that defines the value for a computed foreign

key.
Setting a value of the cascade attribute to any meaningful value other than none will
propagate certain operations to the associated object. The meaningful values are divided into
three categories. First, basic operations, which include: persist, merge, delete, saveupdate, evict, replicate, lock and refresh; second, special values: delete-orphan;
and third,all comma-separated combinations of operation names:
cascade="persist,merge,evict" or cascade="all,delete-orphan". See Section 11.11,
Transitive persistence for a full explanation. Note that single valued, many-to-one and oneto-one, associations do not support orphan delete.
Here is an example of a typical many-to-one declaration:
<many-to-one name="product" class="Product" column="PRODUCT_ID"/>

The property-ref attribute should only be used for mapping legacy data where a foreign key
refers to a unique key of the associated table other than the primary key. This is a complicated
and confusing relational model. For example, if the Product class had a unique serial number
that is not the primary key. The unique attribute controls Hibernate's DDL generation with
the SchemaExport tool.
<property name="serialNumber" unique="true" type="string"
column="SERIAL_NUMBER"/>

Then the mapping for OrderItem might use:

<many-to-one name="product" property-ref="serialNumber"
column="PRODUCT_SERIAL_NUMBER"/>

This is not encouraged, however.

If the referenced unique key comprises multiple properties of the associated entity, you should
map the referenced properties inside a named <properties> element.
If the referenced unique key is the property of a component, you can specify a property path:
<many-to-one name="owner" property-ref="identity.ssn" column="OWNER_SSN"/>

5.1.7.2. Sharing the primary key with the associated entity

The second approach is to ensure an entity and its associated entity share the same primary
key. In this case the primary key column is also a foreign key and there is no extra column.
These associations are always one to one.
Example 5.4. One to One association
@Entity
public class Body {
@Id
public Long getId() { return id; }
@OneToOne(cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
@MapsId
public Heart getHeart() {
return heart;
}
...
}
@Entity
public class Heart {
@Id
public Long getId() { ...}
}

Note
Many people got confused by these primary key based one to one associations. They can only
be lazily loaded if Hibernate knows that the other side of the association is always present. To
indicate to Hibernate that it is the case, use @OneToOne(optional=false).
In hbm.xml, use the following mapping.
<one-to-one
name="propertyName"
class="ClassName"
cascade="cascade_style"
constrained="true|false"
fetch="join|select"
property-ref="propertyNameFromAssociatedClass"
access="field|property|ClassName"
formula="any SQL expression"

lazy="proxy|no-proxy|false"
entity-name="EntityName"
node="element-name|@attribute-name|element/@attribute|."
embed-xml="true|false"
foreign-key="foreign_key_name"
/>
name:

the name of the property.

(optional - defaults to the property type determined by reflection): the name of

the associated class.
cascade (optional): specifies which operations should be cascaded from the parent
object to the associated object.
constrained (optional): specifies that a foreign key constraint on the primary key of the
mapped table and references the table of the associated class. This option affects the
order in which save() and delete() are cascaded, and determines whether the
association can be proxied. It is also used by the schema export tool.
fetch (optional - defaults to select): chooses between outer-join fetching or sequential
select fetching.
property-ref (optional): the name of a property of the associated class that is joined to
the primary key of this class. If not specified, the primary key of the associated class is
used.
access (optional - defaults to property): the strategy Hibernate uses for accessing the
property value.
formula (optional): almost all one-to-one associations map to the primary key of the
owning entity. If this is not the case, you can specify another column, columns or
expression to join on using an SQL formula. See
org.hibernate.test.onetooneformula for an example.
lazy (optional - defaults to proxy): by default, single point associations are proxied.
lazy="no-proxy" specifies that the property should be fetched lazily when the instance
variable is first accessed. It requires build-time bytecode instrumentation.
lazy="false" specifies that the association will always be eagerly fetched. Note that if
constrained="false", proxying is impossible and Hibernate will eagerly fetch the
association.
entity-name (optional): the entity name of the associated class.
class

Primary key associations do not need an extra table column. If two rows are related by the
association, then the two table rows share the same primary key value. To relate two objects
by a primary key association, ensure that they are assigned the same identifier value.
For a primary key association, add the following mappings to Employee and Person
respectively:
<one-to-one name="person" class="Person"/>
<one-to-one name="employee" class="Employee" constrained="true"/>

Ensure that the primary keys of the related rows in the PERSON and EMPLOYEE tables are
equal. You use a special Hibernate identifier generation strategy called foreign:
<class name="person" table="PERSON">
<id name="id" column="PERSON_ID">
<generator class="foreign">
<param name="property">employee</param>
</generator>
</id>
...
<one-to-one name="employee"
class="Employee"
constrained="true"/>
</class>

A newly saved instance of Person is assigned the same primary key value as the Employee
instance referred with the employee property of that Person.

5.1.8. Natural-id
Although we recommend the use of surrogate keys as primary keys, you should try to identify
natural keys for all entities. A natural key is a property or combination of properties that is
unique and non-null. It is also immutable. Map the properties of the natural key as
@NaturalId or map them inside the <natural-id> element. Hibernate will generate the
necessary unique key and nullability constraints and, as a result, your mapping will be more
self-documenting.
@Entity
public class Citizen {
@Id
@GeneratedValue
private Integer id;
private String firstname;
private String lastname;
@NaturalId
@ManyToOne
private State state;
@NaturalId
private String ssn;
...
}

//and later on query

List results = s.createCriteria( Citizen.class )
.add( Restrictions.naturalId().set( "ssn", "1234" ).set( "s
tate", ste ) )
.list();

Or in XML,
<natural-id mutable="true|false"/>
<property ... />
<many-to-one ... />

......
</natural-id>

It is recommended that you implement equals() and hashCode() to compare the natural key
properties of the entity.
This mapping is not intended for use with entities that have natural primary keys.

(optional - defaults to false): by default, natural identifier properties are

assumed to be immutable (constant).
mutable

5.1.9. Any
There is one more type of property mapping. The @Any mapping defines a polymorphic
association to classes from multiple tables. This type of mapping requires more than one
column. The first column contains the type of the associated entity. The remaining columns
contain the identifier. It is impossible to specify a foreign key constraint for this kind of
association. This is not the usual way of mapping polymorphic associations and you should
use this only in special cases. For example, for audit logs, user session data, etc.
The @Any annotation describes the column holding the metadata information. To link the
value of the metadata information and an actual entity type, The @AnyDef and @AnyDefs
annotations are used. The metaType attribute allows the application to specify a custom type
that maps database column values to persistent classes that have identifier properties of the
type specified by idType. You must specify the mapping from values of the metaType to
class names.
@Any( metaColumn = @Column( name = "property_type" ), fetch=FetchType.EAGER
)
@AnyMetaDef(
idType = "integer",
metaType = "string",
metaValues = {
@MetaValue( value = "S", targetEntity = StringProperty.class ),
@MetaValue( value = "I", targetEntity = IntegerProperty.class )
} )
@JoinColumn( name = "property_id" )
public Property getMainProperty() {
return mainProperty;
}

Note that @AnyDef can be mutualized and reused. It is recommended to place it as a package
metadata in this case.
//on a package
@AnyMetaDef( name="property"
idType = "integer",
metaType = "string",
metaValues = {
@MetaValue( value = "S", targetEntity = StringProperty.class ),
@MetaValue( value = "I", targetEntity = IntegerProperty.class )
} )
package org.hibernate.test.annotations.any;

//in a class
@Any( metaDef="property", metaColumn = @Column( name = "property_type"
), fetch=FetchType.EAGER )
@JoinColumn( name = "property_id" )
public Property getMainProperty() {
return mainProperty;
}

The hbm.xml equivalent is:

<any name="being" id-type="long" meta-type="string">
<meta-value value="TBL_ANIMAL" class="Animal"/>
<meta-value value="TBL_HUMAN" class="Human"/>
<meta-value value="TBL_ALIEN" class="Alien"/>
<column name="table_name"/>
<column name="id"/>
</any>

Note
You cannot mutualize the metadata in hbm.xml as you can in annotations.
<any
name="propertyName"
id-type="idtypename"
meta-type="metatypename"
cascade="cascade_style"
access="field|property|ClassName"
optimistic-lock="true|false"
>
<meta-value ... />
<meta-value ... />
.....
<column .... />
<column .... />
.....
</any>
name:

the property name.

id-type:

the identifier type.

meta-type

(optional - defaults to string): any type that is allowed for a discriminator

mapping.
cascade

(optional- defaults to none): the cascade style.

(optional - defaults to property): the strategy Hibernate uses for accessing the
property value.
access

(optional - defaults to true): specifies that updates to this property

either do or do not require acquisition of the optimistic lock. It defines whether a version
increment should occur if this property is dirty.
optimistic-lock

5.1.10. Properties
The <properties> element allows the definition of a named, logical grouping of the
properties of a class. The most important use of the construct is that it allows a combination of
properties to be the target of a property-ref. It is also a convenient way to define a multicolumn unique constraint. For example:
<properties
name="logicalName"
insert="true|false"
update="true|false"
optimistic-lock="true|false"
unique="true|false"
>
<property ...../>
<many-to-one .... />
........
</properties>
name:

the logical name of the grouping. It is not an actual property name.

insert:

do the mapped columns appear in SQL INSERTs?

update:

do the mapped columns appear in SQL UPDATEs?

(optional - defaults to true): specifies that updates to these

properties either do or do not require acquisition of the optimistic lock. It determines if a
version increment should occur when these properties are dirty.
unique (optional - defaults to false): specifies that a unique constraint exists upon all
mapped columns of the component.
optimistic-lock

For example, if we have the following <properties> mapping:

<class name="Person">
<id name="personNumber"/>
...
<properties name="name"
unique="true" update="false">
<property name="firstName"/>
<property name="initial"/>
<property name="lastName"/>
</properties>
</class>

You might have some legacy data association that refers to this unique key of the Person
table, instead of to the primary key:
<many-to-one name="owner"
class="Person" property-ref="name">
<column name="firstName"/>
<column name="initial"/>
<column name="lastName"/>
</many-to-one>

Note
When using annotations as a mapping strategy, such construct is not necessary as the binding
between a column and its related column on the associated table is done directly
@Entity
class Person {
@Id Integer personNumber;
String firstName;
@Column(name="I")
String initial;
String lastName;
}
@Entity
class Home {
@ManyToOne
@JoinColumns({
@JoinColumn(name="first_name", referencedColumnName="firstName"),
@JoinColumn(name="init", referencedColumnName="I"),
@JoinColumn(name="last_name", referencedColumnName="lastName"),
})
Person owner
}

The use of this outside the context of mapping legacy data is not recommended.

5.1.11. Some hbm.xml specificities

The hbm.xml structure has some specificities naturally not present when using annotations,
let's describe them briefly.
5.1.11.1. Doctype
All XML mappings should declare the doctype shown. The actual DTD can be found at the
URL above, in the directory hibernate-x.x.x/src/org/hibernate , or in
hibernate3.jar. Hibernate will always look for the DTD in its classpath first. If you
experience lookups of the DTD using an Internet connection, check the DTD declaration
against the contents of your classpath.
5.1.11.1.1. EntityResolver

Hibernate will first attempt to resolve DTDs in its classpath. It does this is by registering a
custom org.xml.sax.EntityResolver implementation with the SAXReader it uses to read

in the xml files. This custom EntityResolver recognizes two different systemId
namespaces:

a hibernate namespace is recognized whenever the resolver encounters a systemId

starting with http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/. The resolver attempts to resolve
these entities via the classloader which loaded the Hibernate classes.
a user namespace is recognized whenever the resolver encounters a systemId using a
classpath:// URL protocol. The resolver will attempt to resolve these entities via
(1) the current thread context classloader and (2) the classloader which loaded the
Hibernate classes.

The following is an example of utilizing user namespacing:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC
"-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD 3.0//EN"
"http://hibernate.sourceforge.net/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd" [
<!ENTITY types SYSTEM "classpath://your/domain/types.xml">
]>
<hibernate-mapping package="your.domain">
<class name="MyEntity">
<id name="id" type="my-custom-id-type">
...
</id>
<class>
&types;
</hibernate-mapping>

Where types.xml is a resource in the your.domain package and contains a custom typedef.
5.1.11.2. Hibernate-mapping
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 they are
specified, tablenames will be qualified by the given schema and catalog names. If they are
missing, tablenames will be unqualified. The default-cascade attribute specifies what
cascade style should be assumed for properties and collections that do not specify a cascade
attribute. By default, the auto-import attribute allows you to use unqualified class names in
the query language.
<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.

(optional - defaults to property): the strategy Hibernate should use

for accessing all properties. It can be a custom implementation of PropertyAccessor.
default-lazy (optional - defaults to true): the default value for unspecified 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 use for unqualified class names in the
mapping document.
default-access

If you have two persistent classes with the same unqualified name, you should set autoimport="false". An exception will result if you attempt to assign two classes to the same
"imported" name.
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. For example, Cat.hbm.xml, Dog.hbm.xml, or if using inheritance,
Animal.hbm.xml.
5.1.11.3. Key
The <key> element is featured a few times within this guide. It appears anywhere the parent
mapping element defines a join to a new table that references the primary key of the original
table. It also defines the foreign key in the joined table:
<key
column="columnname"
on-delete="noaction|cascade"
property-ref="propertyName"
not-null="true|false"
update="true|false"

unique="true|false"
/>
column (optional): the name of the
nested <column> element(s).

foreign key column. This can also be specified by

(optional - defaults to noaction): specifies whether the foreign key

constraint has database-level cascade delete enabled.
property-ref (optional): specifies that the foreign key refers to columns that are not
the primary key of the original table. It is provided for legacy data.
not-null (optional): specifies that the foreign key columns are not nullable. This is
implied whenever the foreign key is also part of the primary key.
update (optional): specifies that the foreign key should never be updated. This is
implied whenever the foreign key is also part of the primary key.
unique (optional): specifies that the foreign key should have a unique constraint. This is
implied whenever the foreign key is also the primary key.
on-delete

For systems where delete performance is important, we recommend that all keys should be
defined on-delete="cascade". Hibernate uses a database-level ON CASCADE DELETE
constraint, instead of many individual DELETE statements. Be aware that this feature bypasses
Hibernate's usual optimistic locking strategy for versioned data.
The not-null and update attributes are useful when mapping a unidirectional one-to-many
association. If you map a unidirectional one-to-many association to a non-nullable foreign
key, you must declare the key column using <key not-null="true">.
5.1.11.4. Import
If your application has two persistent classes with the same name, and you do not want to
specify the fully qualified package name in Hibernate queries, classes can be "imported"
explicitly, rather than relying upon auto-import="true". You can also import classes and
interfaces that are not explicitly mapped:
<import class="java.lang.Object" rename="Universe"/>
<import
class="ClassName"
rename="ShortName"
/>
class:

the fully qualified class name of any Java class.

(optional - defaults to the unqualified class name): a name that can be used in
the query language.
rename

Note
This feature is unique to hbm.xml and is not supported in annotations.
5.1.11.5. Column and formula elements

Mapping elements which accept a column attribute will alternatively accept a <column>
subelement. Likewise, <formula> is an alternative to the formula attribute. For example:
<column
name="column_name"
length="N"
precision="N"
scale="N"
not-null="true|false"
unique="true|false"
unique-key="multicolumn_unique_key_name"
index="index_name"
sql-type="sql_type_name"
check="SQL expression"
default="SQL expression"
read="SQL expression"
write="SQL expression"/>
<formula>SQL expression</formula>

Most of the attributes on column provide a means of tailoring the DDL during automatic
schema generation. The read and write attributes allow you to specify custom SQL that
Hibernate will use to access the column's value. For more on this, see the discussion of
column read and write expressions.
The column and formula elements can even be combined within the same property or
association mapping to express, for example, exotic join conditions.
<many-to-one name="homeAddress" class="Address"
insert="false" update="false">
<column name="person_id" not-null="true" length="10"/>
<formula>'MAILING'</formula>
</many-to-one>

5.2. Hibernate types

5.2.1. Entities and values
In relation to the persistence service, Java language-level objects are classified into two
groups:
An entity exists independently of any other objects holding references to the entity. Contrast
this with the usual Java model, where an unreferenced object is garbage collected. Entities
must be explicitly saved and deleted. Saves and deletions, however, can be cascaded from a
parent entity to its children. This is different from the ODMG model of object persistence by
reachability and corresponds more closely to how application objects are usually used in large
systems. Entities support circular and shared references. They can also be versioned.
An entity's persistent state consists of references to other entities and instances of value types.
Values are primitives: collections (not what is inside a collection), components and certain
immutable objects. Unlike entities, values in particular collections and components, are
persisted and deleted by reachability. Since value objects and primitives are persisted and
deleted along with their containing entity, they cannot be independently versioned. Values
have no independent identity, so they cannot be shared by two entities or collections.

Until now, we have been using the term "persistent class" to refer to entities. We will continue
to do that. Not all user-defined classes with a persistent state, however, are entities. A
component is a user-defined class with value semantics. A Java property of type
java.lang.String also has value semantics. Given this definition, all types (classes)
provided by the JDK have value type semantics in Java, while user-defined types can be
mapped with entity or value type semantics. This decision is up to the application developer.
An entity class in a domain model will normally have shared references to a single instance of
that class, while composition or aggregation usually translates to a value type.
We will revisit both concepts throughout this reference guide.
The challenge is to map the Java type system, and the developers' definition of entities and
value types, to the SQL/database type system. The bridge between both systems is provided
by Hibernate. For entities, <class>, <subclass> and so on are used. For value types we use
<property>, <component>etc., that usually have a type attribute. The value of this attribute
is the name of a Hibernate mapping type. Hibernate provides a range of mappings for standard
JDK value types out of the box. You can write your own mapping types and implement your
own custom conversion strategies.
With the exception of collections, all built-in Hibernate types support null semantics.

5.2.2. Basic value types

The built-in basic mapping types can be roughly categorized into the following:
integer, long, short, float, double, character, byte, boolean, yes_no,
true_false

Type mappings from Java primitives or wrapper classes to appropriate (vendorspecific) SQL column types. boolean, yes_no and true_false are all alternative
encodings for a Java boolean or java.lang.Boolean.
string

A type mapping from java.lang.String to VARCHAR (or Oracle VARCHAR2).

date, time, timestamp

Type mappings from java.util.Date and its subclasses to SQL types DATE, TIME
and TIMESTAMP (or equivalent).
calendar, calendar_date

Type mappings from java.util.Calendar to SQL types TIMESTAMP and DATE (or
equivalent).
big_decimal, big_integer

Type mappings from java.math.BigDecimal and java.math.BigInteger to

NUMERIC (or Oracle NUMBER).

locale, timezone, currency

Type mappings from java.util.Locale, java.util.TimeZone and

java.util.Currency to VARCHAR (or Oracle VARCHAR2). Instances of Locale and
Currency are mapped to their ISO codes. Instances of TimeZone are mapped to their
ID.
class

A type mapping from java.lang.Class to VARCHAR (or Oracle VARCHAR2). A Class

is mapped to its fully qualified name.
binary

Maps byte arrays to an appropriate SQL binary type.

text

Maps long Java strings to a SQL LONGVARCHAR or TEXT type.

image

Maps long byte arrays to a SQL LONGVARBINARY.

serializable

Maps serializable Java types to an appropriate SQL binary type. You can also indicate
the Hibernate type serializable with the name of a serializable Java class or
interface that does not default to a basic type.
clob, blob

Type mappings for the JDBC classes java.sql.Clob and java.sql.Blob. These
types can be inconvenient for some applications, since the blob or clob object cannot
be reused outside of a transaction. Driver support is patchy and inconsistent.
materialized_clob

Maps long Java strings to a SQL CLOB type. When read, the CLOB value is immediately
materialized into a Java string. Some drivers require the CLOB value to be read within a
transaction. Once materialized, the Java string is available outside of the transaction.
materialized_blob

Maps long Java byte arrays to a SQL BLOB type. When read, the BLOB value is
immediately materialized into a byte array. Some drivers require the BLOB value to be
read within a transaction. Once materialized, the byte array is available outside of the
transaction.
imm_date, imm_time, imm_timestamp, imm_calendar, imm_calendar_date,
imm_serializable, imm_binary

Type mappings for what are considered mutable Java types. This is where Hibernate
makes certain optimizations appropriate only for immutable Java types, and the
application treats the object as immutable. For example, you should not call
Date.setTime() for an instance mapped as imm_timestamp. To change the value of
the property, and have that change made persistent, the application must assign a new,
nonidentical, object to the property.
Unique identifiers of entities and collections can be of any basic type except binary, blob
and clob. Composite identifiers are also allowed. See below for more information.
The basic value types have corresponding Type constants defined on
org.hibernate.Hibernate. For example, Hibernate.STRING represents the string type.

5.2.3. Custom value types

It is relatively easy for developers to create their own value types. For example, you might
want to persist properties of type java.lang.BigInteger to VARCHAR columns. Hibernate
does not provide a built-in type for this. Custom types are not limited to mapping a property,
or collection element, to a single table column. So, for example, you might have a Java
property getName()/setName() of type java.lang.String that is persisted to the columns
FIRST_NAME, INITIAL, SURNAME.
To implement a custom type, implement either org.hibernate.UserType or
org.hibernate.CompositeUserType and declare properties using the fully qualified
classname of the type. View org.hibernate.test.DoubleStringType to see the kind of
things that are possible.
<property name="twoStrings" type="org.hibernate.test.DoubleStringType">
<column name="first_string"/>
<column name="second_string"/>
</property>

Notice the use of <column> tags to map a property to multiple columns.

The CompositeUserType, EnhancedUserType, UserCollectionType, and
UserVersionType interfaces provide support for more specialized uses.
You can even supply parameters to a UserType in the mapping file. To do this, your
UserType must implement the org.hibernate.usertype.ParameterizedType interface.
To supply parameters to your custom type, you can use the <type> element in your mapping
files.
<property name="priority">
<type name="com.mycompany.usertypes.DefaultValueIntegerType">
<param name="default">0</param>
</type>
</property>

The UserType can now retrieve the value for the parameter named default from the
Properties object passed to it.

If you regularly use a certain UserType, it is useful to define a shorter name for it. You can do
this using the <typedef> element. Typedefs assign a name to a custom type, and can also
contain a list of default parameter values if the type is parameterized.
<typedef class="com.mycompany.usertypes.DefaultValueIntegerType"
name="default_zero">
<param name="default">0</param>
</typedef>
<property name="priority" type="default_zero"/>

It is also possible to override the parameters supplied in a typedef on a case-by-case basis by

using type parameters on the property mapping.
Even though Hibernate's rich range of built-in types and support for components means you
will rarely need to use a custom type, it is considered good practice to use custom types for
non-entity classes that occur frequently in your application. For example, a MonetaryAmount
class is a good candidate for a CompositeUserType, even though it could be mapped as a
component. One reason for this is abstraction. With a custom type, your mapping documents
would be protected against changes to the way monetary values are represented.

5.3. Mapping a class more than once

It is possible to provide more than one mapping for a particular persistent class. In this case,
you must specify an entity name to disambiguate between instances of the two mapped
entities. By default, the entity name is the same as the class name. Hibernate lets you specify
the entity name when working with persistent objects, when writing queries, or when mapping
associations to the named entity.
<class name="Contract" table="Contracts"
entity-name="CurrentContract">
...
<set name="history" inverse="true"
order-by="effectiveEndDate desc">
<key column="currentContractId"/>
<one-to-many entity-name="HistoricalContract"/>
</set>
</class>
<class name="Contract" table="ContractHistory"
entity-name="HistoricalContract">
...
<many-to-one name="currentContract"
column="currentContractId"
entity-name="CurrentContract"/>
</class>

Associations are now specified using entity-name instead of class.

Note
This feature is not supported in Annotations

5.4. SQL quoted identifiers

You can force Hibernate to quote an identifier in the generated SQL by enclosing the table or
column name in backticks in the mapping document. Hibernate will use the correct quotation
style for the SQL Dialect. This is usually double quotes, but the SQL Server uses brackets
and MySQL uses backticks.
@Entity @Table(name="`Line Item`")
class LineItem {
@id @Column(name="`Item Id`") Integer id;
@Column(name="`Item #`") int itemNumber
}
<class name="LineItem" table="`Line Item`">
<id name="id" column="`Item Id`"/><generator class="assigned"/></id>
<property name="itemNumber" column="`Item #`"/>
...
</class>

5.5. Generated properties

Generated properties are properties that have their values generated by the database.
Typically, Hibernate applications needed to refresh objects that contain any properties for
which the database was generating values. Marking properties as generated, however, lets the
application delegate this responsibility to Hibernate. When Hibernate issues an SQL INSERT
or UPDATE for an entity that has defined generated properties, it immediately issues a select
afterwards to retrieve the generated values.
Properties marked as generated must additionally be non-insertable and non-updateable. Only
versions, timestamps, and simple properties, can be marked as generated.
never

(the default): the given property value is not generated within the database.

insert:

the given property value is generated on insert, but is not regenerated on subsequent
updates. Properties like created-date fall into this category. Even though version and
timestamp properties can be marked as generated, this option is not available.
always:

the property value is generated both on insert and on update.

To mark a property as generated, use @Generated.

5.6. Column transformers: read and write expressions

Hibernate allows you to customize the SQL it uses to read and write the values of columns
mapped to simple properties. For example, if your database provides a set of data encryption
functions, you can invoke them for individual columns like this:
@Entity
class CreditCard {
@Column(name="credit_card_num")
@ColumnTransformer(

read="decrypt(credit_card_num)",
write="encrypt(?)")
public String getCreditCardNumber() { return creditCardNumber; }
public void setCreditCardNumber(String number) { this.creditCardNumber =
number; }
private String creditCardNumber;
}

or in XML
<property name="creditCardNumber">
<column
name="credit_card_num"
read="decrypt(credit_card_num)"
write="encrypt(?)"/>
</property>

Note
You can use the plural form @ColumnTransformers if more than one columns need to define
either of these rules.
If a property uses more that one column, you must use the forColumn attribute to specify
which column, the expressions are targeting.
@Entity
class User {
@Type(type="com.acme.type.CreditCardType")
@Columns( {
@Column(name="credit_card_num"),
@Column(name="exp_date") } )
@ColumnTransformer(
forColumn="credit_card_num",
read="decrypt(credit_card_num)",
write="encrypt(?)")
public CreditCard getCreditCard() { return creditCard; }
public void setCreditCard(CreditCard card) { this.creditCard = card; }
private CreditCard creditCard;
}

Hibernate applies the custom expressions automatically whenever the property is referenced
in a query. This functionality is similar to a derived-property formula with two differences:

The property is backed by one or more columns that are exported as part of automatic
schema generation.
The property is read-write, not read-only.

The write expression, if specified, must contain exactly one '?' placeholder for the value.

5.7. Auxiliary database objects

Auxiliary database objects allow for the CREATE and DROP of arbitrary database objects. In
conjunction with Hibernate's schema evolution tools, they have the ability to fully define a
user schema within the Hibernate mapping files. Although designed specifically for creating

and dropping things like triggers or stored procedures, any SQL command that can be run via
a java.sql.Statement.execute() method is valid (for example, ALTERs, INSERTS, etc.).
There are essentially two modes for defining auxiliary database objects:
The first mode is to explicitly list the CREATE and DROP commands in the mapping file:
<hibernate-mapping>
...
<database-object>
<create>CREATE TRIGGER my_trigger ...</create>
<drop>DROP TRIGGER my_trigger</drop>
</database-object>
</hibernate-mapping>

The second mode is to supply a custom class that constructs the CREATE and DROP
commands. This custom class must implement the
org.hibernate.mapping.AuxiliaryDatabaseObject interface.
<hibernate-mapping>
...
<database-object>
<definition class="MyTriggerDefinition"/>
</database-object>
</hibernate-mapping>

Additionally, these database objects can be optionally scoped so that they only apply when
certain dialects are used.
<hibernate-mapping>
...
<database-object>
<definition class="MyTriggerDefinition"/>
<dialect-scope name="org.hibernate.dialect.Oracle9iDialect"/>
<dialect-scope name="org.hibernate.dialect.Oracle10gDialect"/>
</database-object>
</hibernate-mapping>

Note
This feature is not supported in Annotations

Chapter 6. Types
Table of Contents
6.1. Value types
6.1.1. Basic value types
6.1.2. Composite types
6.1.3. Collection types
6.2. Entity types
6.3. Significance of type categories
6.4. Custom types
6.4.1. Custom types using org.hibernate.type.Type

6.4.2. Custom types using org.hibernate.usertype.UserType

6.4.3. Custom types using org.hibernate.usertype.CompositeUserType
6.5. Type registry
As an Object/Relational Mapping solution, Hibernate deals with both the Java and JDBC
representations of application data. An online catalog application, for example, most likely
has Product object with a number of attributes such as a sku, name, etc. For these individual
attributes, Hibernate must be able to read the values out of the database and write them back.
This 'marshalling' is the function of a Hibernate type, which is an implementation of the
org.hibernate.type.Type interface. In addition, a Hibernate type describes various aspects
of behavior of the Java type such as "how is equality checked?" or "how are values cloned?".

Important
A Hibernate type is neither a Java type nor a SQL datatype; it provides a information about
both.
When you encounter the term type in regards to Hibernate be aware that usage might refer to
the Java type, the SQL/JDBC type or the Hibernate type.
Hibernate categorizes types into two high-level groups: value types (see Section 6.1, Value
types) and entity types (see Section 6.2, Entity types).

6.1. Value types

The main distinguishing characteristic of a value type is the fact that they do not define their
own lifecycle. We say that they are "owned" by something else (specifically an entity, as we
will see later) which defines their lifecycle. Value types are further classified into 3 subcategories: basic types (see Section 6.1.1, Basic value types), composite types (see
Section 6.1.2, Composite types) amd collection types (see Section 6.1.3, Collection
types).

6.1.1. Basic value types

The norm for basic value types is that they map a single database value (column) to a single,
non-aggregated Java type. Hibernate provides a number of built-in basic types, which we will
present in the following sections by the Java type. Mainly these follow the natural mappings
recommended in the JDBC specification. We will later cover how to override these mapping
and how to provide and use alternative type mappings.
6.1.1.1. java.lang.String
org.hibernate.type.StringType

Maps a string to the JDBC VARCHAR type. This is the standard mapping for a string
if no Hibernate type is specified.
Registered under string and java.lang.String in the type registry (see Section 6.5,
Type registry).

org.hibernate.type.MaterializedClob

Maps a string to a JDBC CLOB type

Registered under materialized_clob in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type
registry).
org.hibernate.type.TextType

Maps a string to a JDBC LONGVARCHAR type

Registered under text in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type registry).
6.1.1.2. java.lang.Character (or char primitive)
org.hibernate.type.CharacterType

Maps a char or java.lang.Character to a JDBC CHAR

Registered under char and java.lang.Character in the type registry (see
Section 6.5, Type registry).
6.1.1.3. java.lang.Boolean (or boolean primitive)
org.hibernate.type.BooleanType

Maps a boolean to a JDBC BIT type

Registered under boolean and java.lang.Boolean in the type registry (see
Section 6.5, Type registry).
org.hibernate.type.NumericBooleanType

Maps a boolean to a JDBC INTEGER type as 0 = false, 1 = true

Registered under numeric_boolean in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type
registry).
org.hibernate.type.YesNoType

Maps a boolean to a JDBC CHAR type as ('N' | 'n') = false, ( 'Y' | 'y' ) = true
Registered under yes_no in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type registry).
org.hibernate.type.TrueFalseType

Maps a boolean to a JDBC CHAR type as ('F' | 'f') = false, ( 'T' | 't' ) = true
Registered under true_false in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type registry).
6.1.1.4. java.lang.Byte (or byte primitive)

org.hibernate.type.ByteType

Maps a byte or java.lang.Byte to a JDBC TINYINT

Registered under byte and java.lang.Byte in the type registry (see Section 6.5,
Type registry).
6.1.1.5. java.lang.Short (or short primitive)
org.hibernate.type.ShortType

Maps a short or java.lang.Short to a JDBC SMALLINT

Registered under short and java.lang.Short in the type registry (see Section 6.5,
Type registry).
6.1.1.6. java.lang.Integer (or int primitive)
org.hibernate.type.IntegerTypes

Maps an int or java.lang.Integer to a JDBC INTEGER

Registered under int and java.lang.Integerin the type registry (see Section 6.5,
Type registry).
6.1.1.7. java.lang.Long (or long primitive)
org.hibernate.type.LongType

Maps a long or java.lang.Long to a JDBC BIGINT

Registered under long and java.lang.Long in the type registry (see Section 6.5,
Type registry).
6.1.1.8. java.lang.Float (or float primitive)
org.hibernate.type.FloatType

Maps a float or java.lang.Float to a JDBC FLOAT

Registered under float and java.lang.Float in the type registry (see Section 6.5,
Type registry).
6.1.1.9. java.lang.Double (or double primitive)
org.hibernate.type.DoubleType

Maps a double or java.lang.Double to a JDBC DOUBLE

Registered under double and java.lang.Double in the type registry (see Section 6.5,
Type registry).
6.1.1.10. java.math.BigInteger
org.hibernate.type.BigIntegerType

Maps a java.math.BigInteger to a JDBC NUMERIC

Registered under big_integer and java.math.BigInteger in the type registry (see
Section 6.5, Type registry).
6.1.1.11. java.math.BigDecimal
org.hibernate.type.BigDecimalType

Maps a java.math.BigDecimal to a JDBC NUMERIC

Registered under big_decimal and java.math.BigDecimal in the type registry (see
Section 6.5, Type registry).
6.1.1.12. java.util.Date or java.sql.Timestamp
org.hibernate.type.TimestampType

Maps a java.sql.Timestamp to a JDBC TIMESTAMP

Registered under timestamp, java.sql.Timestamp and java.util.Date in the type
registry (see Section 6.5, Type registry).
6.1.1.13. java.sql.Time
org.hibernate.type.TimeType

Maps a java.sql.Time to a JDBC TIME

Registered under time and java.sql.Time in the type registry (see Section 6.5,
Type registry).
6.1.1.14. java.sql.Date
org.hibernate.type.DateType

Maps a java.sql.Date to a JDBC DATE

Registered under date and java.sql.Date in the type registry (see Section 6.5,
Type registry).
6.1.1.15. java.util.Calendar

org.hibernate.type.CalendarType

Maps a java.util.Calendar to a JDBC TIMESTAMP

Registered under calendar, java.util.Calendar and
java.util.GregorianCalendar in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type
registry).
org.hibernate.type.CalendarDateType

Maps a java.util.Calendar to a JDBC DATE

Registered under calendar_date in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type
registry).
6.1.1.16. java.util.Currency
org.hibernate.type.CurrencyType

Maps a java.util.Currency to a JDBC VARCHAR (using the Currency code)

Registered under currency and java.util.Currency in the type registry (see
Section 6.5, Type registry).
6.1.1.17. java.util.Locale
org.hibernate.type.LocaleType

Maps a java.util.Locale to a JDBC VARCHAR (using the Locale code)

Registered under locale and java.util.Locale in the type registry (see Section 6.5,
Type registry).
6.1.1.18. java.util.TimeZone
org.hibernate.type.TimeZoneType

Maps a java.util.TimeZone to a JDBC VARCHAR (using the TimeZone ID)

Registered under timezone and java.util.TimeZone in the type registry (see
Section 6.5, Type registry).
6.1.1.19. java.net.URL
org.hibernate.type.UrlType

Maps a java.net.URL to a JDBC VARCHAR (using the external form)

Registered under url and java.net.URL in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type
registry).

6.1.1.20. java.lang.Class
org.hibernate.type.ClassType

Maps a java.lang.Class to a JDBC VARCHAR (using the Class name)

Registered under class and java.lang.Class in the type registry (see Section 6.5,
Type registry).
6.1.1.21. java.sql.Blob
org.hibernate.type.BlobType

Maps a java.sql.Blob to a JDBC BLOB

Registered under blob and java.sql.Blob in the type registry (see Section 6.5,
Type registry).
6.1.1.22. java.sql.Clob
org.hibernate.type.ClobType

Maps a java.sql.Clob to a JDBC CLOB

Registered under clob and java.sql.Clob in the type registry (see Section 6.5,
Type registry).
6.1.1.23. byte[]
org.hibernate.type.BinaryType

Maps a primitive byte[] to a JDBC VARBINARY

Registered under binary and byte[] in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type
registry).
org.hibernate.type.MaterializedBlobType

Maps a primitive byte[] to a JDBC BLOB

Registered under materialized_blob in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type
registry).
org.hibernate.type.ImageType

Maps a primitive byte[] to a JDBC LONGVARBINARY

Registered under image in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type registry).
6.1.1.24. Byte[]

org.hibernate.type.BinaryType

Maps a java.lang.Byte[] to a JDBC VARBINARY

Registered under wrapper-binary, Byte[] and java.lang.Byte[] in the type
registry (see Section 6.5, Type registry).
6.1.1.25. char[]
org.hibernate.type.CharArrayType

Maps a char[] to a JDBC VARCHAR

Registered under characters and char[] in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type
registry).
6.1.1.26. Character[]
org.hibernate.type.CharacterArrayType

Maps a java.lang.Character[] to a JDBC VARCHAR

Registered under wrapper-characters, Character[] and java.lang.Character[]
in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type registry).
6.1.1.27. java.util.UUID
org.hibernate.type.UUIDBinaryType

Maps a java.util.UUID to a JDBC BINARY

Registered under uuid-binary and java.util.UUID in the type registry (see
Section 6.5, Type registry).
org.hibernate.type.UUIDCharType

Maps a java.util.UUID to a JDBC CHAR (though VARCHAR is fine too for existing
schemas)
Registered under uuid-char in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type registry).
org.hibernate.type.PostgresUUIDType

Maps a java.util.UUID to the PostgreSQL UUID data type (through Types#OTHER

which is how the PostgreSQL JDBC driver defines it).
Registered under pg-uuid in the type registry (see Section 6.5, Type registry).
6.1.1.28. java.io.Serializable
org.hibernate.type.SerializableType

Maps implementors of java.lang.Serializable to a JDBC VARBINARY

Unlike the other value types, there are multiple instances of this type. It gets registered
once under java.io.Serializable. Additionally it gets registered under the specific
java.io.Serializable implementation class names.

6.1.2. Composite types

Note
The Java Persistence API calls these embedded types, while Hibernate traditionally called
them components. Just be aware that both terms are used and mean the same thing in the
scope of discussing Hibernate.
Components represent aggregations of values into a single Java type. For example, you might
have an Address class that aggregates street, city, state, etc information or a Name class that
aggregates the parts of a person's Name. In many ways a component looks exactly like an
entity. They are both (generally speaking) classes written specifically for the application.
They both might have references to other application-specific classes, as well as to collections
and simple JDK types. As discussed before, the only distinguishing factory is the fact that a
component does not own its own lifecycle nor does it define an identifier.

6.1.3. Collection types

Important
It is critical understand that we mean the collection itself, not its contents. The contents of the
collection can in turn be basic, component or entity types (though not collections), but the
collection itself is owned.
Collections are covered in Chapter 7, Collection mapping.

6.2. Entity types

The definition of entities is covered in detail in Chapter 4, Persistent Classes. For the purpose
of this discussion, it is enough to say that entities are (generally application-specific) classes
which correlate to rows in a table. Specifically they correlate to the row by means of a unique
identifier. Because of this unique identifier, entities exist independently and define their own
lifecycle. As an example, when we delete a Membership, both the User and Group entities
remain.

Note
This notion of entity independence can be modified by the application developer using the
concept of cascades. Cascades allow certain operations to continue (or "cascade") across an
association from one entity to another. Cascades are covered in detail in Chapter 8,
Association Mappings.

6.3. Significance of type categories

Why do we spend so much time categorizing the various types of types? What is the
significance of the distinction?
The main categorization was between entity types and value types. To review we said that
entities, by nature of their unique identifier, exist independently of other objects whereas
values do not. An application cannot "delete" a Product sku; instead, the sku is removed when
the Product itself is deleted (obviously you can update the sku of that Product to null to make
it "go away", but even there the access is done through the Product).
Nor can you define an association to that Product sku. You can define an association to
Product based on its sku, assuming sku is unique, but that is totally different.
TBC...

6.4. Custom types

Hibernate makes it relatively easy for developers to create their own value types. For
example, you might want to persist properties of type java.lang.BigInteger to VARCHAR
columns. Custom types are not limited to mapping values to a single table column. So, for
example, you might want to concatenate together FIRST_NAME, INITIAL and SURNAME
columns into a java.lang.String.
There are 3 approaches to developing a custom Hibernate type. As a means of illustrating the
different approaches, lets consider a use case where we need to compose a
java.math.BigDecimal and java.util.Currency together into a custom Money class.

6.4.1. Custom types using org.hibernate.type.Type

The first approach is to directly implement the org.hibernate.type.Type interface (or one
of its derivatives). Probably, you will be more interested in the more specific
org.hibernate.type.BasicType contract which would allow registration of the type (see
Section 6.5, Type registry). The benefit of this registration is that whenever the metadata for
a particular property does not specify the Hibernate type to use, Hibernate will consult the
registry for the exposed property type. In our example, the property type would be Money,
which is the key we would use to register our type in the registry:
Example 6.1. Defining and registering the custom Type
public class MoneyType implements BasicType {
public String[] getRegistrationKeys() {
return new String[] { Money.class.getName() };
}
public int[] sqlTypes(Mapping mapping) {
// We will simply use delegation to the standard basic types
for BigDecimal and Currency for many of the
// Type methods...
return new int[] {
BigDecimalType.INSTANCE.sqlType(),

CurrencyType.INSTANCE.sqlType(),
};
// we could also have honored any registry overrides via...
//return new int[] {
//
mappings.getTypeResolver().basic(
BigDecimal.class.getName() ).sqlTypes( mappings )[0],
//
mappings.getTypeResolver().basic(
Currency.class.getName() ).sqlTypes( mappings )[0]
//};
}
public Class getReturnedClass() {
return Money.class;
}
public Object nullSafeGet(ResultSet rs, String[] names,
SessionImplementor session, Object owner) throws SQLException {
assert names.length == 2;
BigDecimal amount = BigDecimalType.INSTANCE.get( names[0] ); //
already handles null check
Currency currency = CurrencyType.INSTANCE.get( names[1] ); //
already handles null check
return amount == null && currency == null
? null
: new Money( amount, currency );
}
public void nullSafeSet(PreparedStatement st, Object value, int index,
boolean[] settable, SessionImplementor session)
throws SQLException {
if ( value == null ) {
BigDecimalType.INSTANCE.set( st, null, index );
CurrencyType.INSTANCE.set( st, null, index+1 );
}
else {
final Money money = (Money) value;
BigDecimalType.INSTANCE.set( st, money.getAmount(), index );
CurrencyType.INSTANCE.set( st, money.getCurrency(), index+1 );
}
}
...
}
Configuration cfg = new Configuration();
cfg.registerTypeOverride( new MoneyType() );
cfg...;

Important
It is important that we registered the type before adding mappings.

6.4.2. Custom types using org.hibernate.usertype.UserType

Note

Both org.hibernate.usertype.UserType and

org.hibernate.usertype.CompositeUserType were originally added
from internal changes to the org.hibernate.type.Type interfaces.

to isolate user code

The second approach is the use the org.hibernate.usertype.UserType interface, which

presents a somewhat simplified view of the org.hibernate.type.Type interface. Using a
org.hibernate.usertype.UserType, our Money custom type would look as follows:
Example 6.2. Defining the custom UserType
public class MoneyType implements UserType {
public int[] sqlTypes() {
return new int[] {
BigDecimalType.INSTANCE.sqlType(),
CurrencyType.INSTANCE.sqlType(),
};
}
public Class getReturnedClass() {
return Money.class;
}
public Object nullSafeGet(ResultSet rs, String[] names, Object owner)
throws SQLException {
assert names.length == 2;
BigDecimal amount = BigDecimalType.INSTANCE.get( names[0] ); //
already handles null check
Currency currency = CurrencyType.INSTANCE.get( names[1] ); //
already handles null check
return amount == null && currency == null
? null
: new Money( amount, currency );
}
public void nullSafeSet(PreparedStatement st, Object value, int index)
throws SQLException {
if ( value == null ) {
BigDecimalType.INSTANCE.set( st, null, index );
CurrencyType.INSTANCE.set( st, null, index+1 );
}
else {
final Money money = (Money) value;
BigDecimalType.INSTANCE.set( st, money.getAmount(), index );
CurrencyType.INSTANCE.set( st, money.getCurrency(), index+1 );
}
}
...
}

There is not much difference between the org.hibernate.type.Type example and the
org.hibernate.usertype.UserType example, but that is only because of the snippets
shown. If you choose the org.hibernate.type.Type approach there are quite a few more
methods you would need to implement as compared to the
org.hibernate.usertype.UserType.

6.4.3. Custom types using org.hibernate.usertype.CompositeUserType

The third and final approach is the use the org.hibernate.usertype.CompositeUserType
interface, which differs from org.hibernate.usertype.UserType in that it gives us the
ability to provide Hibernate the information to handle the composition within the Money class
(specifically the 2 attributes). This would give us the capability, for example, to reference the
amount attribute in an HQL query. Using a org.hibernate.usertype.CompositeUserType,
our Money custom type would look as follows:
Example 6.3. Defining the custom CompositeUserType
public class MoneyType implements CompositeUserType {
public String[] getPropertyNames() {
// ORDER IS IMPORTANT! it must match the order the columns are
defined in the property mapping
return new String[] { "amount", "currency" };
}
public Type[] getPropertyTypes() {
return new Type[] { BigDecimalType.INSTANCE, CurrencyType.INSTANCE
};
}
public Class getReturnedClass() {
return Money.class;
}
public Object getPropertyValue(Object component, int propertyIndex) {
if ( component == null ) {
return null;
}
final Money money = (Money) component;
switch ( propertyIndex ) {
case 0: {
return money.getAmount();
}
case 1: {
return money.getCurrency();
}
default: {
throw new HibernateException( "Invalid property index [" +
propertyIndex + "]" );
}
}
}
public void setPropertyValue(Object component, int propertyIndex,
Object value) throws HibernateException {
if ( component == null ) {
return;
}
final Money money = (Money) component;
switch ( propertyIndex ) {
case 0: {
money.setAmount( (BigDecimal) value );
break;
}

case 1: {
money.setCurrency( (Currency) value );
break;
}
default: {
throw new HibernateException( "Invalid property index [" +
propertyIndex + "]" );
}
}
}
public Object nullSafeGet(ResultSet rs, String[] names,
SessionImplementor session, Object owner) throws SQLException {
assert names.length == 2;
BigDecimal amount = BigDecimalType.INSTANCE.get( names[0] ); //
already handles null check
Currency currency = CurrencyType.INSTANCE.get( names[1] ); //
already handles null check
return amount == null && currency == null
? null
: new Money( amount, currency );
}
public void nullSafeSet(PreparedStatement st, Object value, int index,
SessionImplementor session) throws SQLException {
if ( value == null ) {
BigDecimalType.INSTANCE.set( st, null, index );
CurrencyType.INSTANCE.set( st, null, index+1 );
}
else {
final Money money = (Money) value;
BigDecimalType.INSTANCE.set( st, money.getAmount(), index );
CurrencyType.INSTANCE.set( st, money.getCurrency(), index+1 );
}
}
...
}

6.5. Type registry

Internally Hibernate uses a registry of basic types (see Section 6.1.1, Basic value types)
when it needs to resolve the specific org.hibernate.type.Type to use in certain situations.
It also provides a way for applications to add extra basic type registrations as well as override
the standard basic type registrations.
To register a new type or to override an existing type registration, applications would make
use of the registerTypeOverride method of the org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration
class when bootstrapping Hibernate. For example, lets say you want Hibernate to use your
custom SuperDuperStringType; during bootstrap you would call:
Example 6.4. Overriding the standard StringType
Configuration cfg = ...;
cfg.registerTypeOverride( new SuperDuperStringType() );

The argument to registerTypeOverride is a org.hibernate.type.BasicType which is a

specialization of the org.hibernate.type.Type we saw before. It adds a single method:
Example 6.5. Snippet from BasicType.java
/**
* Get the names under which this type should be registered in the
type registry.
*
* @return The keys under which to register this type.
*/
public String[] getRegistrationKeys();

One approach is to use inheritance (SuperDuperStringType extends

org.hibernate.type.StringType); another is to use delegation.

Chapter 7. Collection mapping

Table of Contents
7.1. Persistent collections
7.2. How to map collections
7.2.1. Collection foreign keys
7.2.2. Indexed collections
7.2.3. Collections of basic types and embeddable objects
7.3. Advanced collection mappings
7.3.1. Sorted collections
7.3.2. Bidirectional associations
7.3.3. Bidirectional associations with indexed collections
7.3.4. Ternary associations
7.3.5. Using an <idbag>
7.4. Collection examples

7.1. Persistent collections

Naturally Hibernate also allows to persist collections. These persistent collections can contain
almost any other Hibernate type, including: basic types, custom types, components and
references to other entities. The distinction between value and reference semantics is in this
context very important. An object in a collection might be handled with "value" semantics (its
life cycle fully depends on the collection owner), or it might be a reference to another entity
with its own life cycle. In the latter case, only the "link" between the two objects is considered
to be a state held by the collection.
As a requirement persistent collection-valued fields must be declared as an interface type (see
Example 7.2, Collection mapping using @OneToMany and @JoinColumn). The actual
interface might be java.util.Set, java.util.Collection, java.util.List,
java.util.Map, java.util.SortedSet, java.util.SortedMap or anything you like

("anything you like" means you will have to write an implementation of

org.hibernate.usertype.UserCollectionType).
Notice how in Example 7.2, Collection mapping using @OneToMany and @JoinColumn
the instance variable parts was initialized with an instance of HashSet. This is the best way
to initialize collection valued properties of newly instantiated (non-persistent) instances.
When you make the instance persistent, by calling persist(), Hibernate will actually replace
the HashSet with an instance of Hibernate's own implementation of Set. Be aware of the
following error:
Example 7.1. Hibernate uses its own collection implementations
Cat cat = new DomesticCat();
Cat kitten = new DomesticCat();
....
Set kittens = new HashSet();
kittens.add(kitten);
cat.setKittens(kittens);
session.persist(cat);
kittens = cat.getKittens(); // Okay, kittens collection is a Set
(HashSet) cat.getKittens(); // Error!

The persistent collections injected by Hibernate behave like HashMap, HashSet, TreeMap,
TreeSet or ArrayList, depending on the interface type.
Collections instances have the usual behavior of value types. They are automatically persisted
when referenced by a persistent object and are automatically deleted when unreferenced. If a
collection is passed from one persistent object to another, its elements might be moved from
one table to another. Two entities cannot share a reference to the same collection instance.
Due to the underlying relational model, collection-valued properties do not support null value
semantics. Hibernate does not distinguish between a null collection reference and an empty
collection.

Note
Use persistent collections the same way you use ordinary Java collections. However, ensure
you understand the semantics of bidirectional associations (see Section 7.3.2, Bidirectional
associations).

7.2. How to map collections

Using annotations you can map Collections, Lists, Maps and Sets of associated entities
using @OneToMany and @ManyToMany. For collections of a basic or embeddable type use
@ElementCollection. In the simplest case a collection mapping looks like this:
Example 7.2. Collection mapping using @OneToMany and @JoinColumn
@Entity
public class Product {

private String serialNumber;

private Set<Part> parts = new HashSet<Part>();
@Id
public String getSerialNumber() { return serialNumber; }
void setSerialNumber(String sn) { serialNumber = sn; }
@OneToMany
@JoinColumn(name="PART_ID")
public Set<Part> getParts() { return parts; }
void setParts(Set parts) { this.parts = parts; }
}
@Entity
public class Part {
...
}

Product describes a unidirectional relationship with Part using the join column PART_ID. In
this unidirectional one to many scenario you can also use a join table as seen in Example 7.3,
Collection mapping using @OneToMany and @JoinTable.
Example 7.3. Collection mapping using @OneToMany and @JoinTable
@Entity
public class Product {
private String serialNumber;
private Set<Part> parts = new HashSet<Part>();
@Id
public String getSerialNumber() { return serialNumber; }
void setSerialNumber(String sn) { serialNumber = sn; }
@OneToMany
@JoinTable(
name="PRODUCT_PARTS",
joinColumns = @JoinColumn( name="PRODUCT_ID"),
inverseJoinColumns = @JoinColumn( name="PART_ID")
)
public Set<Part> getParts() { return parts; }
void setParts(Set parts) { this.parts = parts; }
}
@Entity
public class Part {
...
}

Without describing any physical mapping (no @JoinColumn or @JoinTable), a unidirectional

one to many with join table is used. The table name is the concatenation of the owner table
name, _, and the other side table name. The foreign key name(s) referencing the owner table
is the concatenation of the owner table, _, and the owner primary key column(s) name. The

foreign key name(s) referencing the other side is the concatenation of the owner property
name, _, and the other side primary key column(s) name. A unique constraint is added to the
foreign key referencing the other side table to reflect the one to many.
Lets have a look now how collections are mapped using Hibernate mapping files. In this case
the first step is to chose the right mapping element. It depends on the type of interface. For
example, a <set> element is used for mapping properties of type Set.
Example 7.4. Mapping a Set using <set>
<class name="Product">
<id name="serialNumber" column="productSerialNumber"/>
<set name="parts">
<key column="productSerialNumber" not-null="true"/>
<one-to-many class="Part"/>
</set>
</class>

In Example 7.4, Mapping a Set using <set> a one-to-many association links the Product
and Part entities. This association requires the existence of a foreign key column and
possibly an index column to the Part table. This mapping loses certain semantics of normal
Java collections:
An instance of the contained entity class cannot belong to more than one instance of
the collection.
An instance of the contained entity class cannot appear at more than one value of the
collection index.

Looking closer at the used <one-to-many> tag we see that it has the following options.
Example 7.5. options of <one-to-many> element
<one-to-many
class="ClassName"
not-found="ignore|exception"
entity-name="EntityName"
node="element-name"
embed-xml="true|false"
/>
class

(required): the name of the associated class.

(optional - defaults to exception): specifies how cached identifiers that

reference missing rows will be handled. ignore will treat a missing row as a null
association.
entity-name (optional): the entity name of the associated class, as an alternative to
class.
not-found

The <one-to-many> element does not need to declare any columns. Nor is it necessary to
specify the table name anywhere.

Warning
If the foreign key column of a <one-to-many> association is declared NOT NULL, you must
declare the <key> mapping not-null="true" or use a bidirectional association with the
collection mapping marked inverse="true". See Section 7.3.2, Bidirectional associations.
Apart from the <set> tag as shown in Example 7.4, Mapping a Set using <set>, there is
also <list>, <map>, <bag>, <array> and <primitive-array> mapping elements. The <map>
element is representative:
Example 7.6. Elements of the <map> mapping
<map
name="propertyName"
table="table_name"
schema="schema_name"
lazy="true|extra|false"
inverse="true|false"
cascade="all|none|save-update|delete|all-delete-orphan|
orphan"
sort="unsorted|natural|comparatorClass"
order-by="column_name asc|desc"
where="arbitrary sql where condition"
fetch="join|select|subselect"
batch-size="N"
access="field|property|ClassName"
optimistic-lock="true|false"
mutable="true|false"
node="element-name|."
embed-xml="true|false"
>
<key .... />
<map-key .... />
<element .... />

delete-

</map>
name:

the collection property name

(optional - defaults to property name): the name of the collection table. It is not
used for one-to-many associations.
schema (optional): the name of a table schema to override the schema declared on the
root element
lazy (optional - defaults to true): disables lazy fetching and specifies that the
association is always eagerly fetched. It can also be used to enable "extra-lazy" fetching
where most operations do not initialize the collection. This is suitable for large
collections.
inverse (optional - defaults to false): marks this collection as the "inverse" end of a
bidirectional association.
cascade (optional - defaults to none): enables operations to cascade to child entities.
table

(optional): specifies a sorted collection with natural sort order or a given

comparator class.
order-by (optional): specifies a table column or columns that define the iteration order
of the Map, Set or bag, together with an optional asc or desc.
where (optional): specifies an arbitrary SQL WHERE condition that is used when
retrieving or removing the collection. This is useful if the collection needs to contain
only a subset of the available data.
fetch (optional, defaults to select): chooses between outer-join fetching, fetching by
sequential select, and fetching by sequential subselect.
batch-size (optional, defaults to 1): specifies a "batch size" for lazily fetching
instances of this collection.
access (optional - defaults to property): the strategy Hibernate uses for accessing the
collection property value.
optimistic-lock (optional - defaults to true): specifies that changes to the state of the
collection results in increments of the owning entity's version. For one-to-many
associations you may want to disable this setting.
mutable (optional - defaults to true): a value of false specifies that the elements of the
collection never change. This allows for minor performance optimization in some cases.
sort

After exploring the basic mapping of collections in the preceding paragraphs we will now
focus details like physical mapping considerations, indexed collections and collections of
value types.

7.2.1. Collection foreign keys

On the database level collection instances are distinguished by the foreign key of the entity
that owns the collection. This foreign key is referred to as the collection key column, or
columns, of the collection table. The collection key column is mapped by the @JoinColumn
annotation respectively the <key> XML element.

There can be a nullability constraint on the foreign key column. For most collections, this is
implied. For unidirectional one-to-many associations, the foreign key column is nullable by
default, so you may need to specify
@JoinColumn(nullable=false)

or
<key column="productSerialNumber" not-null="true"/>

The foreign key constraint can use ON DELETE CASCADE. In XML this can be expressed via:
<key column="productSerialNumber" on-delete="cascade"/>

In annotations the Hibernate specific annotation @OnDelete has to be used.

@OnDelete(action=OnDeleteAction.CASCADE)

See Section 5.1.11.3, Key for more information about the <key> element.

7.2.2. Indexed collections

In the following paragraphs we have a closer look at the indexed collections List and Map
how the their index can be mapped in Hibernate.
7.2.2.1. Lists
Lists can be mapped in two different ways:

as ordered lists, where the order is not materialized in the database

as indexed lists, where the order is materialized in the database

To order lists in memory, add @javax.persistence.OrderBy to your property. This

annotation takes as parameter a list of comma separated properties (of the target entity) and
orders the collection accordingly (eg firstname asc, age desc, weight asc nulls
last), if the string is empty, the collection will be ordered by the primary key of the target
entity.
Example 7.7. Ordered lists using @OrderBy
@Entity
public class Customer {
@Id @GeneratedValue public Integer getId() { return id; }
public void setId(Integer id) { this.id = id; }
private Integer id;
@OneToMany(mappedBy="customer")
@OrderBy("number")
public List<Order> getOrders() { return orders; }
public void setOrders(List<Order> orders) { this.orders = orders; }
private List<Order> orders;
}

@Entity
public class Order {
@Id @GeneratedValue public Integer getId() { return id; }
public void setId(Integer id) { this.id = id; }
private Integer id;
public String getNumber() { return number; }
public void setNumber(String number) { this.number = number; }
private String number;
@ManyToOne
public Customer getCustomer() { return customer; }
public void setCustomer(Customer customer) { this.customer = customer; }
private Customer number;
}
-- Table schema
|-------------|
| Order
|
|-------------|
| id
|
| number
|
| customer_id |
|-------------|

|----------|
| Customer |
|----------|
| id
|
|----------|

To store the index value in a dedicated column, use the @javax.persistence.OrderColumn

annotation on your property. This annotations describes the column name and attributes of the
column keeping the index value. This column is hosted on the table containing the association
foreign key. If the column name is not specified, the default is the name of the referencing
property, followed by underscore, followed by ORDER (in the following example, it would be
orders_ORDER).
Example 7.8. Explicit index column using @OrderColumn
@Entity
public class Customer {
@Id @GeneratedValue public Integer getId() { return id; }
public void setId(Integer id) { this.id = id; }
private Integer id;
@OneToMany(mappedBy="customer")
@OrderColumn(name="orders_index")
public List<Order> getOrders() { return orders; }
public void setOrders(List<Order> orders) { this.orders = orders; }
private List<Order> orders;
}
@Entity
public class Order {
@Id @GeneratedValue public Integer getId() { return id; }
public void setId(Integer id) { this.id = id; }
private Integer id;
public String getNumber() { return number; }
public void setNumber(String number) { this.number = number; }
private String number;
@ManyToOne

public Customer getCustomer() { return customer; }

public void setCustomer(Customer customer) { this.customer = customer; }
private Customer number;
}
-- Table schema
|--------------|
| Order
|
|--------------|
| id
|
| number
|
| customer_id |
| orders_order |
|--------------|

|----------|
| Customer |
|----------|
| id
|
|----------|

Note
We recommend you to convert the legacy @org.hibernate.annotations.IndexColumn
usages to the JPA standard @javax.persistence.OrderColumn.
If you are leveraging a custom list index base (maybe currently using the
org.hibernate.annotations.IndexColumn.literal attribute), you can specify this using
the @org.hibernate.annotations.ListIndexBase in conjunction with
@javax.persistence.OrderColumn. The default base is 0 like in Java.
Looking again at the Hibernate mapping file equivalent, the index of an array or list is always
of type integer and is mapped using the <list-index> element. The mapped column
contains sequential integers that are numbered from zero by default.
Example 7.9. index-list element for indexed collections in xml mapping
<list-index
column="column_name"
base="0|1|..."/>
column_name

(required): the name of the column holding the collection index values.

(optional - defaults to 0): the value of the index column that corresponds to the
first element of the list or array.
base

If your table does not have an index column, and you still wish to use List as the property
type, you can map the property as a Hibernate <bag>. A bag does not retain its order when it
is retrieved from the database, but it can be optionally sorted or ordered.
7.2.2.2. Maps
The question with Maps is where the key value is stored. There are several options. Maps can
borrow their keys from one of the associated entity properties or have dedicated columns to
store an explicit key.

To use one of the target entity property as a key of the map, use
@MapKey(name="myProperty"), where myProperty is a property name in the target entity.
When using @MapKey without the name attribute, the target entity primary key is used. The
map key uses the same column as the property pointed out. There is no additional column
defined to hold the map key, because the map key represent a target property. Be aware that
once loaded, the key is no longer kept in sync with the property. In other words, if you change
the property value, the key will not change automatically in your Java model.
Example 7.10. Use of target entity property as map key via @MapKey
@Entity
public class Customer {
@Id @GeneratedValue public Integer getId() { return id; }
public void setId(Integer id) { this.id = id; }
private Integer id;
@OneToMany(mappedBy="customer")
@MapKey(name="number")
public Map<String,Order> getOrders() { return orders; }
public void setOrders(Map<String,Order> order) { this.orders = orders; }
private Map<String,Order> orders;
}
@Entity
public class Order {
@Id @GeneratedValue public Integer getId() { return id; }
public void setId(Integer id) { this.id = id; }
private Integer id;
public String getNumber() { return number; }
public void setNumber(String number) { this.number = number; }
private String number;
@ManyToOne
public Customer getCustomer() { return customer; }
public void setCustomer(Customer customer) { this.customer = customer; }
private Customer number;
}
-- Table schema
|-------------|
| Order
|
|-------------|
| id
|
| number
|
| customer_id |
|-------------|

|----------|
| Customer |
|----------|
| id
|
|----------|

Alternatively the map key is mapped to a dedicated column or columns. In order to customize
the mapping use one of the following annotations:

@MapKeyColumn if the map key is a basic type. If you don't specify the column name,
the name of the property followed by underscore followed by KEY is used (for example
orders_KEY).
@MapKeyEnumerated / @MapKeyTemporal if the map key type is respectively an enum
or a Date.

@MapKeyJoinColumn/@MapKeyJoinColumns if the map key type is another entity.

@AttributeOverride/@AttributeOverrides when the map key is a embeddable
object. Use key. as a prefix for your embeddable object property names.

You can also use @MapKeyClass to define the type of the key if you don't use generics.
Example 7.11. Map key as basic type using @MapKeyColumn
@Entity
public class Customer {
@Id @GeneratedValue public Integer getId() { return id; }
public void setId(Integer id) { this.id = id; }
private Integer id;
@OneToMany @JoinTable(name="Cust_Order")
@MapKeyColumn(name="orders_number")
public Map<String,Order> getOrders() { return orders; }
public void setOrders(Map<String,Order> orders) { this.orders = orders;
}
private Map<String,Order> orders;
}
@Entity
public class Order {
@Id @GeneratedValue public Integer getId() { return id; }
public void setId(Integer id) { this.id = id; }
private Integer id;
public String getNumber() { return number; }
public void setNumber(String number) { this.number = number; }
private String number;
@ManyToOne
public Customer getCustomer() { return customer; }
public void setCustomer(Customer customer) { this.customer = customer; }
private Customer number;
}
-- Table schema
|-------------|
| Order
|
|-------------|
| id
|
| number
|
| customer_id |
|-------------|

|----------|
| Customer |
|----------|
| id
|
|----------|

|---------------|
| Cust_Order
|
|---------------|
| customer_id
|
| order_id
|
| orders_number |
|---------------|

Note
We recommend you to migrate from @org.hibernate.annotations.MapKey /
@org.hibernate.annotation.MapKeyManyToMany to the new standard approach described
above
Using Hibernate mapping files there exists equivalent concepts to the descibed annotations.
You have to use <map-key>, <map-key-many-to-many> and <composite-map-key>. <map-

key> is used for any basic type, <map-key-many-to-many>

<composite-map-key> for a composite type.

for an entity reference and

Example 7.12. map-key xml mapping element

<map-key
column="column_name"
formula="any SQL expression"
type="type_name"
node="@attribute-name"
length="N"/>
column

(optional): the name of the column holding the collection index values.

formula
type

(optional): a SQL formula used to evaluate the key of the map.

(required): the type of the map keys.

Example 7.13. map-key-many-to-many

<map-key-many-to-many
column="column_name"
formula="any SQL expression"
class="ClassName"
/>
column

(optional): the name of the foreign key column for the collection index values.

formula
class

(optional): a SQ formula used to evaluate the foreign key of the map key.

(required): the entity class used as the map key.

7.2.3. Collections of basic types and embeddable objects

In some situations you don't need to associate two entities but simply create a collection of
basic types or embeddable objects. Use the @ElementCollection for this case.
Example 7.14. Collection of basic types mapped via @ElementCollection
@Entity
public class User {
[...]
public String getLastname() { ...}
@ElementCollection

@CollectionTable(name="Nicknames", joinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="user_id
"))
@Column(name="nickname")
public Set<String> getNicknames() { ... }
}

The collection table holding the collection data is set using the @CollectionTable
annotation. If omitted the collection table name defaults to the concatenation of the name of
the containing entity and the name of the collection attribute, separated by an underscore. In
our example, it would be User_nicknames.
The column holding the basic type is set using the @Column annotation. If omitted, the column
name defaults to the property name: in our example, it would be nicknames.
But you are not limited to basic types, the collection type can be any embeddable object. To
override the columns of the embeddable object in the collection table, use the
@AttributeOverride annotation.
Example 7.15. @ElementCollection for embeddable objects
@Entity
public class User {
[...]
public String getLastname() { ...}
@ElementCollection
@CollectionTable(name="Addresses", joinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="user_id
"))
@AttributeOverrides({
@AttributeOverride(name="street1", column=@Column(name="fld_street"))
})
public Set<Address> getAddresses() { ... }
}
@Embeddable
public class Address {
public String getStreet1() {...}
[...]
}

Such an embeddable object cannot contains a collection itself.

Note
in @AttributeOverride, you must use the value. prefix to override properties of the
embeddable object used in the map value and the key. prefix to override properties of the
embeddable object used in the map key.
@Entity
public class User {
@ElementCollection
@AttributeOverrides({

@AttributeOverride(name="key.street1", column=@Column(name="fld_stree
t")),
@AttributeOverride(name="value.stars", column=@Column(name="fld_note"
))
})
public Map<Address,Rating> getFavHomes() { ... }

Note
We recommend you to migrate from
@org.hibernate.annotations.CollectionOfElements

to the new @ElementCollection

annotation.
Using the mapping file approach a collection of values is mapped using the <element> tag.
For example:
Example 7.16. <element> tag for collection values using mapping files
<element
column="column_name"
formula="any SQL expression"
type="typename"
length="L"
precision="P"
scale="S"
not-null="true|false"
unique="true|false"
node="element-name"
/>
column

(optional): the name of the column holding the collection element values.

formula
type

(optional): an SQL formula used to evaluate the element.

(required): the type of the collection element.

7.3. Advanced collection mappings

7.3.1. Sorted collections
Hibernate supports collections implementing java.util.SortedMap and
java.util.SortedSet. With annotations you declare a sort comparator using @Sort. You
chose between the comparator types unsorted, natural or custom. If you want to use your own
comparator implementation, you'll also have to specify the implementation class using the
comparator attribute. Note that you need to use either a SortedSet or a SortedMap interface.
Example 7.17. Sorted collection with @Sort

@OneToMany(cascade=CascadeType.ALL, fetch=FetchType.EAGER)
@JoinColumn(name="CUST_ID")
@Sort(type = SortType.COMPARATOR, comparator = TicketComparator.class)
public SortedSet<Ticket> getTickets() {
return tickets;
}

Using Hibernate mapping files you specify a comparator in the mapping file with <sort>:
Example 7.18. Sorted collection using xml mapping
<set name="aliases"
table="person_aliases"
sort="natural">
<key column="person"/>
<element column="name" type="string"/>
</set>
<map name="holidays" sort="my.custom.HolidayComparator">
<key column="year_id"/>
<map-key column="hol_name" type="string"/>
<element column="hol_date" type="date"/>
</map>

Allowed values of the sort attribute are unsorted, natural and the name of a class
implementing java.util.Comparator.

Tip
Sorted collections actually behave like java.util.TreeSet or java.util.TreeMap.
If you want the database itself to order the collection elements, use the order-by attribute of
set, bag or map mappings. This solution is implemented using LinkedHashSet or
LinkedHashMap and performs the ordering in the SQL query and not in the memory.
Example 7.19. Sorting in database using order-by
<set name="aliases" table="person_aliases" order-by="lower(name) asc">
<key column="person"/>
<element column="name" type="string"/>
</set>
<map name="holidays" order-by="hol_date, hol_name">
<key column="year_id"/>
<map-key column="hol_name" type="string"/>
<element column="hol_date type="date"/>
</map>

Note
The value of the order-by attribute is an SQL ordering, not an HQL ordering.

Associations can even be sorted by arbitrary criteria at runtime using a collection filter():
Example 7.20. Sorting via a query filter
sortedUsers = s.createFilter( group.getUsers(), "order by this.name"
).list();

7.3.2. Bidirectional associations

A bidirectional association allows navigation from both "ends" of the association. Two kinds
of bidirectional association are supported:
one-to-many
set or bag valued at one end and single-valued at the other
many-to-many
set or bag valued at both ends
Often there exists a many to one association which is the owner side of a bidirectional
relationship. The corresponding one to many association is in this case annotated by
@OneToMany(mappedBy=...)

Example 7.21. Bidirectional one to many with many to one side as association owner
@Entity
public class Troop {
@OneToMany(mappedBy="troop")
public Set<Soldier> getSoldiers() {
...
}
@Entity
public class Soldier {
@ManyToOne
@JoinColumn(name="troop_fk")
public Troop getTroop() {
...
}

has a bidirectional one to many relationship with Soldier through the troop property.
You don't have to (must not) define any physical mapping in the mappedBy side.
Troop

To map a bidirectional one to many, with the one-to-many side as the owning side, you have
to remove the mappedBy element and set the many to one @JoinColumn as insertable and
updatable to false. This solution is not optimized and will produce additional UPDATE
statements.
Example 7.22. Bidirectional association with one to many side as owner

@Entity
public class Troop {
@OneToMany
@JoinColumn(name="troop_fk") //we need to duplicate the physical inform
ation
public Set<Soldier> getSoldiers() {
...
}
@Entity
public class Soldier {
@ManyToOne
@JoinColumn(name="troop_fk", insertable=false, updatable=false)
public Troop getTroop() {
...
}

How does the mappping of a bidirectional mapping look like in Hibernate mapping xml?
There you define a bidirectional one-to-many association by mapping a one-to-many
association to the same table column(s) as a many-to-one association and declaring the manyvalued end inverse="true".
Example 7.23. Bidirectional one to many via Hibernate mapping files
<class name="Parent">
<id name="id" column="parent_id"/>
....
<set name="children" inverse="true">
<key column="parent_id"/>
<one-to-many class="Child"/>
</set>
</class>
<class name="Child">
<id name="id" column="child_id"/>
....
<many-to-one name="parent"
class="Parent"
column="parent_id"
not-null="true"/>
</class>

Mapping one end of an association with inverse="true" does not affect the operation of
cascades as these are orthogonal concepts.
A many-to-many association is defined logically using the @ManyToMany annotation. You also
have to describe the association table and the join conditions using the @JoinTable
annotation. If the association is bidirectional, one side has to be the owner and one side has to
be the inverse end (ie. it will be ignored when updating the relationship values in the
association table):
Example 7.24. Many to many association via @ManyToMany
@Entity

public class Employer implements Serializable {

@ManyToMany(
targetEntity=org.hibernate.test.metadata.manytomany.Employee.class,
cascade={CascadeType.PERSIST, CascadeType.MERGE}
)
@JoinTable(
name="EMPLOYER_EMPLOYEE",
joinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="EMPER_ID"),
inverseJoinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="EMPEE_ID")
)
public Collection getEmployees() {
return employees;
}
...
}
@Entity
public class Employee implements Serializable {
@ManyToMany(
cascade = {CascadeType.PERSIST, CascadeType.MERGE},
mappedBy = "employees",
targetEntity = Employer.class
)
public Collection getEmployers() {
return employers;
}
}

In this example @JoinTable defines a name, an array of join columns, and an array of inverse
join columns. The latter ones are the columns of the association table which refer to the
Employee primary key (the "other side"). As seen previously, the other side don't have to
(must not) describe the physical mapping: a simple mappedBy argument containing the owner
side property name bind the two.
As any other annotations, most values are guessed in a many to many relationship. Without
describing any physical mapping in a unidirectional many to many the following rules
applied. The table name is the concatenation of the owner table name, _ and the other side
table name. The foreign key name(s) referencing the owner table is the concatenation of the
owner table name, _ and the owner primary key column(s). The foreign key name(s)
referencing the other side is the concatenation of the owner property name, _, and the other
side primary key column(s). These are the same rules used for a unidirectional one to many
relationship.
Example 7.25. Default values for @ManyToMany (uni-directional)
@Entity
public class Store {
@ManyToMany(cascade = CascadeType.PERSIST)
public Set<City> getImplantedIn() {
...
}
}
@Entity
public class City {
... //no bidirectional relationship
}

A Store_City is used as the join table. The Store_id column is a foreign key to the Store
table. The implantedIn_id column is a foreign key to the City table.
Without describing any physical mapping in a bidirectional many to many the following rules
applied. The table name is the concatenation of the owner table name, _ and the other side
table name. The foreign key name(s) referencing the owner table is the concatenation of the
other side property name, _, and the owner primary key column(s). The foreign key name(s)
referencing the other side is the concatenation of the owner property name, _, and the other
side primary key column(s). These are the same rules used for a unidirectional one to many
relationship.
Example 7.26. Default values for @ManyToMany (bi-directional)
@Entity
public class Store {
@ManyToMany(cascade = {CascadeType.PERSIST, CascadeType.MERGE})
public Set<Customer> getCustomers() {
...
}
}
@Entity
public class Customer {
@ManyToMany(mappedBy="customers")
public Set<Store> getStores() {
...
}
}

A Store_Customer is used as the join table. The stores_id column is a foreign key to the
Store table. The customers_id column is a foreign key to the Customer table.
Using Hibernate mapping files you can map a bidirectional many-to-many association by
mapping two many-to-many associations to the same database table and declaring one end as
inverse.

Note
You cannot select an indexed collection.
Example 7.27, Many to many association using Hibernate mapping files shows a
bidirectional many-to-many association that illustrates how each category can have many
items and each item can be in many categories:
Example 7.27. Many to many association using Hibernate mapping files
<class name="Category">
<id name="id" column="CATEGORY_ID"/>
...
<bag name="items" table="CATEGORY_ITEM">

<key column="CATEGORY_ID"/>
<many-to-many class="Item" column="ITEM_ID"/>
</bag>
</class>
<class name="Item">
<id name="id" column="ITEM_ID"/>
...
<!-- inverse end -->
<bag name="categories" table="CATEGORY_ITEM" inverse="true">
<key column="ITEM_ID"/>
<many-to-many class="Category" column="CATEGORY_ID"/>
</bag>
</class>

Changes made only to the inverse end of the association are not persisted. This means that
Hibernate has two representations in memory for every bidirectional association: one link
from A to B and another link from B to A. This is easier to understand if you think about the
Java object model and how a many-to-many relationship in Javais created:
Example 7.28. Effect of inverse vs. non-inverse side of many to many associations
category.getItems().add(item);
the relationship
item.getCategories().add(category);
relationship

// The category now "knows" about

session.persist(item);
saved!
session.persist(category);

// The relationship won't be

// The item now "knows" about the

// The relationship will be saved

The non-inverse side is used to save the in-memory representation to the database.

7.3.3. Bidirectional associations with indexed collections

There are some additional considerations for bidirectional mappings with indexed collections
(where one end is represented as a <list> or <map>) when using Hibernate mapping files. If
there is a property of the child class that maps to the index column you can use
inverse="true" on the collection mapping:
Example 7.29. Bidirectional association with indexed collection
<class name="Parent">
<id name="id" column="parent_id"/>
....
<map name="children" inverse="true">
<key column="parent_id"/>
<map-key column="name"
type="string"/>
<one-to-many class="Child"/>
</map>
</class>

<class name="Child">
<id name="id" column="child_id"/>
....
<property name="name"
not-null="true"/>
<many-to-one name="parent"
class="Parent"
column="parent_id"
not-null="true"/>
</class>

If there is no such property on the child class, the association cannot be considered truly
bidirectional. That is, there is information available at one end of the association that is not
available at the other end. In this case, you cannot map the collection inverse="true".
Instead, you could use the following mapping:
Example 7.30. Bidirectional association with indexed collection, but no index column
<class name="Parent">
<id name="id" column="parent_id"/>
....
<map name="children">
<key column="parent_id"
not-null="true"/>
<map-key column="name"
type="string"/>
<one-to-many class="Child"/>
</map>
</class>
<class name="Child">
<id name="id" column="child_id"/>
....
<many-to-one name="parent"
class="Parent"
column="parent_id"
insert="false"
update="false"
not-null="true"/>
</class>

Note that in this mapping, the collection-valued end of the association is responsible for
updates to the foreign key.

7.3.4. Ternary associations

There are three possible approaches to mapping a ternary association. One approach is to use
a Map with an association as its index:
Example 7.31. Ternary association mapping
@Entity
public class Company {
@Id

int id;
...
@OneToMany // unidirectional
@MapKeyJoinColumn(name="employee_id")
Map<Employee, Contract> contracts;
}
// or
<map name="contracts">
<key column="employer_id" not-null="true"/>
<map-key-many-to-many column="employee_id" class="Employee"/>
<one-to-many class="Contract"/>
</map>

A second approach is to remodel the association as an entity class. This is the most common
approach. A final alternative is to use composite elements, which will be discussed later.

7.3.5. Using

an <idbag>

The majority of the many-to-many associations and collections of values shown previously all
map to tables with composite keys, even though it has been suggested that entities should
have synthetic identifiers (surrogate keys). A pure association table does not seem to benefit
much from a surrogate key, although a collection of composite values might. For this reason
Hibernate provides a feature that allows you to map many-to-many associations and
collections of values to a table with a surrogate key.
The <idbag> element lets you map a List (or Collection) with bag semantics. For example:
<idbag name="lovers" table="LOVERS">
<collection-id column="ID" type="long">
<generator class="sequence"/>
</collection-id>
<key column="PERSON1"/>
<many-to-many column="PERSON2" class="Person" fetch="join"/>
</idbag>

An <idbag> has a synthetic id generator, just like an entity class. A different surrogate key is
assigned to each collection row. Hibernate does not, however, provide any mechanism for
discovering the surrogate key value of a particular row.
The update performance of an <idbag> supersedes a regular <bag>. Hibernate can locate
individual rows efficiently and update or delete them individually, similar to a list, map or set.
In the current implementation, the native identifier generation strategy is not supported for
<idbag> collection identifiers.

7.4. Collection examples

This section covers collection examples.
The following class has a collection of Child instances:

Example 7.32. Example classes Parent and Child

public class Parent {
private long id;
private Set<Child> children;
// getter/setter
...
}
public class Child {
private long id;
private String name
// getter/setter
...
}

If each child has, at most, one parent, the most natural mapping is a one-to-many association:
Example 7.33. One to many unidirectional Parent-Child relationship using annotations
public class Parent {
@Id
@GeneratedValue
private long id;
@OneToMany
private Set<Child> children;
// getter/setter
...
}
public class Child {
@Id
@GeneratedValue
private long id;
private String name;
// getter/setter
...
}

Example 7.34. One to many unidirectional Parent-Child relationship using mapping

files
<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="Parent">
<id name="id">
<generator class="sequence"/>

</id>
<set name="children">
<key column="parent_id"/>
<one-to-many class="Child"/>
</set>
</class>
<class name="Child">
<id name="id">
<generator class="sequence"/>
</id>
<property name="name"/>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

This maps to the following table definitions:

Example 7.35. Table definitions for unidirectional Parent-Child relationship
create table parent ( id bigint not null primary key )
create table child ( id bigint not null primary key, name varchar(255),
parent_id bigint )
alter table child add constraint childfk0 (parent_id) references parent

If the parent is required, use a bidirectional one-to-many association:

Example 7.36. One to many bidirectional Parent-Child relationship using annotations
public class Parent {
@Id
@GeneratedValue
private long id;
@OneToMany(mappedBy="parent")
private Set<Child> children;
// getter/setter
...
}
public class Child {
@Id
@GeneratedValue
private long id;
private String name;
@ManyToOne
private Parent parent;
// getter/setter
...
}

Example 7.37. One to many bidirectional Parent-Child relationship using mapping files
<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="Parent">
<id name="id">
<generator class="sequence"/>
</id>
<set name="children" inverse="true">
<key column="parent_id"/>
<one-to-many class="Child"/>
</set>
</class>
<class name="Child">
<id name="id">
<generator class="sequence"/>
</id>
<property name="name"/>
<many-to-one name="parent" class="Parent" column="parent_id" notnull="true"/>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

Notice the NOT NULL constraint:

Example 7.38. Table definitions for bidirectional Parent-Child relationship
create table parent ( id bigint not null primary key )
create table child ( id bigint not null
primary key,
name varchar(255),
parent_id bigint not null )
alter table child add constraint childfk0 (parent_id) references parent

Alternatively, if this association must be unidirectional you can enforce the NOT NULL
constraint.
Example 7.39. Enforcing NOT NULL constraint in unidirectional relation using
annotations
public class Parent {
@Id
@GeneratedValue
private long id;
@OneToMany(optional=false)
private Set<Child> children;
// getter/setter
...
}

public class Child {

@Id
@GeneratedValue
private long id;
private String name;
// getter/setter
...
}

Example 7.40. Enforcing NOT NULL constraint in unidirectional relation using

mapping files
<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="Parent">
<id name="id">
<generator class="sequence"/>
</id>
<set name="children">
<key column="parent_id" not-null="true"/>
<one-to-many class="Child"/>
</set>
</class>
<class name="Child">
<id name="id">
<generator class="sequence"/>
</id>
<property name="name"/>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

On the other hand, if a child has multiple parents, a many-to-many association is appropriate.
Example 7.41. Many to many Parent-Child relationship using annotations
public class Parent {
@Id
@GeneratedValue
private long id;
@ManyToMany
private Set<Child> children;
// getter/setter
...
}
public class Child {
@Id
@GeneratedValue

private long id;

private String name;
// getter/setter
...
}

Example 7.42. Many to many Parent-Child relationship using mapping files

<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="Parent">
<id name="id">
<generator class="sequence"/>
</id>
<set name="children" table="childset">
<key column="parent_id"/>
<many-to-many class="Child" column="child_id"/>
</set>
</class>
<class name="Child">
<id name="id">
<generator class="sequence"/>
</id>
<property name="name"/>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

Table definitions:
Example 7.43. Table definitions for many to many releationship
create table parent ( id bigint not null primary key )
create table child ( id bigint not null primary key, name varchar(255) )
create table childset ( parent_id bigint not null,
child_id bigint not null,
primary key ( parent_id, child_id ) )
alter table childset add constraint childsetfk0 (parent_id) references
parent
alter table childset add constraint childsetfk1 (child_id) references child

For more examples and a complete explanation of a parent/child relationship mapping, see
Chapter 23, Example: Parent/Child for more information. Even more complex association
mappings are covered in the next chapter.

Chapter 8. Association Mappings

Table of Contents

8.1. Introduction
8.2. Unidirectional associations
8.2.1. Many-to-one
8.2.2. One-to-one
8.2.3. One-to-many
8.3. Unidirectional associations with join tables
8.3.1. One-to-many
8.3.2. Many-to-one
8.3.3. One-to-one
8.3.4. Many-to-many
8.4. Bidirectional associations
8.4.1. one-to-many / many-to-one
8.4.2. One-to-one
8.5. Bidirectional associations with join tables
8.5.1. one-to-many / many-to-one
8.5.2. one to one
8.5.3. Many-to-many
8.6. More complex association mappings

8.1. Introduction
Association mappings are often the most difficult thing to implement correctly. In this section
we examine some canonical cases one by one, starting with unidirectional mappings and then
bidirectional cases. We will use Person and Address in all the examples.
Associations will be classified by multiplicity and whether or not they map to an intervening
join table.
Nullable foreign keys are not considered to be good practice in traditional data modelling, so
our examples do not use nullable foreign keys. This is not a requirement of Hibernate, and the
mappings will work if you drop the nullability constraints.

8.2. Unidirectional associations

8.2.1. Many-to-one
A unidirectional many-to-one association is the most common kind of unidirectional
association.
<class name="Person">
<id name="id" column="personId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<many-to-one name="address"
column="addressId"
not-null="true"/>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id" column="addressId">
<generator class="native"/>

</id>
</class>
create table Person ( personId bigint not null primary key, addressId
bigint not null )
create table Address ( addressId bigint not null primary key )

8.2.2. One-to-one
A unidirectional one-to-one association on a foreign key is almost identical. The only
difference is the column unique constraint.
<class name="Person">
<id name="id" column="personId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<many-to-one name="address"
column="addressId"
unique="true"
not-null="true"/>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id" column="addressId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
</class>
create table Person ( personId bigint not null primary key, addressId
bigint not null unique )
create table Address ( addressId bigint not null primary key )

A unidirectional one-to-one association on a primary key usually uses a special id generator

In this example, however, we have reversed the direction of the association:
<class name="Person">
<id name="id" column="personId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id" column="personId">
<generator class="foreign">
<param name="property">person</param>
</generator>
</id>
<one-to-one name="person" constrained="true"/>
</class>
create table Person ( personId bigint not null primary key )
create table Address ( personId bigint not null primary key )

8.2.3. One-to-many
A unidirectional one-to-many association on a foreign key is an unusual case, and is not
recommended.

<class name="Person">
<id name="id" column="personId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<set name="addresses">
<key column="personId"
not-null="true"/>
<one-to-many class="Address"/>
</set>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id" column="addressId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
</class>
create table Person ( personId bigint not null primary key )
create table Address ( addressId bigint not null primary key, personId
bigint not null )

You should instead use a join table for this kind of association.

8.3. Unidirectional associations with join tables

8.3.1. One-to-many
A unidirectional one-to-many association on a join table is the preferred option. Specifying
unique="true", changes the multiplicity from many-to-many to one-to-many.
<class name="Person">
<id name="id" column="personId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<set name="addresses" table="PersonAddress">
<key column="personId"/>
<many-to-many column="addressId"
unique="true"
class="Address"/>
</set>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id" column="addressId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
</class>
create table Person ( personId bigint not null primary key )
create table PersonAddress ( personId bigint not null, addressId bigint not
null primary key )
create table Address ( addressId bigint not null primary key )

8.3.2. Many-to-one
A unidirectional many-to-one association on a join table is common when the association is
optional. For example:

<class name="Person">
<id name="id" column="personId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<join table="PersonAddress"
optional="true">
<key column="personId" unique="true"/>
<many-to-one name="address"
column="addressId"
not-null="true"/>
</join>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id" column="addressId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
</class>
create table Person ( personId bigint not null primary key )
create table PersonAddress ( personId bigint not null primary key,
addressId bigint not null )
create table Address ( addressId bigint not null primary key )

8.3.3. One-to-one
A unidirectional one-to-one association on a join table is possible, but extremely unusual.
<class name="Person">
<id name="id" column="personId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<join table="PersonAddress"
optional="true">
<key column="personId"
unique="true"/>
<many-to-one name="address"
column="addressId"
not-null="true"
unique="true"/>
</join>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id" column="addressId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
</class>
create table Person ( personId bigint not null primary key )
create table PersonAddress ( personId bigint not null primary key,
addressId bigint not null unique )
create table Address ( addressId bigint not null primary key )

8.3.4. Many-to-many
Finally, here is an example of a unidirectional many-to-many association.
<class name="Person">

<id name="id" column="personId">

<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<set name="addresses" table="PersonAddress">
<key column="personId"/>
<many-to-many column="addressId"
class="Address"/>
</set>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id" column="addressId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
</class>
create table Person ( personId bigint not null primary key )
create table PersonAddress ( personId bigint not null, addressId bigint not
null, primary key (personId, addressId) )
create table Address ( addressId bigint not null primary key )

8.4. Bidirectional associations

8.4.1. one-to-many / many-to-one
A bidirectional many-to-one association is the most common kind of association. The
following example illustrates the standard parent/child relationship.
<class name="Person">
<id name="id" column="personId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<many-to-one name="address"
column="addressId"
not-null="true"/>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id" column="addressId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<set name="people" inverse="true">
<key column="addressId"/>
<one-to-many class="Person"/>
</set>
</class>
create table Person ( personId bigint not null primary key, addressId
bigint not null )
create table Address ( addressId bigint not null primary key )

If you use a List, or other indexed collection, set the key column of the foreign key to not
null. Hibernate will manage the association from the collections side to maintain the index of
each element, making the other side virtually inverse by setting update="false" and
insert="false":
<class name="Person">

<id name="id"/>
...
<many-to-one name="address"
column="addressId"
not-null="true"
insert="false"
update="false"/>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id"/>
...
<list name="people">
<key column="addressId" not-null="true"/>
<list-index column="peopleIdx"/>
<one-to-many class="Person"/>
</list>
</class>

If the underlying foreign key column is NOT NULL, it is important that you define notnull="true" on the <key> element of the collection mapping. Do not only declare notnull="true" on a possible nested <column> element, but on the <key> element.

8.4.2. One-to-one
A bidirectional one-to-one association on a foreign key is common:
<class name="Person">
<id name="id" column="personId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<many-to-one name="address"
column="addressId"
unique="true"
not-null="true"/>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id" column="addressId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<one-to-one name="person"
property-ref="address"/>
</class>
create table Person ( personId bigint not null primary key, addressId
bigint not null unique )
create table Address ( addressId bigint not null primary key )

A bidirectional one-to-one association on a primary key uses the special id generator:

<class name="Person">
<id name="id" column="personId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<one-to-one name="address"/>
</class>

<class name="Address">
<id name="id" column="personId">
<generator class="foreign">
<param name="property">person</param>
</generator>
</id>
<one-to-one name="person"
constrained="true"/>
</class>
create table Person ( personId bigint not null primary key )
create table Address ( personId bigint not null primary key )

8.5. Bidirectional associations with join tables

8.5.1. one-to-many / many-to-one
The following is an example of a bidirectional one-to-many association on a join table. The
inverse="true" can go on either end of the association, on the collection, or on the join.
<class name="Person">
<id name="id" column="personId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<set name="addresses"
table="PersonAddress">
<key column="personId"/>
<many-to-many column="addressId"
unique="true"
class="Address"/>
</set>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id" column="addressId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<join table="PersonAddress"
inverse="true"
optional="true">
<key column="addressId"/>
<many-to-one name="person"
column="personId"
not-null="true"/>
</join>
</class>
create table Person ( personId bigint not null primary key )
create table PersonAddress ( personId bigint not null, addressId bigint not
null primary key )
create table Address ( addressId bigint not null primary key )

8.5.2. one to one

A bidirectional one-to-one association on a join table is possible, but extremely unusual.
<class name="Person">

<id name="id" column="personId">

<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<join table="PersonAddress"
optional="true">
<key column="personId"
unique="true"/>
<many-to-one name="address"
column="addressId"
not-null="true"
unique="true"/>
</join>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id" column="addressId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<join table="PersonAddress"
optional="true"
inverse="true">
<key column="addressId"
unique="true"/>
<many-to-one name="person"
column="personId"
not-null="true"
unique="true"/>
</join>
</class>
create table Person ( personId bigint not null primary key )
create table PersonAddress ( personId bigint not null primary key,
addressId bigint not null unique )
create table Address ( addressId bigint not null primary key )

8.5.3. Many-to-many
Here is an example of a bidirectional many-to-many association.
<class name="Person">
<id name="id" column="personId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<set name="addresses" table="PersonAddress">
<key column="personId"/>
<many-to-many column="addressId"
class="Address"/>
</set>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id" column="addressId">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<set name="people" inverse="true" table="PersonAddress">
<key column="addressId"/>
<many-to-many column="personId"
class="Person"/>
</set>
</class>

create table Person ( personId bigint not null primary key )

create table PersonAddress ( personId bigint not null, addressId bigint not
null, primary key (personId, addressId) )
create table Address ( addressId bigint not null primary key )

8.6. More complex association mappings

More complex association joins are extremely rare. Hibernate handles more complex
situations by using SQL fragments embedded in the mapping document. For example, if a
table with historical account information data defines accountNumber, effectiveEndDate
and effectiveStartDatecolumns, it would be mapped as follows:
<properties name="currentAccountKey">
<property name="accountNumber" type="string" not-null="true"/>
<property name="currentAccount" type="boolean">
<formula>case when effectiveEndDate is null then 1 else 0
end</formula>
</property>
</properties>
<property name="effectiveEndDate" type="date"/>
<property name="effectiveStateDate" type="date" not-null="true"/>

You can then map an association to the current instance, the one with null
effectiveEndDate, by using:
<many-to-one name="currentAccountInfo"
property-ref="currentAccountKey"
class="AccountInfo">
<column name="accountNumber"/>
<formula>'1'</formula>
</many-to-one>

In a more complex example, imagine that the association between Employee and
Organization is maintained in an Employment table full of historical employment data. An
association to the employee's most recent employer, the one with the most recent startDate,
could be mapped in the following way:
<join>
<key column="employeeId"/>
<subselect>
select employeeId, orgId
from Employments
group by orgId
having startDate = max(startDate)
</subselect>
<many-to-one name="mostRecentEmployer"
class="Organization"
column="orgId"/>
</join>

This functionality allows a degree of creativity and flexibility, but it is more practical to
handle these kinds of cases using HQL or a criteria query.

Chapter 9. Component Mapping

Table of Contents
9.1. Dependent objects
9.2. Collections of dependent objects
9.3. Components as Map indices
9.4. Components as composite identifiers
9.5. Dynamic components
The notion of a component is re-used in several different contexts and purposes throughout
Hibernate.

9.1. Dependent objects

A component is a contained object that is persisted as a value type and not an entity reference.
The term "component" refers to the object-oriented notion of composition and not to
architecture-level components. For example, you can model a person like this:
public class Person {
private java.util.Date birthday;
private Name name;
private String key;
public String getKey() {
return key;
}
private void setKey(String key) {
this.key=key;
}
public java.util.Date getBirthday() {
return birthday;
}
public void setBirthday(java.util.Date birthday) {
this.birthday = birthday;
}
public Name getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(Name name) {
this.name = name;
}
......
......
}
public class Name {
char initial;
String first;
String last;
public String getFirst() {
return first;
}
void setFirst(String first) {
this.first = first;
}
public String getLast() {
return last;
}
void setLast(String last) {
this.last = last;

}
public char getInitial() {
return initial;
}
void setInitial(char initial) {
this.initial = initial;
}
}

Now Name can be persisted as a component of Person. Name defines getter and setter methods
for its persistent properties, but it does not need to declare any interfaces or identifier
properties.
Our Hibernate mapping would look like this:
<class name="eg.Person" table="person">
<id name="Key" column="pid" type="string">
<generator class="uuid"/>
</id>
<property name="birthday" type="date"/>
<component name="Name" class="eg.Name"> <!-- class attribute optional ->
<property name="initial"/>
<property name="first"/>
<property name="last"/>
</component>
</class>

The person table would have the columns pid, birthday, initial, first and last.
Like value types, components do not support shared references. In other words, two persons
could have the same name, but the two person objects would contain two independent name
objects that were only "the same" by value. The null value semantics of a component are ad
hoc. When reloading the containing object, Hibernate will assume that if all component
columns are null, then the entire component is null. This is suitable for most purposes.
The properties of a component can be of any Hibernate type (collections, many-to-one
associations, other components, etc). Nested components should not be considered an exotic
usage. Hibernate is intended to support a fine-grained object model.
The <component> element allows a <parent> subelement that maps a property of the
component class as a reference back to the containing entity.
<class name="eg.Person" table="person">
<id name="Key" column="pid" type="string">
<generator class="uuid"/>
</id>
<property name="birthday" type="date"/>
<component name="Name" class="eg.Name" unique="true">
<parent name="namedPerson"/> <!-- reference back to the Person -->
<property name="initial"/>
<property name="first"/>
<property name="last"/>
</component>
</class>

9.2. Collections of dependent objects

Collections of components are supported (e.g. an array of type Name). Declare your
component collection by replacing the <element> tag with a <composite-element> tag:
<set name="someNames" table="some_names" lazy="true">
<key column="id"/>
<composite-element class="eg.Name"> <!-- class attribute required -->
<property name="initial"/>
<property name="first"/>
<property name="last"/>
</composite-element>
</set>

Important
If you define a Set of composite elements, it is important to implement equals() and
hashCode() correctly.
Composite elements can contain components but not collections. If your composite element
contains components, use the <nested-composite-element> tag. This case is a collection of
components which themselves have components. You may want to consider if a one-to-many
association is more appropriate. Remodel the composite element as an entity, but be aware
that even though the Java model is the same, the relational model and persistence semantics
are still slightly different.
A composite element mapping does not support null-able properties if you are using a <set>.
There is no separate primary key column in the composite element table. Hibernate uses each
column's value to identify a record when deleting objects, which is not possible with null
values. You have to either use only not-null properties in a composite-element or choose a
<list>, <map>, <bag> or <idbag>.
A special case of a composite element is a composite element with a nested <many-to-one>
element. This mapping allows you to map extra columns of a many-to-many association table
to the composite element class. The following is a many-to-many association from Order to
Item, where purchaseDate, price and quantity are properties of the association:
<class name="eg.Order" .... >
....
<set name="purchasedItems" table="purchase_items" lazy="true">
<key column="order_id">
<composite-element class="eg.Purchase">
<property name="purchaseDate"/>
<property name="price"/>
<property name="quantity"/>
<many-to-one name="item" class="eg.Item"/> <!-- class attribute
is optional -->
</composite-element>
</set>
</class>

There cannot be a reference to the purchase on the other side for bidirectional association
navigation. Components are value types and do not allow shared references. A single

Purchase

can be in the set of an Order, but it cannot be referenced by the Item at the same

time.
Even ternary (or quaternary, etc) associations are possible:
<class name="eg.Order" .... >
....
<set name="purchasedItems" table="purchase_items" lazy="true">
<key column="order_id">
<composite-element class="eg.OrderLine">
<many-to-one name="purchaseDetails class="eg.Purchase"/>
<many-to-one name="item" class="eg.Item"/>
</composite-element>
</set>
</class>

Composite elements can appear in queries using the same syntax as associations to other
entities.

9.3. Components as Map indices

The <composite-map-key> element allows you to map a component class as the key of a
Map. Ensure that you override hashCode() and equals() correctly on the component class.

9.4. Components as composite identifiers

You can use a component as an identifier of an entity class. Your component class must
satisfy certain requirements:
It must implement java.io.Serializable.
It must re-implement equals() and hashCode() consistently with the database's
notion of composite key equality.

Note
In Hibernate, although the second requirement is not an absolutely hard requirement of
Hibernate, it is recommended.
You cannot use an IdentifierGenerator to generate composite keys. Instead the
application must assign its own identifiers.
Use the <composite-id> tag, with nested <key-property> elements, in place of the usual
<id> declaration. For example, the OrderLine class has a primary key that depends upon the
(composite) primary key of Order.
<class name="OrderLine">
<composite-id name="id" class="OrderLineId">
<key-property name="lineId"/>
<key-property name="orderId"/>
<key-property name="customerId"/>

</composite-id>
<property name="name"/>
<many-to-one name="order" class="Order"
insert="false" update="false">
<column name="orderId"/>
<column name="customerId"/>
</many-to-one>
....
</class>

Any foreign keys referencing the OrderLine table are now composite. Declare this in your
mappings for other classes. An association to OrderLine is mapped like this:
<many-to-one name="orderLine" class="OrderLine">
<!-- the "class" attribute is optional, as usual -->
<column name="lineId"/>
<column name="orderId"/>
<column name="customerId"/>
</many-to-one>

Tip
The column element is an alternative to the column attribute everywhere. Using the column
element just gives more declaration options, which are mostly useful when utilizing hbm2ddl
A many-to-many association to OrderLine also uses the composite foreign key:
<set name="undeliveredOrderLines">
<key column name="warehouseId"/>
<many-to-many class="OrderLine">
<column name="lineId"/>
<column name="orderId"/>
<column name="customerId"/>
</many-to-many>
</set>

The collection of OrderLines in Order would use:

<set name="orderLines" inverse="true">
<key>
<column name="orderId"/>
<column name="customerId"/>
</key>
<one-to-many class="OrderLine"/>
</set>

The <one-to-many> element declares no columns.

If OrderLine itself owns a collection, it also has a composite foreign key.
<class name="OrderLine">
....
....

<list name="deliveryAttempts">
<key>
<!-- a collection inherits the composite key type -->
<column name="lineId"/>
<column name="orderId"/>
<column name="customerId"/>
</key>
<list-index column="attemptId" base="1"/>
<composite-element class="DeliveryAttempt">
...
</composite-element>
</set>
</class>

9.5. Dynamic components

You can also map a property of type Map:
<dynamic-component name="userAttributes">
<property name="foo" column="FOO" type="string"/>
<property name="bar" column="BAR" type="integer"/>
<many-to-one name="baz" class="Baz" column="BAZ_ID"/>
</dynamic-component>

The semantics of a <dynamic-component> mapping are identical to <component>. The

advantage of this kind of mapping is the ability to determine the actual properties of the bean
at deployment time just by editing the mapping document. Runtime manipulation of the
mapping document is also possible, using a DOM parser. You can also access, and change,
Hibernate's configuration-time metamodel via the Configuration object.

Chapter 10. Inheritance mapping

Table of Contents
10.1. The three strategies
10.1.1. Table per class hierarchy
10.1.2. Table per subclass
10.1.3. Table per subclass: using a discriminator
10.1.4. Mixing table per class hierarchy with table per subclass
10.1.5. Table per concrete class
10.1.6. Table per concrete class using implicit polymorphism
10.1.7. Mixing implicit polymorphism with other inheritance mappings
10.2. Limitations

10.1. The three strategies

Hibernate supports the three basic inheritance mapping strategies:

table per class hierarchy

table per subclass
table per concrete class

In addition, Hibernate supports a fourth, slightly different kind of polymorphism:

implicit polymorphism

It is possible to use different mapping strategies for different branches of the same inheritance
hierarchy. You can then make use of implicit polymorphism to achieve polymorphism across
the whole hierarchy. However, Hibernate does not support mixing <subclass>, <joinedsubclass> and <union-subclass> mappings under the same root <class> element. It is
possible to mix together the table per hierarchy and table per subclass strategies under the the
same <class> element, by combining the <subclass> and <join> elements (see below for
an example).
It is possible to define subclass, union-subclass, and joined-subclass mappings in
separate mapping documents directly beneath hibernate-mapping. This allows you to
extend a class hierarchy by adding a new mapping file. You must specify an extends
attribute in the subclass mapping, naming a previously mapped superclass. Previously this
feature made the ordering of the mapping documents important. Since Hibernate, the ordering
of mapping files is irrelevant when using the extends keyword. The ordering inside a single
mapping file still needs to be defined as superclasses before subclasses.
<hibernate-mapping>
<subclass name="DomesticCat" extends="Cat" discriminator-value="D">
<property name="name" type="string"/>
</subclass>
</hibernate-mapping>

10.1.1. Table per class hierarchy

Suppose we have an interface Payment with the implementors CreditCardPayment,
CashPayment, and ChequePayment. The table per hierarchy mapping would display in the
following way:
<class name="Payment" table="PAYMENT">
<id name="id" type="long" column="PAYMENT_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<discriminator column="PAYMENT_TYPE" type="string"/>
<property name="amount" column="AMOUNT"/>
...
<subclass name="CreditCardPayment" discriminator-value="CREDIT">
<property name="creditCardType" column="CCTYPE"/>
...
</subclass>
<subclass name="CashPayment" discriminator-value="CASH">
...
</subclass>
<subclass name="ChequePayment" discriminator-value="CHEQUE">
...
</subclass>
</class>

Exactly one table is required. There is a limitation of this mapping strategy: columns declared
by the subclasses, such as CCTYPE, cannot have NOT NULL constraints.

10.1.2. Table per subclass

A table per subclass mapping looks like this:

<class name="Payment" table="PAYMENT">
<id name="id" type="long" column="PAYMENT_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property name="amount" column="AMOUNT"/>
...
<joined-subclass name="CreditCardPayment" table="CREDIT_PAYMENT">
<key column="PAYMENT_ID"/>
<property name="creditCardType" column="CCTYPE"/>
...
</joined-subclass>
<joined-subclass name="CashPayment" table="CASH_PAYMENT">
<key column="PAYMENT_ID"/>
...
</joined-subclass>
<joined-subclass name="ChequePayment" table="CHEQUE_PAYMENT">
<key column="PAYMENT_ID"/>
...
</joined-subclass>
</class>

Four tables are required. The three subclass tables have primary key associations to the
superclass table so the relational model is actually a one-to-one association.

10.1.3. Table per subclass: using a discriminator

Hibernate's implementation of table per subclass does not require a discriminator column.
Other object/relational mappers use a different implementation of table per subclass that
requires a type discriminator column in the superclass table. The approach taken by Hibernate
is much more difficult to implement, but arguably more correct from a relational point of
view. If you want to use a discriminator column with the table per subclass strategy, you can
combine the use of <subclass> and <join>, as follows:
<class name="Payment" table="PAYMENT">
<id name="id" type="long" column="PAYMENT_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<discriminator column="PAYMENT_TYPE" type="string"/>
<property name="amount" column="AMOUNT"/>
...
<subclass name="CreditCardPayment" discriminator-value="CREDIT">
<join table="CREDIT_PAYMENT">
<key column="PAYMENT_ID"/>
<property name="creditCardType" column="CCTYPE"/>
...
</join>
</subclass>
<subclass name="CashPayment" discriminator-value="CASH">
<join table="CASH_PAYMENT">
<key column="PAYMENT_ID"/>
...
</join>
</subclass>
<subclass name="ChequePayment" discriminator-value="CHEQUE">
<join table="CHEQUE_PAYMENT" fetch="select">
<key column="PAYMENT_ID"/>

...
</join>
</subclass>
</class>

The optional fetch="select" declaration tells Hibernate not to fetch the ChequePayment
subclass data using an outer join when querying the superclass.

10.1.4. Mixing table per class hierarchy with table per subclass
You can even mix the table per hierarchy and table per subclass strategies using the following
approach:
<class name="Payment" table="PAYMENT">
<id name="id" type="long" column="PAYMENT_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<discriminator column="PAYMENT_TYPE" type="string"/>
<property name="amount" column="AMOUNT"/>
...
<subclass name="CreditCardPayment" discriminator-value="CREDIT">
<join table="CREDIT_PAYMENT">
<property name="creditCardType" column="CCTYPE"/>
...
</join>
</subclass>
<subclass name="CashPayment" discriminator-value="CASH">
...
</subclass>
<subclass name="ChequePayment" discriminator-value="CHEQUE">
...
</subclass>
</class>

For any of these mapping strategies, a polymorphic association to the root Payment class is
mapped using <many-to-one>.
<many-to-one name="payment" column="PAYMENT_ID" class="Payment"/>

10.1.5. Table per concrete class

There are two ways we can map the table per concrete class strategy. First, you can use
<union-subclass>.
<class name="Payment">
<id name="id" type="long" column="PAYMENT_ID">
<generator class="sequence"/>
</id>
<property name="amount" column="AMOUNT"/>
...
<union-subclass name="CreditCardPayment" table="CREDIT_PAYMENT">
<property name="creditCardType" column="CCTYPE"/>
...
</union-subclass>
<union-subclass name="CashPayment" table="CASH_PAYMENT">
...
</union-subclass>

<union-subclass name="ChequePayment" table="CHEQUE_PAYMENT">

...
</union-subclass>
</class>

Three tables are involved for the subclasses. Each table defines columns for all properties of
the class, including inherited properties.
The limitation of this approach is that if a property is mapped on the superclass, the column
name must be the same on all subclass tables. The identity generator strategy is not allowed in
union subclass inheritance. The primary key seed has to be shared across all unioned
subclasses of a hierarchy.
If your superclass is abstract, map it with abstract="true". If it is not abstract, an additional
table (it defaults to PAYMENT in the example above), is needed to hold instances of the
superclass.

10.1.6. Table per concrete class using implicit polymorphism

An alternative approach is to make use of implicit polymorphism:
<class name="CreditCardPayment" table="CREDIT_PAYMENT">
<id name="id" type="long" column="CREDIT_PAYMENT_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property name="amount" column="CREDIT_AMOUNT"/>
...
</class>
<class name="CashPayment" table="CASH_PAYMENT">
<id name="id" type="long" column="CASH_PAYMENT_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property name="amount" column="CASH_AMOUNT"/>
...
</class>
<class name="ChequePayment" table="CHEQUE_PAYMENT">
<id name="id" type="long" column="CHEQUE_PAYMENT_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property name="amount" column="CHEQUE_AMOUNT"/>
...
</class>

Notice that the Payment interface is not mentioned explicitly. Also notice that properties of
Payment are mapped in each of the subclasses. If you want to avoid duplication, consider
using XML entities (for example, [ <!ENTITY allproperties SYSTEM
"allproperties.xml"> ] in the DOCTYPE declaration and %allproperties; in the
mapping).
The disadvantage of this approach is that Hibernate does not generate SQL UNIONs when
performing polymorphic queries.

For this mapping strategy, a polymorphic association to Payment is usually mapped using
<any>.
<any name="payment" meta-type="string" id-type="long">
<meta-value value="CREDIT" class="CreditCardPayment"/>
<meta-value value="CASH" class="CashPayment"/>
<meta-value value="CHEQUE" class="ChequePayment"/>
<column name="PAYMENT_CLASS"/>
<column name="PAYMENT_ID"/>
</any>

10.1.7. Mixing implicit polymorphism with other inheritance mappings

Since the subclasses are each mapped in their own <class> element, and since Payment is
just an interface), each of the subclasses could easily be part of another inheritance hierarchy.
You can still use polymorphic queries against the Payment interface.
<class name="CreditCardPayment" table="CREDIT_PAYMENT">
<id name="id" type="long" column="CREDIT_PAYMENT_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<discriminator column="CREDIT_CARD" type="string"/>
<property name="amount" column="CREDIT_AMOUNT"/>
...
<subclass name="MasterCardPayment" discriminator-value="MDC"/>
<subclass name="VisaPayment" discriminator-value="VISA"/>
</class>
<class name="NonelectronicTransaction" table="NONELECTRONIC_TXN">
<id name="id" type="long" column="TXN_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
...
<joined-subclass name="CashPayment" table="CASH_PAYMENT">
<key column="PAYMENT_ID"/>
<property name="amount" column="CASH_AMOUNT"/>
...
</joined-subclass>
<joined-subclass name="ChequePayment" table="CHEQUE_PAYMENT">
<key column="PAYMENT_ID"/>
<property name="amount" column="CHEQUE_AMOUNT"/>
...
</joined-subclass>
</class>

Once again, Payment is not mentioned explicitly. If we execute a query against the Payment
interface, for example from Payment, Hibernate automatically returns instances of
CreditCardPayment (and its subclasses, since they also implement Payment), CashPayment
and ChequePayment, but not instances of NonelectronicTransaction.

10.2. Limitations
There are limitations to the "implicit polymorphism" approach to the table per concrete-class
mapping strategy. There are somewhat less restrictive limitations to <union-subclass>
mappings.

The following table shows the limitations of table per concrete-class mappings, and of
implicit polymorphism, in Hibernate.
Table 10.1. Features of inheritance mappings
Inherit
ance
strateg
y

Polym
orphic
manyto-one

Polym
orphic
one-toone

Polym
Polymor
orphic
phic
many- Polymorphic
load()/get()
one-totomany
many

Oute
Polym
Polym r
orphic
orphic join
querie
joins fetch
s
ing

table
per
<many- <one- <onetototoclassone>
one>
many>
hierarch
y

<manys.get(Payment.class
to, id)
many>

from
from
Order
Paymen o join
t p
o.paym
ent p

supp
orted

table
<many- <one- <onetototoper
one>
one>
many>
subclass

<manys.get(Payment.class
to, id)
many>

from
from
Order
Paymen o join
t p
o.paym
ent p

supp
orted

from
from
Order
Paymen o join
t p
o.paym
ent p

supp
orted

table
per
concrete <many- <onetoto-class
one>
one>
(unionsubclass
)

<onetomany>

<manys.get(Payment.class
(for
to, id)
inverse many>
="true"

only)

table
per
concrete
s.createCriteria(Pa
not
not
not
not
<manyfrom
class
yment.class).add(
<any> suppor supporte toPaymen suppor supp
Restrictions.idEq(i
(implici
any>
t p
ted
d
ted
orted
d) ).uniqueResult()
t
polymor
phism)

Chapter 11. Working with objects

Table of Contents
11.1. Hibernate object states
11.2. Making objects persistent
11.3. Loading an object
11.4. Querying
11.4.1. Executing queries
11.4.2. Filtering collections
11.4.3. Criteria queries
11.4.4. Queries in native SQL

11.5. Modifying persistent objects

11.6. Modifying detached objects
11.7. Automatic state detection
11.8. Deleting persistent objects
11.9. Replicating object between two different datastores
11.10. Flushing the Session
11.11. Transitive persistence
11.12. Using metadata
Hibernate is a full object/relational mapping solution that not only shields the developer from
the details of the underlying database management system, but also offers state management
of objects. This is, contrary to the management of SQL statements in common JDBC/SQL
persistence layers, a natural object-oriented view of persistence in Java applications.
In other words, Hibernate application developers should always think about the state of their
objects, and not necessarily about the execution of SQL statements. This part is taken care of
by Hibernate and is only relevant for the application developer when tuning the performance
of the system.

11.1. Hibernate object states

Hibernate defines and supports the following object states:

Transient - an object is transient if it has just been instantiated using the new operator,
and it is not associated with a Hibernate Session. It has no persistent representation in
the database and no identifier value has been assigned. Transient instances will be
destroyed by the garbage collector if the application does not hold a reference
anymore. Use the Hibernate Session to make an object persistent (and let Hibernate
take care of the SQL statements that need to be executed for this transition).
Persistent - a persistent instance has a representation in the database and an identifier
value. It might just have been saved or loaded, however, it is by definition in the scope
of a Session. Hibernate will detect any changes made to an object in persistent state
and synchronize the state with the database when the unit of work completes.
Developers do not execute manual UPDATE statements, or DELETE statements when an
object should be made transient.
Detached - a detached instance is an object that has been persistent, but its Session
has been closed. The reference to the object is still valid, of course, and the detached
instance might even be modified in this state. A detached instance can be reattached to
a new Session at a later point in time, making it (and all the modifications) persistent
again. This feature enables a programming model for long running units of work that
require user think-time. We call them application transactions, i.e., a unit of work
from the point of view of the user.

We will now discuss the states and state transitions (and the Hibernate methods that trigger a
transition) in more detail.

11.2. Making objects persistent

Newly instantiated instances of a persistent class are considered transient by Hibernate. We

can make a transient instance persistent by associating it with a session:
DomesticCat fritz = new DomesticCat();
fritz.setColor(Color.GINGER);
fritz.setSex('M');
fritz.setName("Fritz");
Long generatedId = (Long) sess.save(fritz);

If Cat has a generated identifier, the identifier is generated and assigned to the cat when
save() is called. If Cat has an assigned identifier, or a composite key, the identifier should
be assigned to the cat instance before calling save(). You can also use persist() instead of
save(), with the semantics defined in the EJB3 early draft.

makes a transient instance persistent. However, it does not guarantee that

the identifier value will be assigned to the persistent instance immediately, the
assignment might happen at flush time. persist() also guarantees that it will not
execute an INSERT statement if it is called outside of transaction boundaries. This is
useful in long-running conversations with an extended Session/persistence context.
save() does guarantee to return an identifier. If an INSERT has to be executed to get
the identifier ( e.g. "identity" generator, not "sequence"), this INSERT happens
immediately, no matter if you are inside or outside of a transaction. This is
problematic in a long-running conversation with an extended Session/persistence
context.
persist()

Alternatively, you can assign the identifier using an overloaded version of save().
DomesticCat pk = new DomesticCat();
pk.setColor(Color.TABBY);
pk.setSex('F');
pk.setName("PK");
pk.setKittens( new HashSet() );
pk.addKitten(fritz);
sess.save( pk, new Long(1234) );

If the object you make persistent has associated objects (e.g. the kittens collection in the
previous example), these objects can be made persistent in any order you like unless you have
a NOT NULL constraint upon a foreign key column. There is never a risk of violating foreign
key constraints. However, you might violate a NOT NULL constraint if you save() the objects
in the wrong order.
Usually you do not bother with this detail, as you will normally use Hibernate's transitive
persistence feature to save the associated objects automatically. Then, even NOT NULL
constraint violations do not occur - Hibernate will take care of everything. Transitive
persistence is discussed later in this chapter.

11.3. Loading an object

The load() methods of Session provide a way of retrieving a persistent instance if you know
its identifier. load() takes a class object and loads the state into a newly instantiated instance
of that class in a persistent state.

Cat fritz = (Cat) sess.load(Cat.class, generatedId);

// you need to wrap primitive identifiers
long id = 1234;
DomesticCat pk = (DomesticCat) sess.load( DomesticCat.class, new Long(id)
);

Alternatively, you can load state into a given instance:

Cat cat = new DomesticCat();
// load pk's state into cat
sess.load( cat, new Long(pkId) );
Set kittens = cat.getKittens();

Be aware that load() will throw an unrecoverable exception if there is no matching database
row. If the class is mapped with a proxy, load() just returns an uninitialized proxy and does
not actually hit the database until you invoke a method of the proxy. This is useful if you wish
to create an association to an object without actually loading it from the database. It also
allows multiple instances to be loaded as a batch if batch-size is defined for the class
mapping.
If you are not certain that a matching row exists, you should use the get() method which hits
the database immediately and returns null if there is no matching row.
Cat cat = (Cat) sess.get(Cat.class, id);
if (cat==null) {
cat = new Cat();
sess.save(cat, id);
}
return cat;

You can even load an object using an SQL SELECT ... FOR UPDATE, using a LockMode. See
the API documentation for more information.
Cat cat = (Cat) sess.get(Cat.class, id, LockMode.UPGRADE);

Any associated instances or contained collections will not be selected FOR UPDATE, unless you
decide to specify lock or all as a cascade style for the association.
It is possible to re-load an object and all its collections at any time, using the refresh()
method. This is useful when database triggers are used to initialize some of the properties of
the object.
sess.save(cat);
sess.flush(); //force the SQL INSERT
sess.refresh(cat); //re-read the state (after the trigger executes)

How much does Hibernate load from the database and how many SQL SELECTs will it use?
This depends on the fetching strategy. This is explained in Section 20.1, Fetching strategies.

11.4. Querying
If you do not know the identifiers of the objects you are looking for, you need a query.
Hibernate supports an easy-to-use but powerful object oriented query language (HQL). For

programmatic query creation, Hibernate supports a sophisticated Criteria and Example query
feature (QBC and QBE). You can also express your query in the native SQL of your database,
with optional support from Hibernate for result set conversion into objects.

11.4.1. Executing queries

HQL and native SQL queries are represented with an instance of org.hibernate.Query.
This interface offers methods for parameter binding, result set handling, and for the execution
of the actual query. You always obtain a Query using the current Session:
List cats = session.createQuery(
"from Cat as cat where cat.birthdate < ?")
.setDate(0, date)
.list();
List mothers = session.createQuery(
"select mother from Cat as cat join cat.mother as mother where cat.name
= ?")
.setString(0, name)
.list();
List kittens = session.createQuery(
"from Cat as cat where cat.mother = ?")
.setEntity(0, pk)
.list();
Cat mother = (Cat) session.createQuery(
"select cat.mother from Cat as cat where cat = ?")
.setEntity(0, izi)
.uniqueResult();]]
Query mothersWithKittens = (Cat) session.createQuery(
"select mother from Cat as mother left join fetch mother.kittens");
Set uniqueMothers = new HashSet(mothersWithKittens.list());

A query is usually executed by invoking list(). The result of the query will be loaded
completely into a collection in memory. Entity instances retrieved by a query are in a
persistent state. The uniqueResult() method offers a shortcut if you know your query will
only return a single object. Queries that make use of eager fetching of collections usually
return duplicates of the root objects, but with their collections initialized. You can filter these
duplicates through a Set.
11.4.1.1. Iterating results
Occasionally, you might be able to achieve better performance by executing the query using
the iterate() method. This will usually be the case if you expect that the actual entity
instances returned by the query will already be in the session or second-level cache. If they
are not already cached, iterate() will be slower than list() and might require many
database hits for a simple query, usually 1 for the initial select which only returns identifiers,
and n additional selects to initialize the actual instances.
// fetch ids
Iterator iter = sess.createQuery("from eg.Qux q order by
q.likeliness").iterate();
while ( iter.hasNext() ) {

Qux qux = (Qux) iter.next(); // fetch the object

// something we couldnt express in the query
if ( qux.calculateComplicatedAlgorithm() ) {
// delete the current instance
iter.remove();
// dont need to process the rest
break;
}
}

11.4.1.2. Queries that return tuples

Hibernate queries sometimes return tuples of objects. Each tuple is returned as an array:
Iterator kittensAndMothers = sess.createQuery(
"select kitten, mother from Cat kitten join kitten.mother
mother")
.list()
.iterator();
while ( kittensAndMothers.hasNext() ) {
Object[] tuple = (Object[]) kittensAndMothers.next();
Cat kitten = (Cat) tuple[0];
Cat mother = (Cat) tuple[1];
....
}

11.4.1.3. Scalar results

Queries can specify a property of a class in the select clause. They can even call SQL
aggregate functions. Properties or aggregates are considered "scalar" results and not entities in
persistent state.
Iterator results = sess.createQuery(
"select cat.color, min(cat.birthdate), count(cat) from Cat cat " +
"group by cat.color")
.list()
.iterator();
while ( results.hasNext() ) {
Object[] row = (Object[]) results.next();
Color type = (Color) row[0];
Date oldest = (Date) row[1];
Integer count = (Integer) row[2];
.....
}

11.4.1.4. Bind parameters

Methods on Query are provided for binding values to named parameters or JDBC-style ?
parameters. Contrary to JDBC, Hibernate numbers parameters from zero. Named parameters
are identifiers of the form :name in the query string. The advantages of named parameters are
as follows:

named parameters are insensitive to the order they occur in the query string
they can occur multiple times in the same query

they are self-documenting

//named parameter (preferred)

Query q = sess.createQuery("from DomesticCat cat where cat.name = :name");
q.setString("name", "Fritz");
Iterator cats = q.iterate();
//positional parameter
Query q = sess.createQuery("from DomesticCat cat where cat.name = ?");
q.setString(0, "Izi");
Iterator cats = q.iterate();
//named parameter list
List names = new ArrayList();
names.add("Izi");
names.add("Fritz");
Query q = sess.createQuery("from DomesticCat cat where cat.name in
(:namesList)");
q.setParameterList("namesList", names);
List cats = q.list();

11.4.1.5. Pagination
If you need to specify bounds upon your result set, that is, the maximum number of rows you
want to retrieve and/or the first row you want to retrieve, you can use methods of the Query
interface:
Query q = sess.createQuery("from DomesticCat cat");
q.setFirstResult(20);
q.setMaxResults(10);
List cats = q.list();

Hibernate knows how to translate this limit query into the native SQL of your DBMS.
11.4.1.6. Scrollable iteration
If your JDBC driver supports scrollable ResultSets, the Query interface can be used to
obtain a ScrollableResults object that allows flexible navigation of the query results.
Query q = sess.createQuery("select cat.name, cat from DomesticCat cat " +
"order by cat.name");
ScrollableResults cats = q.scroll();
if ( cats.first() ) {
// find the first name on each page of an alphabetical list of cats by
name
firstNamesOfPages = new ArrayList();
do {
String name = cats.getString(0);
firstNamesOfPages.add(name);
}
while ( cats.scroll(PAGE_SIZE) );
// Now get the first page of cats
pageOfCats = new ArrayList();
cats.beforeFirst();
int i=0;
while( ( PAGE_SIZE > i++ ) && cats.next() ) pageOfCats.add( cats.get(1)
);

}
cats.close()

Note that an open database connection and cursor is required for this functionality. Use
setMaxResult()/setFirstResult() if you need offline pagination functionality.
11.4.1.7. Externalizing named queries
Queries can also be configured as so called named queries using annotations or Hibernate
mapping documents. @NamedQuery and @NamedQueries can be defined at the class level as
seen in Example 11.1, Defining a named query using @NamedQuery . However their
definitions are global to the session factory/entity manager factory scope. A named query is
defined by its name and the actual query string.
Example 11.1. Defining a named query using @NamedQuery
@Entity
@NamedQuery(name="night.moreRecentThan", query="select n from Night n where
n.date >= :date")
public class Night {
...
}
public class MyDao {
doStuff() {
Query q = s.getNamedQuery("night.moreRecentThan");
q.setDate( "date", aMonthAgo );
List results = q.list();
...
}
...
}

Using a mapping document can be configured using the <query> node. Remember to use a
CDATA section if your query contains characters that could be interpreted as markup.
Example 11.2. Defining a named query using <query>
<query name="ByNameAndMaximumWeight"><![CDATA[
from eg.DomesticCat as cat
where cat.name = ?
and cat.weight > ?
] ]></query>

Parameter binding and executing is done programatically as seen in Example 11.3,

Parameter binding of a named query.
Example 11.3. Parameter binding of a named query
Query q = sess.getNamedQuery("ByNameAndMaximumWeight");
q.setString(0, name);
q.setInt(1, minWeight);

List cats = q.list();

The actual program code is independent of the query language that is used. You can also
define native SQL queries in metadata, or migrate existing queries to Hibernate by placing
them in mapping files.
Also note that a query declaration inside a <hibernate-mapping> element requires a global
unique name for the query, while a query declaration inside a <class> element is made
unique automatically by prepending the fully qualified name of the class. For example
eg.Cat.ByNameAndMaximumWeight.

11.4.2. Filtering collections

A collection filter is a special type of query that can be applied to a persistent collection or
array. The query string can refer to this, meaning the current collection element.
Collection blackKittens = session.createFilter(
pk.getKittens(),
"where this.color = ?")
.setParameter( Color.BLACK, Hibernate.custom(ColorUserType.class) )
.list()
);

The returned collection is considered a bag that is a copy of the given collection. The original
collection is not modified. This is contrary to the implication of the name "filter", but
consistent with expected behavior.
Observe that filters do not require a from clause, although they can have one if required.
Filters are not limited to returning the collection elements themselves.
Collection blackKittenMates = session.createFilter(
pk.getKittens(),
"select this.mate where this.color = eg.Color.BLACK.intValue")
.list();

Even an empty filter query is useful, e.g. to load a subset of elements in a large collection:
Collection tenKittens = session.createFilter(
mother.getKittens(), "")
.setFirstResult(0).setMaxResults(10)
.list();

11.4.3. Criteria queries

HQL is extremely powerful, but some developers prefer to build queries dynamically using an
object-oriented API, rather than building query strings. Hibernate provides an intuitive
Criteria query API for these cases:
Criteria crit = session.createCriteria(Cat.class);
crit.add( Restrictions.eq( "color", eg.Color.BLACK ) );
crit.setMaxResults(10);
List cats = crit.list();

The Criteria and the associated Example API are discussed in more detail in Chapter 17,
Criteria Queries.

11.4.4. Queries in native SQL

You can express a query in SQL, using createSQLQuery() and let Hibernate manage the
mapping from result sets to objects. You can at any time call session.connection() and use
the JDBC Connection directly. If you choose to use the Hibernate API, you must enclose
SQL aliases in braces:
List cats = session.createSQLQuery("SELECT {cat.*} FROM CAT {cat} WHERE
ROWNUM<10")
.addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
.list();
List cats = session.createSQLQuery(
"SELECT {cat}.ID AS {cat.id}, {cat}.SEX AS {cat.sex}, " +
"{cat}.MATE AS {cat.mate}, {cat}.SUBCLASS AS {cat.class}, ... "
+
"FROM CAT {cat} WHERE ROWNUM<10")
.addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
.list()

SQL queries can contain named and positional parameters, just like Hibernate queries. More
information about native SQL queries in Hibernate can be found in Chapter 18, Native SQL.

11.5. Modifying persistent objects

Transactional persistent instances (i.e. objects loaded, saved, created or queried by the
Session) can be manipulated by the application, and any changes to persistent state will be
persisted when the Session is flushed. This is discussed later in this chapter. There is no need
to call a particular method (like update(), which has a different purpose) to make your
modifications persistent. The most straightforward way to update the state of an object is to
load() it and then manipulate it directly while the Session is open:
DomesticCat cat = (DomesticCat) sess.load( Cat.class, new Long(69) );
cat.setName("PK");
sess.flush(); // changes to cat are automatically detected and persisted

Sometimes this programming model is inefficient, as it requires in the same session both an
SQL SELECT to load an object and an SQL UPDATE to persist its updated state. Hibernate
offers an alternate approach by using detached instances.

11.6. Modifying detached objects

Many applications need to retrieve an object in one transaction, send it to the UI layer for
manipulation, then save the changes in a new transaction. Applications that use this kind of
approach in a high-concurrency environment usually use versioned data to ensure isolation for
the "long" unit of work.
Hibernate supports this model by providing for reattachment of detached instances using the
Session.update() or Session.merge() methods:

// in the first session

Cat cat = (Cat) firstSession.load(Cat.class, catId);
Cat potentialMate = new Cat();
firstSession.save(potentialMate);
// in a higher layer of the application
cat.setMate(potentialMate);
// later, in a new session
secondSession.update(cat); // update cat
secondSession.update(mate); // update mate

If the Cat with identifier catId had already been loaded by secondSession when the
application tried to reattach it, an exception would have been thrown.
Use update() if you are certain that the session does not contain an already persistent
instance with the same identifier. Use merge() if you want to merge your modifications at
any time without consideration of the state of the session. In other words, update() is usually
the first method you would call in a fresh session, ensuring that the reattachment of your
detached instances is the first operation that is executed.
The application should individually update() detached instances that are reachable from the
given detached instance only if it wants their state to be updated. This can be automated using
transitive persistence. See Section 11.11, Transitive persistence for more information.
The lock() method also allows an application to reassociate an object with a new session.
However, the detached instance has to be unmodified.
//just reassociate:
sess.lock(fritz, LockMode.NONE);
//do a version check, then reassociate:
sess.lock(izi, LockMode.READ);
//do a version check, using SELECT ... FOR UPDATE, then reassociate:
sess.lock(pk, LockMode.UPGRADE);

Note that lock() can be used with various LockModes. See the API documentation and the
chapter on transaction handling for more information. Reattachment is not the only usecase
for lock().
Other models for long units of work are discussed in Section 13.3, Optimistic concurrency
control.

11.7. Automatic state detection

Hibernate users have requested a general purpose method that either saves a transient instance
by generating a new identifier or updates/reattaches the detached instances associated with its
current identifier. The saveOrUpdate() method implements this functionality.
// in the first session
Cat cat = (Cat) firstSession.load(Cat.class, catID);
// in a higher tier of the application
Cat mate = new Cat();

cat.setMate(mate);
// later, in a new session
secondSession.saveOrUpdate(cat);
null id)
secondSession.saveOrUpdate(mate);
null id)

// update existing state (cat has a non// save the new instance (mate has a

The usage and semantics of saveOrUpdate() seems to be confusing for new users. Firstly, so
long as you are not trying to use instances from one session in another new session, you
should not need to use update(), saveOrUpdate(), or merge(). Some whole applications
will never use either of these methods.
Usually update() or saveOrUpdate() are used in the following scenario:

the application loads an object in the first session

the object is passed up to the UI tier
some modifications are made to the object
the object is passed back down to the business logic tier
the application persists these modifications by calling update() in a second session

saveOrUpdate()

does the following:

if the object is already persistent in this session, do nothing

if another object associated with the session has the same identifier, throw an
exception
if the object has no identifier property, save() it
if the object's identifier has the value assigned to a newly instantiated object, save() it
if the object is versioned by a <version> or <timestamp>, and the version property
value is the same value assigned to a newly instantiated object, save() it
otherwise update() the object

and merge() is very different:

if there is a persistent instance with the same identifier currently associated with the
session, copy the state of the given object onto the persistent instance
if there is no persistent instance currently associated with the session, try to load it
from the database, or create a new persistent instance
the persistent instance is returned
the given instance does not become associated with the session, it remains detached

11.8. Deleting persistent objects

will remove an object's state from the database. Your application,
however, can still hold a reference to a deleted object. It is best to think of delete() as
making a persistent instance, transient.
Session.delete()

sess.delete(cat);

You can delete objects in any order, without risk of foreign key constraint violations. It is still
possible to violate a NOT NULL constraint on a foreign key column by deleting objects in the
wrong order, e.g. if you delete the parent, but forget to delete the children.

11.9. Replicating object between two different datastores

It is sometimes useful to be able to take a graph of persistent instances and make them
persistent in a different datastore, without regenerating identifier values.
//retrieve a cat from one database
Session session1 = factory1.openSession();
Transaction tx1 = session1.beginTransaction();
Cat cat = session1.get(Cat.class, catId);
tx1.commit();
session1.close();
//reconcile with a second database
Session session2 = factory2.openSession();
Transaction tx2 = session2.beginTransaction();
session2.replicate(cat, ReplicationMode.LATEST_VERSION);
tx2.commit();
session2.close();

The ReplicationMode determines how replicate() will deal with conflicts with existing
rows in the database:

ReplicationMode.IGNORE:

ignores the object when there is an existing database row

with the same identifier

ReplicationMode.OVERWRITE:

overwrites any existing database row with the same

identifier

ReplicationMode.EXCEPTION:

throws an exception if there is an existing database

row with the same identifier

ReplicationMode.LATEST_VERSION:

overwrites the row if its version number is

earlier than the version number of the object, or ignore the object otherwise

Usecases for this feature include reconciling data entered into different database instances,
upgrading system configuration information during product upgrades, rolling back changes
made during non-ACID transactions and more.

11.10. Flushing the Session

Sometimes the Session will execute the SQL statements needed to synchronize the JDBC
connection's state with the state of objects held in memory. This process, called flush, occurs
by default at the following points:

before some query executions

from org.hibernate.Transaction.commit()
from Session.flush()

The SQL statements are issued in the following order:

1. all entity insertions in the same order the corresponding objects were saved using
Session.save()

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

all entity updates

all collection deletions
all collection element deletions, updates and insertions
all collection insertions
all entity deletions in the same order the corresponding objects were deleted using
Session.delete()

An exception is that objects using native ID generation are inserted when they are saved.
Except when you explicitly flush(), there are absolutely no guarantees about when the
Session executes the JDBC calls, only the order in which they are executed. However,
Hibernate does guarantee that the Query.list(..) will never return stale or incorrect data.
It is possible to change the default behavior so that flush occurs less frequently. The
FlushMode class defines three different modes: only flush at commit time when the Hibernate
Transaction API is used, flush automatically using the explained routine, or never flush
unless flush() is called explicitly. The last mode is useful for long running units of work,
where a Session is kept open and disconnected for a long time (see Section 13.3.2,
Extended session and automatic versioning).
sess = sf.openSession();
Transaction tx = sess.beginTransaction();
sess.setFlushMode(FlushMode.COMMIT); // allow queries to return stale state
Cat izi = (Cat) sess.load(Cat.class, id);
izi.setName(iznizi);
// might return stale data
sess.find("from Cat as cat left outer join cat.kittens kitten");
// change to izi is not flushed!
...
tx.commit(); // flush occurs
sess.close();

During flush, an exception might occur (e.g. if a DML operation violates a constraint). Since
handling exceptions involves some understanding of Hibernate's transactional behavior, we
discuss it in Chapter 13, Transactions and Concurrency.

11.11. Transitive persistence

It is quite cumbersome to save, delete, or reattach individual objects, especially if you deal
with a graph of associated objects. A common case is a parent/child relationship. Consider the
following example:
If the children in a parent/child relationship would be value typed (e.g. a collection of
addresses or strings), their life cycle would depend on the parent and no further action would
be required for convenient "cascading" of state changes. When the parent is saved, the valuetyped child objects are saved and when the parent is deleted, the children will be deleted, etc.
This works for operations such as the removal of a child from the collection. Since value-

typed objects cannot have shared references, Hibernate will detect this and delete the child
from the database.
Now consider the same scenario with parent and child objects being entities, not value-types
(e.g. categories and items, or parent and child cats). Entities have their own life cycle and
support shared references. Removing an entity from the collection does not mean it can be
deleted), and there is by default no cascading of state from one entity to any other associated
entities. Hibernate does not implement persistence by reachability by default.
For each basic operation of the Hibernate session - including persist(), merge(),
saveOrUpdate(), delete(), lock(), refresh(), evict(), replicate() - there is a
corresponding cascade style. Respectively, the cascade styles are named create, merge,
save-update, delete, lock, refresh, evict, replicate. If you want an operation to
be cascaded along an association, you must indicate that in the mapping document. For
example:
<one-to-one name="person" cascade="persist"/>

Cascade styles my be combined:

<one-to-one name="person" cascade="persist,delete,lock"/>

You can even use cascade="all" to specify that all operations should be cascaded along the
association. The default cascade="none" specifies that no operations are to be cascaded.
In case you are using annotatons you probably have noticed the cascade attribute taking an
array of CascadeType as a value. The cascade concept in JPA is very is similar to the
transitive persistence and cascading of operations as described above, but with slightly
different semantics and cascading types:

CascadeType.PERSIST:

cascades the persist (create) operation to associated entities

persist() is called or if the entity is managed
CascadeType.MERGE: cascades the merge operation to associated entities if merge() is
called or if the entity is managed
CascadeType.REMOVE: cascades the remove operation to associated entities if delete()
is called
CascadeType.REFRESH: cascades the refresh operation to associated entities if
refresh() is called
CascadeType.DETACH: cascades the detach operation to associated entities if detach()
is called
CascadeType.ALL: all of the above

Note
CascadeType.ALL also covers Hibernate specific operations like save-update, lock etc...
A special cascade style, delete-orphan, applies only to one-to-many associations, and
indicates that the delete() operation should be applied to any child object that is removed
from the association. Using annotations there is no CascadeType.DELETE-ORPHAN equivalent.

Instead you can use the attribute orphanRemoval as seen in Example 11.4, @OneToMany
with orphanRemoval. If an entity is removed from a @OneToMany collection or an associated
entity is dereferenced from a @OneToOne association, this associated entity can be marked for
deletion if orphanRemoval is set to true.
Example 11.4. @OneToMany with orphanRemoval
@Entity
public class Customer {
private Set<Order> orders;
@OneToMany(cascade=CascadeType.ALL, orphanRemoval=true)
public Set<Order> getOrders() { return orders; }
public void setOrders(Set<Order> orders) { this.orders = orders; }
[...]
}
@Entity
public class Order { ... }
Customer customer = em.find(Customer.class, 1l);
Order order = em.find(Order.class, 1l);
customer.getOrders().remove(order); //order will be deleted by cascade

Recommendations:

It does not usually make sense to enable cascade on a many-to-one or many-to-many

association. In fact the @ManyToOne and @ManyToMany don't even offer a
orphanRemoval attribute. Cascading is often useful for one-to-one and one-to-many
associations.
If the child object's lifespan is bounded by the lifespan of the parent object, make it a
life cycle object by specifying cascade="all,delete-orphan"
(@OneToMany(cascade=CascadeType.ALL, orphanRemoval=true)).
Otherwise, you might not need cascade at all. But if you think that you will often be
working with the parent and children together in the same transaction, and you want to
save yourself some typing, consider using cascade="persist,merge,save-update".

Mapping an association (either a single valued association, or a collection) with

cascade="all" marks the association as a parent/child style relationship where
save/update/delete of the parent results in save/update/delete of the child or children.
Furthermore, a mere reference to a child from a persistent parent will result in save/update of
the child. This metaphor is incomplete, however. A child which becomes unreferenced by its
parent is not automatically deleted, except in the case of a one-to-many association mapped
with cascade="delete-orphan". The precise semantics of cascading operations for a
parent/child relationship are as follows:

If a parent is passed to persist(), all children are passed to persist()

If a parent is passed to merge(), all children are passed to merge()

If a parent is passed to save(), update() or saveOrUpdate(), all children are passed

to saveOrUpdate()
If a transient or detached child becomes referenced by a persistent parent, it is passed
to saveOrUpdate()
If a parent is deleted, all children are passed to delete()
If a child is dereferenced by a persistent parent, nothing special happens - the
application should explicitly delete the child if necessary - unless cascade="deleteorphan", in which case the "orphaned" child is deleted.

Finally, note that cascading of operations can be applied to an object graph at call time or at
flush time. All operations, if enabled, are cascaded to associated entities reachable when the
operation is executed. However, save-update and delete-orphan are transitive for all
associated entities reachable during flush of the Session.

11.12. Using metadata

Hibernate requires a rich meta-level model of all entity and value types. This model can be
useful to the application itself. For example, the application might use Hibernate's metadata to
implement a "smart" deep-copy algorithm that understands which objects should be copied
(eg. mutable value types) and which objects that should not (e.g. immutable value types and,
possibly, associated entities).
Hibernate exposes metadata via the ClassMetadata and CollectionMetadata interfaces and
the Type hierarchy. Instances of the metadata interfaces can be obtained from the
SessionFactory.
Cat fritz = ......;
ClassMetadata catMeta = sessionfactory.getClassMetadata(Cat.class);
Object[] propertyValues = catMeta.getPropertyValues(fritz);
String[] propertyNames = catMeta.getPropertyNames();
Type[] propertyTypes = catMeta.getPropertyTypes();
// get a Map of all properties which are not collections or associations
Map namedValues = new HashMap();
for ( int i=0; i<propertyNames.length; i++ ) {
if ( !propertyTypes[i].isEntityType() &&
!propertyTypes[i].isCollectionType() ) {
namedValues.put( propertyNames[i], propertyValues[i] );
}
}

Chapter 12. Read-only entities

Table of Contents
12.1. Making persistent entities read-only
12.1.1. Entities of immutable classes
12.1.2. Loading persistent entities as read-only
12.1.3. Loading read-only entities from an HQL query/criteria
12.1.4. Making a persistent entity read-only

12.2. Read-only affect on property type

12.2.1. Simple properties
12.2.2. Unidirectional associations
12.2.3. Bidirectional associations

Important
Hibernate's treatment of read-only entities may differ from what you may have encountered
elsewhere. Incorrect usage may cause unexpected results.
When an entity is read-only:

Hibernate does not dirty-check the entity's simple properties or single-ended

associations;
Hibernate will not update simple properties or updatable single-ended associations;
Hibernate will not update the version of the read-only entity if only simple properties
or single-ended updatable associations are changed;

In some ways, Hibernate treats read-only entities the same as entities that are not read-only:

Hibernate cascades operations to associations as defined in the entity mapping.

Hibernate updates the version if the entity has a collection with changes that dirties the
entity;
A read-only entity can be deleted.

Even if an entity is not read-only, its collection association can be affected if it contains a
read-only entity.
For details about the affect of read-only entities on different property and association types,
see Section 12.2, Read-only affect on property type.
For details about how to make entities read-only, see Section 12.1, Making persistent entities
read-only
Hibernate does some optimizing for read-only entities:

It saves execution time by not dirty-checking simple properties or single-ended

associations.
It saves memory by deleting database snapshots.

12.1. Making persistent entities read-only

Only persistent entities can be made read-only. Transient and detached entities must be put in
persistent state before they can be made read-only.
Hibernate provides the following ways to make persistent entities read-only:

you can map an entity class as immutable; when an entity of an immutable class is
made persistent, Hibernate automatically makes it read-only. see Section 12.1.1,
Entities of immutable classes for details
you can change a default so that entities loaded into the session by Hibernate are
automatically made read-only; see Section 12.1.2, Loading persistent entities as readonly for details
you can make an HQL query or criteria read-only so that entities loaded when the
query or criteria executes, scrolls, or iterates, are automatically made read-only; see
Section 12.1.3, Loading read-only entities from an HQL query/criteria for details
you can make a persistent entity that is already in the in the session read-only; see
Section 12.1.4, Making a persistent entity read-only for details

12.1.1. Entities of immutable classes

When an entity instance of an immutable class is made persistent, Hibernate automatically
makes it read-only.
An entity of an immutable class can created and deleted the same as an entity of a mutable
class.
Hibernate treats a persistent entity of an immutable class the same way as a read-only
persistent entity of a mutable class. The only exception is that Hibernate will not allow an
entity of an immutable class to be changed so it is not read-only.

12.1.2. Loading persistent entities as read-only

Note
Entities of immutable classes are automatically loaded as read-only.
To change the default behavior so Hibernate loads entity instances of mutable classes into the
session and automatically makes them read-only, call:
Session.setDefaultReadOnly( true );

To change the default back so entities loaded by Hibernate are not made read-only, call:
Session.setDefaultReadOnly( false );

You can determine the current setting by calling:

Session.isDefaultReadOnly();

If Session.isDefaultReadOnly() returns true, entities loaded by the following are automatically

made read-only:

Session.load()
Session.get()
Session.merge()

executing, scrolling, or iterating HQL queries and criteria; to override this setting for a
particular HQL query or criteria see Section 12.1.3, Loading read-only entities from
an HQL query/criteria

Changing this default has no effect on:

persistent entities already in the session when the default was changed
persistent entities that are refreshed via Session.refresh(); a refreshed persistent entity
will only be read-only if it was read-only before refreshing
persistent entities added by the application via Session.persist(), Session.save(), and
Session.update() Session.saveOrUpdate()

12.1.3. Loading read-only entities from an HQL query/criteria

Note
Entities of immutable classes are automatically loaded as read-only.
If Session.isDefaultReadOnly() returns false (the default) when an HQL query or criteria
executes, then entities and proxies of mutable classes loaded by the query will not be readonly.
You can override this behavior so that entities and proxies loaded by an HQL query or criteria
are automatically made read-only.
For an HQL query, call:
Query.setReadOnly( true );
Query.setReadOnly( true ) must be called before Query.list(),
Query.uniqueResult(), Query.scroll(), or Query.iterate()

For an HQL criteria, call:

Criteria.setReadOnly( true );
Criteria.setReadOnly( true ) must be called before Criteria.list(),
Criteria.uniqueResult(), or Criteria.scroll()

Entities and proxies that exist in the session before being returned by an HQL query or criteria
are not affected.
Uninitialized persistent collections returned by the query are not affected. Later, when the
collection is initialized, entities loaded into the session will be read-only if
Session.isDefaultReadOnly() returns true.
Using Query.setReadOnly( true ) or Criteria.setReadOnly( true ) works well when
a single HQL query or criteria loads all the entities and intializes all the proxies and
collections that the application needs to be read-only.

When it is not possible to load and initialize all necessary entities in a single query or criteria,
you can temporarily change the session default to load entities as read-only before the query is
executed. Then you can explicitly initialize proxies and collections before restoring the
session default.
Session session = factory.openSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
setDefaultReadOnly( true );
Contract contract =
( Contract ) session.createQuery(
"from Contract where customerName = 'Sherman'" )
.uniqueResult();
Hibernate.initialize( contract.getPlan() );
Hibernate.initialize( contract.getVariations() );
Hibernate.initialize( contract.getNotes() );
setDefaultReadOnly( false );
...
tx.commit();
session.close();

If Session.isDefaultReadOnly() returns true, then you can use Query.setReadOnly( false ) and
Criteria.setReadOnly( false ) to override this session setting and load entities that are not readonly.

12.1.4. Making a persistent entity read-only

Note
Persistent entities of immutable classes are automatically made read-only.
To make a persistent entity or proxy read-only, call:
Session.setReadOnly(entityOrProxy, true)

To change a read-only entity or proxy of a mutable class so it is no longer read-only, call:

Session.setReadOnly(entityOrProxy, false)

Important
When a read-only entity or proxy is changed so it is no longer read-only, Hibernate assumes
that the current state of the read-only entity is consistent with its database representation. If
this is not true, then any non-flushed changes made before or while the entity was read-only,
will be ignored.
To throw away non-flushed changes and make the persistent entity consistent with its
database representation, call:
session.refresh( entity );

To flush changes made before or while the entity was read-only and make the database
representation consistent with the current state of the persistent entity:
// evict the read-only entity so it is detached
session.evict( entity );
// make the detached entity (with the non-flushed changes) persistent
session.update( entity );
// now entity is no longer read-only and its changes can be flushed
s.flush();

12.2. Read-only affect on property type

The following table summarizes how different property types are affected by making an entity
read-only.
Table 12.1. Affect of read-only entity on property types
Property/Association Type

Changes flushed to DB?

Simple
no*
(Section 12.2.1, Simple properties)
Unidirectional one-to-one
Unidirectional many-to-one
(Section 12.2.2.1, Unidirectional one-to-one and
many-to-one)

no*
no*

Unidirectional one-to-many
Unidirectional many-to-many
(Section 12.2.2.2, Unidirectional one-to-many and
many-to-many)
Bidirectional one-to-one
(Section 12.2.3.1, Bidirectional one-to-one)

yes
yes

only if the owning entity is not readonly*

Bidirectional one-to-many/many-to-one
inverse collection

only added/removed entities that are

not read-only*

non-inverse collection
yes
(Section 12.2.3.2, Bidirectional one-to-many/manyto-one)
Bidirectional many-to-many

yes

Property/Association Type
(Section 12.2.3.3, Bidirectional many-to-many)

Changes flushed to DB?

* Behavior is different when the entity having the property/association is read-only, compared
to when it is not read-only.

12.2.1. Simple properties

When a persistent object is read-only, Hibernate does not dirty-check simple properties.
Hibernate will not synchronize simple property state changes to the database. If you have
automatic versioning, Hibernate will not increment the version if any simple properties
change.
Session session = factory.openSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
// get a contract and make it read-only
Contract contract = ( Contract ) session.get( Contract.class, contractId );
session.setReadOnly( contract, true );
// contract.getCustomerName() is "Sherman"
contract.setCustomerName( "Yogi" );
tx.commit();
tx = session.beginTransaction();
contract = ( Contract ) session.get( Contract.class, contractId );
// contract.getCustomerName() is still "Sherman"
...
tx.commit();
session.close();

12.2.2. Unidirectional associations

12.2.2.1. Unidirectional one-to-one and many-to-one
Hibernate treats unidirectional one-to-one and many-to-one associations in the same way
when the owning entity is read-only.
We use the term unidirectional single-ended association when referring to functionality that
is common to unidirectional one-to-one and many-to-one associations.
Hibernate does not dirty-check unidirectional single-ended associations when the owning
entity is read-only.
If you change a read-only entity's reference to a unidirectional single-ended association to
null, or to refer to a different entity, that change will not be flushed to the database.

Note

If an entity is of an immutable class, then its references to unidirectional single-ended

associations must be assigned when that entity is first created. Because the entity is
automatically made read-only, these references can not be updated.
If automatic versioning is used, Hibernate will not increment the version due to local changes
to unidirectional single-ended associations.
In the following examples, Contract has a unidirectional many-to-one association with Plan.
Contract cascades save and update operations to the association.
The following shows that changing a read-only entity's many-to-one association reference to
null has no effect on the entity's database representation.
// get a contract with an existing plan;
// make the contract read-only and set its plan to null
tx = session.beginTransaction();
Contract contract = ( Contract ) session.get( Contract.class, contractId );
session.setReadOnly( contract, true );
contract.setPlan( null );
tx.commit();
// get the same contract
tx = session.beginTransaction();
contract = ( Contract ) session.get( Contract.class, contractId );
// contract.getPlan() still refers to the original plan;
tx.commit();
session.close();

The following shows that, even though an update to a read-only entity's many-to-one
association has no affect on the entity's database representation, flush still cascades the saveupdate operation to the locally changed association.
// get a contract with an existing plan;
// make the contract read-only and change to a new plan
tx = session.beginTransaction();
Contract contract = ( Contract ) session.get( Contract.class, contractId );
session.setReadOnly( contract, true );
Plan newPlan = new Plan( "new plan"
contract.setPlan( newPlan);
tx.commit();
// get the same contract
tx = session.beginTransaction();
contract = ( Contract ) session.get( Contract.class, contractId );
newPlan = ( Contract ) session.get( Plan.class, newPlan.getId() );
// contract.getPlan() still refers to the original plan;
// newPlan is non-null because it was persisted when
// the previous transaction was committed;
tx.commit();
session.close();

12.2.2.2. Unidirectional one-to-many and many-to-many

Hibernate treats unidirectional one-to-many and many-to-many associations owned by a readonly entity the same as when owned by an entity that is not read-only.
Hibernate dirty-checks unidirectional one-to-many and many-to-many associations;
The collection can contain entities that are read-only, as well as entities that are not read-only.
Entities can be added and removed from the collection; changes are flushed to the database.
If automatic versioning is used, Hibernate will update the version due to changes in the
collection if they dirty the owning entity.

12.2.3. Bidirectional associations

12.2.3.1. Bidirectional one-to-one
If a read-only entity owns a bidirectional one-to-one association:

Hibernate does not dirty-check the association.

updates that change the association reference to null or to refer to a different entity
will not be flushed to the database.
If automatic versioning is used, Hibernate will not increment the version due to local
changes to the association.

Note
If an entity is of an immutable class, and it owns a bidirectional one-to-one association, then
its reference must be assigned when that entity is first created. Because the entity is
automatically made read-only, these references cannot be updated.
When the owner is not read-only, Hibernate treats an association with a read-only entity the
same as when the association is with an entity that is not read-only.
12.2.3.2. Bidirectional one-to-many/many-to-one
A read-only entity has no impact on a bidirectional one-to-many/many-to-one association if:

the read-only entity is on the one-to-many side using an inverse collection;

the read-only entity is on the one-to-many side using a non-inverse collection;
the one-to-many side uses a non-inverse collection that contains the read-only entity

When the one-to-many side uses an inverse collection:

a read-only entity can only be added to the collection when it is created;

a read-only entity can only be removed from the collection by an orphan delete or by
explicitly deleting the entity.

12.2.3.3. Bidirectional many-to-many

Hibernate treats bidirectional many-to-many associations owned by a read-only entity the

same as when owned by an entity that is not read-only.
Hibernate dirty-checks bidirectional many-to-many associations.
The collection on either side of the association can contain entities that are read-only, as well
as entities that are not read-only.
Entities are added and removed from both sides of the collection; changes are flushed to the
database.
If automatic versioning is used, Hibernate will update the version due to changes in both sides
of the collection if they dirty the entity owning the respective collections.

Chapter 13. Transactions and Concurrency

Table of Contents
13.1. Session and transaction scopes
13.1.1. Unit of work
13.1.2. Long conversations
13.1.3. Considering object identity
13.1.4. Common issues
13.2. Database transaction demarcation
13.2.1. Non-managed environment
13.2.2. Using JTA
13.2.3. Exception handling
13.2.4. Transaction timeout
13.3. Optimistic concurrency control
13.3.1. Application version checking
13.3.2. Extended session and automatic versioning
13.3.3. Detached objects and automatic versioning
13.3.4. Customizing automatic versioning
13.4. Pessimistic locking
13.5. Connection release modes
The most important point about Hibernate and concurrency control is that it is easy to
understand. Hibernate directly uses JDBC connections and JTA resources without adding any
additional locking behavior. It is recommended that you spend some time with the JDBC,
ANSI, and transaction isolation specification of your database management system.
Hibernate does not lock objects in memory. Your application can expect the behavior as
defined by the isolation level of your database transactions. Through Session, which is also a
transaction-scoped cache, Hibernate provides repeatable reads for lookup by identifier and
entity queries and not reporting queries that return scalar values.
In addition to versioning for automatic optimistic concurrency control, Hibernate also offers,
using the SELECT FOR UPDATE syntax, a (minor) API for pessimistic locking of rows.
Optimistic concurrency control and this API are discussed later in this chapter.

The discussion of concurrency control in Hibernate begins with the granularity of

Configuration, SessionFactory, and Session, as well as database transactions and long
conversations.

13.1. Session and transaction scopes

A SessionFactory is an expensive-to-create, threadsafe object, intended to be shared by all
application threads. It is created once, usually on application startup, from a Configuration
instance.
A Session is an inexpensive, non-threadsafe object that should be used once and then
discarded for: a single request, a conversation or a single unit of work. A Session will not
obtain a JDBC Connection, or a Datasource, unless it is needed. It will not consume any
resources until used.
In order to reduce lock contention in the database, a database transaction has to be as short as
possible. Long database transactions will prevent your application from scaling to a highly
concurrent load. It is not recommended that you hold a database transaction open during user
think time until the unit of work is complete.
What is the scope of a unit of work? Can a single Hibernate Session span several database
transactions, or is this a one-to-one relationship of scopes? When should you open and close a
Session and how do you demarcate the database transaction boundaries? These questions are
addressed in the following sections.

13.1.1. Unit of work

First, let's define a unit of work. A unit of work is a design pattern described by Martin
Fowler as [maintaining] a list of objects affected by a business transaction and coordinates
the writing out of changes and the resolution of concurrency problems. [PoEAA] In other
words, its a series of operations we wish to carry out against the database together. Basically,
it is a transaction, though fulfilling a unit of work will often span multiple physical database
transactions (see Section 13.1.2, Long conversations). So really we are talking about a more
abstract notion of a transaction. The term "business transaction" is also sometimes used in lieu
of unit of work.
Do not use the session-per-operation antipattern: do not open and close a Session for every
simple database call in a single thread. The same is true for database transactions. Database
calls in an application are made using a planned sequence; they are grouped into atomic units
of work. This also means that auto-commit after every single SQL statement is useless in an
application as this mode is intended for ad-hoc SQL console work. Hibernate disables, or
expects the application server to disable, auto-commit mode immediately. Database
transactions are never optional. All communication with a database has to occur inside a
transaction. Auto-commit behavior for reading data should be avoided, as many small
transactions are unlikely to perform better than one clearly defined unit of work. The latter is
also more maintainable and extensible.
The most common pattern in a multi-user client/server application is session-per-request. In
this model, a request from the client is sent to the server, where the Hibernate persistence

layer runs. A new Hibernate Session is opened, and all database operations are executed in
this unit of work. On completion of the work, and once the response for the client has been
prepared, the session is flushed and closed. Use a single database transaction to serve the
clients request, starting and committing it when you open and close the Session. The
relationship between the two is one-to-one and this model is a perfect fit for many
applications.
The challenge lies in the implementation. Hibernate provides built-in management of the
"current session" to simplify this pattern. Start a transaction when a server request has to be
processed, and end the transaction before the response is sent to the client. Common solutions
are ServletFilter, AOP interceptor with a pointcut on the service methods, or a
proxy/interception container. An EJB container is a standardized way to implement crosscutting aspects such as transaction demarcation on EJB session beans, declaratively with
CMT. If you use programmatic transaction demarcation, for ease of use and code portability
use the Hibernate Transaction API shown later in this chapter.
Your application code can access a "current session" to process the request by calling
sessionFactory.getCurrentSession(). You will always get a Session scoped to the
current database transaction. This has to be configured for either resource-local or JTA
environments, see Section 2.2, Contextual sessions.
You can extend the scope of a Session and database transaction until the "view has been
rendered". This is especially useful in servlet applications that utilize a separate rendering
phase after the request has been processed. Extending the database transaction until view
rendering, is achieved by implementing your own interceptor. However, this will be difficult
if you rely on EJBs with container-managed transactions. A transaction will be completed
when an EJB method returns, before rendering of any view can start. See the Hibernate
website and forum for tips and examples relating to this Open Session in View pattern.

13.1.2. Long conversations

The session-per-request pattern is not the only way of designing units of work. Many business
processes require a whole series of interactions with the user that are interleaved with
database accesses. In web and enterprise applications, it is not acceptable for a database
transaction to span a user interaction. Consider the following example:

The first screen of a dialog opens. The data seen by the user has been loaded in a
particular Session and database transaction. The user is free to modify the objects.
The user clicks "Save" after 5 minutes and expects their modifications to be made
persistent. The user also expects that they were the only person editing this
information and that no conflicting modification has occurred.

From the point of view of the user, we call this unit of work a long-running conversation or
application transaction. There are many ways to implement this in your application.
A first naive implementation might keep the Session and database transaction open during
user think time, with locks held in the database to prevent concurrent modification and to
guarantee isolation and atomicity. This is an anti-pattern, since lock contention would not
allow the application to scale with the number of concurrent users.

You have to use several database transactions to implement the conversation. In this case,
maintaining isolation of business processes becomes the partial responsibility of the
application tier. A single conversation usually spans several database transactions. It will be
atomic if only one of these database transactions (the last one) stores the updated data. All
others simply read data (for example, in a wizard-style dialog spanning several
request/response cycles). This is easier to implement than it might sound, especially if you
utilize some of Hibernate's features:

Automatic Versioning: Hibernate can perform automatic optimistic concurrency

control for you. It can automatically detect if a concurrent modification occurred
during user think time. Check for this at the end of the conversation.
Detached Objects: if you decide to use the session-per-request pattern, all loaded
instances will be in the detached state during user think time. Hibernate allows you to
reattach the objects and persist the modifications. The pattern is called session-perrequest-with-detached-objects. Automatic versioning is used to isolate concurrent
modifications.
Extended (or Long) Session: the Hibernate Session can be disconnected from the
underlying JDBC connection after the database transaction has been committed and
reconnected when a new client request occurs. This pattern is known as session-perconversation and makes even reattachment unnecessary. Automatic versioning is used
to isolate concurrent modifications and the Session will not be allowed to be flushed
automatically, but explicitly.

Both session-per-request-with-detached-objects and session-per-conversation have

advantages and disadvantages. These disadvantages are discussed later in this chapter in the
context of optimistic concurrency control.

13.1.3. Considering object identity

An application can concurrently access the same persistent state in two different Sessions.
However, an instance of a persistent class is never shared between two Session instances. It
is for this reason that there are two different notions of identity:
Database Identity
foo.getId().equals( bar.getId() )

JVM Identity
foo==bar

For objects attached to a particular Session (i.e., in the scope of a Session), the two notions
are equivalent and JVM identity for database identity is guaranteed by Hibernate. While the
application might concurrently access the "same" (persistent identity) business object in two
different sessions, the two instances will actually be "different" (JVM identity). Conflicts are
resolved using an optimistic approach and automatic versioning at flush/commit time.
This approach leaves Hibernate and the database to worry about concurrency. It also provides
the best scalability, since guaranteeing identity in single-threaded units of work means that it
does not need expensive locking or other means of synchronization. The application does not

need to synchronize on any business object, as long as it maintains a single thread per
Session. Within a Session the application can safely use == to compare objects.
However, an application that uses == outside of a Session might produce unexpected results.
This might occur even in some unexpected places. For example, if you put two detached
instances into the same Set, both might have the same database identity (i.e., they represent
the same row). JVM identity, however, is by definition not guaranteed for instances in a
detached state. The developer has to override the equals() and hashCode() methods in
persistent classes and implement their own notion of object equality. There is one caveat:
never use the database identifier to implement equality. Use a business key that is a
combination of unique, usually immutable, attributes. The database identifier will change if a
transient object is made persistent. If the transient instance (usually together with detached
instances) is held in a Set, changing the hashcode breaks the contract of the Set. Attributes
for business keys do not have to be as stable as database primary keys; you only have to
guarantee stability as long as the objects are in the same Set. See the Hibernate website for a
more thorough discussion of this issue. Please note that this is not a Hibernate issue, but
simply how Java object identity and equality has to be implemented.

13.1.4. Common issues

Do not use the anti-patterns session-per-user-session or session-per-application (there are,
however, rare exceptions to this rule). Some of the following issues might also arise within
the recommended patterns, so ensure that you understand the implications before making a
design decision:

A Session is not thread-safe. Things that work concurrently, like HTTP requests,
session beans, or Swing workers, will cause race conditions if a Session instance is
shared. If you keep your Hibernate Session in your HttpSession (this is discussed
later in the chapter), you should consider synchronizing access to your Http session.
Otherwise, a user that clicks reload fast enough can use the same Session in two
concurrently running threads.
An exception thrown by Hibernate means you have to rollback your database
transaction and close the Session immediately (this is discussed in more detail later in
the chapter). If your Session is bound to the application, you have to stop the
application. Rolling back the database transaction does not put your business objects
back into the state they were at the start of the transaction. This means that the
database state and the business objects will be out of sync. Usually this is not a
problem, because exceptions are not recoverable and you will have to start over after
rollback anyway.
The Session caches every object that is in a persistent state (watched and checked for
dirty state by Hibernate). If you keep it open for a long time or simply load too much
data, it will grow endlessly until you get an OutOfMemoryException. One solution is
to call clear() and evict() to manage the Session cache, but you should consider a
Stored Procedure if you need mass data operations. Some solutions are shown in
Chapter 15, Batch processing. Keeping a Session open for the duration of a user
session also means a higher probability of stale data.

13.2. Database transaction demarcation

Database, or system, transaction boundaries are always necessary. No communication with

the database can occur outside of a database transaction (this seems to confuse many
developers who are used to the auto-commit mode). Always use clear transaction boundaries,
even for read-only operations. Depending on your isolation level and database capabilities this
might not be required, but there is no downside if you always demarcate transactions
explicitly. Certainly, a single database transaction is going to perform better than many small
transactions, even for reading data.
A Hibernate application can run in non-managed (i.e., standalone, simple Web- or Swing
applications) and managed J2EE environments. In a non-managed environment, Hibernate is
usually responsible for its own database connection pool. The application developer has to
manually set transaction boundaries (begin, commit, or rollback database transactions)
themselves. A managed environment usually provides container-managed transactions
(CMT), with the transaction assembly defined declaratively (in deployment descriptors of
EJB session beans, for example). Programmatic transaction demarcation is then no longer
necessary.
However, it is often desirable to keep your persistence layer portable between non-managed
resource-local environments, and systems that can rely on JTA but use BMT instead of CMT.
In both cases use programmatic transaction demarcation. Hibernate offers a wrapper API
called Transaction that translates into the native transaction system of your deployment
environment. This API is actually optional, but we strongly encourage its use unless you are
in a CMT session bean.
Ending a Session usually involves four distinct phases:

flush the session

commit the transaction
close the session
handle exceptions

We discussed Flushing the session earlier, so we will now have a closer look at transaction
demarcation and exception handling in both managed and non-managed environments.

13.2.1. Non-managed environment

If a Hibernate persistence layer runs in a non-managed environment, database connections are
usually handled by simple (i.e., non-DataSource) connection pools from which Hibernate
obtains connections as needed. The session/transaction handling idiom looks like this:
// Non-managed environment idiom
Session sess = factory.openSession();
Transaction tx = null;
try {
tx = sess.beginTransaction();
// do some work
...
tx.commit();
}
catch (RuntimeException e) {

if (tx != null) tx.rollback();

throw e; // or display error message
}
finally {
sess.close();
}

You do not have to flush() the Session explicitly: the call to commit() automatically
triggers the synchronization depending on the Section 11.10, Flushing the Session for the
session. A call to close() marks the end of a session. The main implication of close() is
that the JDBC connection will be relinquished by the session. This Java code is portable and
runs in both non-managed and JTA environments.
As outlined earlier, a much more flexible solution is Hibernate's built-in "current session"
context management:
// Non-managed environment idiom with getCurrentSession()
try {
factory.getCurrentSession().beginTransaction();
// do some work
...
factory.getCurrentSession().getTransaction().commit();
}
catch (RuntimeException e) {
factory.getCurrentSession().getTransaction().rollback();
throw e; // or display error message
}

You will not see these code snippets in a regular application; fatal (system) exceptions should
always be caught at the "top". In other words, the code that executes Hibernate calls in the
persistence layer, and the code that handles RuntimeException (and usually can only clean
up and exit), are in different layers. The current context management by Hibernate can
significantly simplify this design by accessing a SessionFactory. Exception handling is
discussed later in this chapter.
You should select org.hibernate.transaction.JDBCTransactionFactory, which is the
default, and for the second example select "thread" as your
hibernate.current_session_context_class.

13.2.2. Using JTA

If your persistence layer runs in an application server (for example, behind EJB session
beans), every datasource connection obtained by Hibernate will automatically be part of the
global JTA transaction. You can also install a standalone JTA implementation and use it
without EJB. Hibernate offers two strategies for JTA integration.
If you use bean-managed transactions (BMT), Hibernate will tell the application server to
start and end a BMT transaction if you use the Transaction API. The transaction
management code is identical to the non-managed environment.
// BMT idiom
Session sess = factory.openSession();

Transaction tx = null;
try {
tx = sess.beginTransaction();
// do some work
...
tx.commit();
}
catch (RuntimeException e) {
if (tx != null) tx.rollback();
throw e; // or display error message
}
finally {
sess.close();
}

If you want to use a transaction-bound Session, that is, the getCurrentSession()

functionality for easy context propagation, use the JTA UserTransaction API directly:
// BMT idiom with getCurrentSession()
try {
UserTransaction tx = (UserTransaction)new InitialContext()
.lookup("java:comp/UserTransaction");
tx.begin();
// Do some work on Session bound to transaction
factory.getCurrentSession().load(...);
factory.getCurrentSession().persist(...);
tx.commit();
}
catch (RuntimeException e) {
tx.rollback();
throw e; // or display error message
}

With CMT, transaction demarcation is completed in session bean deployment descriptors, not
programmatically. The code is reduced to:
// CMT idiom
Session sess = factory.getCurrentSession();
// do some work
...

In a CMT/EJB, even rollback happens automatically. An unhandled RuntimeException

thrown by a session bean method tells the container to set the global transaction to rollback.
You do not need to use the Hibernate Transaction API at all with BMT or CMT, and you get
automatic propagation of the "current" Session bound to the transaction.
When configuring Hibernate's transaction factory, choose
org.hibernate.transaction.JTATransactionFactory if you use JTA directly (BMT),
and org.hibernate.transaction.CMTTransactionFactory in a CMT session bean.
Remember to also set hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_class. Ensure that your

hibernate.current_session_context_class
is set to "jta".

is either unset (backwards compatibility), or

The getCurrentSession() operation has one downside in a JTA environment. There is one
caveat to the use of after_statement connection release mode, which is then used by
default. Due to a limitation of the JTA spec, it is not possible for Hibernate to automatically
clean up any unclosed ScrollableResults or Iterator instances returned by scroll() or
iterate(). You must release the underlying database cursor by calling
ScrollableResults.close() or Hibernate.close(Iterator) explicitly from a finally
block. Most applications can easily avoid using scroll() or iterate() from the JTA or
CMT code.)

13.2.3. Exception handling

If the Session throws an exception, including any SQLException, immediately rollback the
database transaction, call Session.close() and discard the Session instance. Certain
methods of Session will not leave the session in a consistent state. No exception thrown by
Hibernate can be treated as recoverable. Ensure that the Session will be closed by calling
close() in a finally block.
The HibernateException, which wraps most of the errors that can occur in a Hibernate
persistence layer, is an unchecked exception. It was not in older versions of Hibernate. In our
opinion, we should not force the application developer to catch an unrecoverable exception at
a low layer. In most systems, unchecked and fatal exceptions are handled in one of the first
frames of the method call stack (i.e., in higher layers) and either an error message is presented
to the application user or some other appropriate action is taken. Note that Hibernate might
also throw other unchecked exceptions that are not a HibernateException. These are not
recoverable and appropriate action should be taken.
Hibernate wraps SQLExceptions thrown while interacting with the database in a
JDBCException. In fact, Hibernate will attempt to convert the exception into a more
meaningful subclass of JDBCException. The underlying SQLException is always available
via JDBCException.getCause(). Hibernate converts the SQLException into an appropriate
JDBCException subclass using the SQLExceptionConverter attached to the
SessionFactory. By default, the SQLExceptionConverter is defined by the configured
dialect. However, it is also possible to plug in a custom implementation. See the javadocs for
the SQLExceptionConverterFactory class for details. The standard JDBCException
subtypes are:

JDBCConnectionException:

indicates an error with the underlying JDBC

communication.

SQLGrammarException: indicates a grammar or syntax problem with the issued

ConstraintViolationException: indicates some form of integrity constraint

SQL.

violation.

LockAcquisitionException:

indicates an error acquiring a lock level necessary to

perform the requested operation.
GenericJDBCException: a generic exception which did not fall into any of the other
categories.

13.2.4. Transaction timeout

An important feature provided by a managed environment like EJB, that is never provided for
non-managed code, is transaction timeout. Transaction timeouts ensure that no misbehaving
transaction can indefinitely tie up resources while returning no response to the user. Outside a
managed (JTA) environment, Hibernate cannot fully provide this functionality. However,
Hibernate can at least control data access operations, ensuring that database level deadlocks
and queries with huge result sets are limited by a defined timeout. In a managed environment,
Hibernate can delegate transaction timeout to JTA. This functionality is abstracted by the
Hibernate Transaction object.
Session sess = factory.openSession();
try {
//set transaction timeout to 3 seconds
sess.getTransaction().setTimeout(3);
sess.getTransaction().begin();
// do some work
...
sess.getTransaction().commit()
}
catch (RuntimeException e) {
sess.getTransaction().rollback();
throw e; // or display error message
}
finally {
sess.close();
}
setTimeout()

cannot be called in a CMT bean, where transaction timeouts must be defined

declaratively.

13.3. Optimistic concurrency control

The only approach that is consistent with high concurrency and high scalability, is optimistic
concurrency control with versioning. Version checking uses version numbers, or timestamps,
to detect conflicting updates and to prevent lost updates. Hibernate provides three possible
approaches to writing application code that uses optimistic concurrency. The use cases we
discuss are in the context of long conversations, but version checking also has the benefit of
preventing lost updates in single database transactions.

13.3.1. Application version checking

In an implementation without much help from Hibernate, each interaction with the database
occurs in a new Session and the developer is responsible for reloading all persistent instances
from the database before manipulating them. The application is forced to carry out its own
version checking to ensure conversation transaction isolation. This approach is the least
efficient in terms of database access. It is the approach most similar to entity EJBs.
// foo is an instance loaded by a previous Session
session = factory.openSession();
Transaction t = session.beginTransaction();

int oldVersion = foo.getVersion();

session.load( foo, foo.getKey() ); // load the current state
if ( oldVersion != foo.getVersion() ) throw new
StaleObjectStateException();
foo.setProperty("bar");
t.commit();
session.close();

The version property is mapped using <version>, and Hibernate will automatically
increment it during flush if the entity is dirty.
If you are operating in a low-data-concurrency environment, and do not require version
checking, you can use this approach and skip the version check. In this case, last commit wins
is the default strategy for long conversations. Be aware that this might confuse the users of the
application, as they might experience lost updates without error messages or a chance to
merge conflicting changes.
Manual version checking is only feasible in trivial circumstances and not practical for most
applications. Often not only single instances, but complete graphs of modified objects, have to
be checked. Hibernate offers automatic version checking with either an extended Session or
detached instances as the design paradigm.

13.3.2. Extended session and automatic versioning

A single Session instance and its persistent instances that are used for the whole conversation
are known as session-per-conversation. Hibernate checks instance versions at flush time,
throwing an exception if concurrent modification is detected. It is up to the developer to catch
and handle this exception. Common options are the opportunity for the user to merge changes
or to restart the business conversation with non-stale data.
The Session is disconnected from any underlying JDBC connection when waiting for user
interaction. This approach is the most efficient in terms of database access. The application
does not version check or reattach detached instances, nor does it have to reload instances in
every database transaction.
// foo is an instance loaded earlier by the old session
Transaction t = session.beginTransaction(); // Obtain a new JDBC
connection, start transaction
foo.setProperty("bar");
session.flush();
t.commit();
session.close();

// Only for last transaction in conversation

// Also return JDBC connection
// Only for last transaction in conversation

The foo object knows which Session it was loaded in. Beginning a new database transaction
on an old session obtains a new connection and resumes the session. Committing a database
transaction disconnects a session from the JDBC connection and returns the connection to the
pool. After reconnection, to force a version check on data you are not updating, you can call
Session.lock() with LockMode.READ on any objects that might have been updated by
another transaction. You do not need to lock any data that you are updating. Usually you

would set FlushMode.MANUAL on an extended Session, so that only the last database
transaction cycle is allowed to actually persist all modifications made in this conversation.
Only this last database transaction will include the flush() operation, and then close() the
session to end the conversation.
This pattern is problematic if the Session is too big to be stored during user think time (for
example, an HttpSession should be kept as small as possible). As the Session is also the
first-level cache and contains all loaded objects, we can probably use this strategy only for a
few request/response cycles. Use a Session only for a single conversation as it will soon have
stale data.

Note
Earlier versions of Hibernate required explicit disconnection and reconnection of a Session.
These methods are deprecated, as beginning and ending a transaction has the same effect.
Keep the disconnected Session close to the persistence layer. Use an EJB stateful session
bean to hold the Session in a three-tier environment. Do not transfer it to the web layer, or
even serialize it to a separate tier, to store it in the HttpSession.
The extended session pattern, or session-per-conversation, is more difficult to implement with
automatic current session context management. You need to supply your own implementation
of the CurrentSessionContext for this. See the Hibernate Wiki for examples.

13.3.3. Detached objects and automatic versioning

Each interaction with the persistent store occurs in a new Session. However, the same
persistent instances are reused for each interaction with the database. The application
manipulates the state of detached instances originally loaded in another Session and then
reattaches them using Session.update(), Session.saveOrUpdate(), or Session.merge().
// foo is an instance loaded by a previous Session
foo.setProperty("bar");
session = factory.openSession();
Transaction t = session.beginTransaction();
session.saveOrUpdate(foo); // Use merge() if "foo" might have been loaded
already
t.commit();
session.close();

Again, Hibernate will check instance versions during flush, throwing an exception if
conflicting updates occurred.
You can also call lock() instead of update(), and use LockMode.READ (performing a
version check and bypassing all caches) if you are sure that the object has not been modified.

13.3.4. Customizing automatic versioning

You can disable Hibernate's automatic version increment for particular properties and
collections by setting the optimistic-lock mapping attribute to false. Hibernate will then
no longer increment versions if the property is dirty.
Legacy database schemas are often static and cannot be modified. Or, other applications
might access the same database and will not know how to handle version numbers or even
timestamps. In both cases, versioning cannot rely on a particular column in a table. To force a
version check with a comparison of the state of all fields in a row but without a version or
timestamp property mapping, turn on optimistic-lock="all" in the <class> mapping.
This conceptually only works if Hibernate can compare the old and the new state (i.e., if you
use a single long Session and not session-per-request-with-detached-objects).
Concurrent modification can be permitted in instances where the changes that have been made
do not overlap. If you set optimistic-lock="dirty" when mapping the <class>, Hibernate
will only compare dirty fields during flush.
In both cases, with dedicated version/timestamp columns or with a full/dirty field comparison,
Hibernate uses a single UPDATE statement, with an appropriate WHERE clause, per entity to
execute the version check and update the information. If you use transitive persistence to
cascade reattachment to associated entities, Hibernate may execute unnecessary updates. This
is usually not a problem, but on update triggers in the database might be executed even when
no changes have been made to detached instances. You can customize this behavior by setting
select-before-update="true" in the <class> mapping, forcing Hibernate to SELECT the
instance to ensure that changes did occur before updating the row.

13.4. Pessimistic locking

It is not intended that users spend much time worrying about locking strategies. It is usually
enough to specify an isolation level for the JDBC connections and then simply let the
database do all the work. However, advanced users may wish to obtain exclusive pessimistic
locks or re-obtain locks at the start of a new transaction.
Hibernate will always use the locking mechanism of the database; it never lock objects in
memory.
The LockMode class defines the different lock levels that can be acquired by Hibernate. A lock
is obtained by the following mechanisms:

LockMode.WRITE is acquired automatically when Hibernate updates or inserts a row.

LockMode.UPGRADE can be acquired upon explicit user request using SELECT ... FOR
UPDATE on databases which support that syntax.
LockMode.UPGRADE_NOWAIT can be acquired upon explicit user request using a
SELECT ... FOR UPDATE NOWAIT under Oracle.
LockMode.READ is acquired automatically when Hibernate reads data under

Repeatable Read or Serializable isolation level. It can be re-acquired by explicit user

request.
LockMode.NONE represents the absence of a lock. All objects switch to this lock mode
at the end of a Transaction. Objects associated with the session via a call to
update() or saveOrUpdate() also start out in this lock mode.

The "explicit user request" is expressed in one of the following ways:

A call to Session.load(), specifying a LockMode.

A call to Session.lock().
A call to Query.setLockMode().

If Session.load() is called with UPGRADE or UPGRADE_NOWAIT, and the requested object was
not yet loaded by the session, the object is loaded using SELECT ... FOR UPDATE. If load()
is called for an object that is already loaded with a less restrictive lock than the one requested,
Hibernate calls lock() for that object.
Session.lock() performs a version number check if the specified lock mode is READ,
UPGRADE or UPGRADE_NOWAIT. In the case of UPGRADE or UPGRADE_NOWAIT, SELECT ... FOR
UPDATE is used.

If the requested lock mode is not supported by the database, Hibernate uses an appropriate
alternate mode instead of throwing an exception. This ensures that applications are portable.

13.5. Connection release modes

One of the legacies of Hibernate 2.x JDBC connection management meant that a Session
would obtain a connection when it was first required and then maintain that connection until
the session was closed. Hibernate 3.x introduced the notion of connection release modes that
would instruct a session how to handle its JDBC connections. The following discussion is
pertinent only to connections provided through a configured ConnectionProvider. Usersupplied connections are outside the breadth of this discussion. The different release modes
are identified by the enumerated values of org.hibernate.ConnectionReleaseMode:

ON_CLOSE:

is the legacy behavior described above. The Hibernate session obtains a

connection when it first needs to perform some JDBC access and maintains that
connection until the session is closed.
AFTER_TRANSACTION: releases connections after a org.hibernate.Transaction has
been completed.
AFTER_STATEMENT (also referred to as aggressive release): releases connections after
every statement execution. This aggressive releasing is skipped if that statement leaves
open resources associated with the given session. Currently the only situation where
this occurs is through the use of org.hibernate.ScrollableResults.

The configuration parameter hibernate.connection.release_mode is used to specify

which release mode to use. The possible values are as follows:

auto (the default): this choice delegates to the release mode returned by the
org.hibernate.transaction.TransactionFactory.getDefaultReleaseMode()

method. For JTATransactionFactory, this returns

ConnectionReleaseMode.AFTER_STATEMENT; for JDBCTransactionFactory, this
returns ConnectionReleaseMode.AFTER_TRANSACTION. Do not change this
default behavior as failures due to the value of this setting tend to indicate bugs and/or
invalid assumptions in user code.

on_close:

uses ConnectionReleaseMode.ON_CLOSE. This setting is left for

backwards compatibility, but its use is discouraged.
after_transaction: uses ConnectionReleaseMode.AFTER_TRANSACTION. This
setting should not be used in JTA environments. Also note that with
ConnectionReleaseMode.AFTER_TRANSACTION, if a session is considered to be in
auto-commit mode, connections will be released as if the release mode were
AFTER_STATEMENT.
after_statement: uses ConnectionReleaseMode.AFTER_STATEMENT.
Additionally, the configured ConnectionProvider is consulted to see if it supports
this setting (supportsAggressiveRelease()). If not, the release mode is reset to
ConnectionReleaseMode.AFTER_TRANSACTION. This setting is only safe in
environments where we can either re-acquire the same underlying JDBC connection
each time you make a call into ConnectionProvider.getConnection() or in autocommit environments where it does not matter if we re-establish the same connection.

Chapter 14. Interceptors and events

Table of Contents
14.1. Interceptors
14.2. Event system
14.3. Hibernate declarative security
It is useful for the application to react to certain events that occur inside Hibernate. This
allows for the implementation of generic functionality and the extension of Hibernate
functionality.

14.1. Interceptors
The Interceptor interface provides callbacks from the session to the application, allowing
the application to inspect and/or manipulate properties of a persistent object before it is saved,
updated, deleted or loaded. One possible use for this is to track auditing information. For
example, the following Interceptor automatically sets the createTimestamp when an
Auditable is created and updates the lastUpdateTimestamp property when an Auditable is
updated.
You can either implement Interceptor directly or extend EmptyInterceptor.
package org.hibernate.test;
import java.io.Serializable;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Iterator;
import org.hibernate.EmptyInterceptor;
import org.hibernate.Transaction;
import org.hibernate.type.Type;
public class AuditInterceptor extends EmptyInterceptor {
private int updates;

private int creates;

private int loads;
public void onDelete(Object entity,
Serializable id,
Object[] state,
String[] propertyNames,
Type[] types) {
// do nothing
}
public boolean onFlushDirty(Object entity,
Serializable id,
Object[] currentState,
Object[] previousState,
String[] propertyNames,
Type[] types) {
if ( entity instanceof Auditable ) {
updates++;
for ( int i=0; i < propertyNames.length; i++ ) {
if ( "lastUpdateTimestamp".equals( propertyNames[i] ) ) {
currentState[i] = new Date();
return true;
}
}
}
return false;
}
public boolean onLoad(Object entity,
Serializable id,
Object[] state,
String[] propertyNames,
Type[] types) {
if ( entity instanceof Auditable ) {
loads++;
}
return false;
}
public boolean onSave(Object entity,
Serializable id,
Object[] state,
String[] propertyNames,
Type[] types) {
if ( entity instanceof Auditable ) {
creates++;
for ( int i=0; i<propertyNames.length; i++ ) {
if ( "createTimestamp".equals( propertyNames[i] ) ) {
state[i] = new Date();
return true;
}
}
}
return false;
}
public void afterTransactionCompletion(Transaction tx) {
if ( tx.wasCommitted() ) {

System.out.println("Creations: " + creates + ", Updates: " +

updates + "Loads: " + loads);
}
updates=0;
creates=0;
loads=0;
}
}

There are two kinds of inteceptors: Session-scoped and SessionFactory-scoped.

A Session-scoped interceptor is specified when a session is opened.
Session session = sf.withOptions( new AuditInterceptor() ).openSession();

A SessionFactory-scoped interceptor is registered with the Configuration object prior to

building the SessionFactory. Unless a session is opened explicitly specifying the interceptor
to use, the supplied interceptor will be applied to all sessions opened from that
SessionFactory. SessionFactory-scoped interceptors must be thread safe. Ensure that you
do not store session-specific states, since multiple sessions will use this interceptor potentially
concurrently.
new Configuration().setInterceptor( new AuditInterceptor() );

14.2. Event system

If you have to react to particular events in your persistence layer, you can also use the
Hibernate event architecture. The event system can be used in addition, or as a replacement,
for interceptors.
Many methods of the Session interface correlate to an event type. The full range of defined
event types is declared as enum values on org.hibernate.event.spi.EventType. When a
request is made of one of these methods, the Hibernate Session generates an appropriate
event and passes it to the configured event listeners for that type. Out-of-the-box, these
listeners implement the same processing in which those methods always resulted. However,
you are free to implement a customization of one of the listener interfaces (i.e., the
LoadEvent is processed by the registered implementation of the LoadEventListener
interface), in which case their implementation would be responsible for processing any
load() requests made of the Session.

Note
See the Hibernate Developer Guide for information on registering custom event listeners.
The listeners should be considered stateless; they are shared between requests, and should not
save any state as instance variables.
A custom listener implements the appropriate interface for the event it wants to process and/or
extend one of the convenience base classes (or even the default event listeners used by

Hibernate out-of-the-box as these are declared non-final for this purpose). Here is an example
of a custom load event listener:
public class MyLoadListener implements LoadEventListener {
// this is the single method defined by the LoadEventListener interface
public void onLoad(LoadEvent event, LoadEventListener.LoadType
loadType)
throws HibernateException {
if ( !MySecurity.isAuthorized( event.getEntityClassName(),
event.getEntityId() ) ) {
throw MySecurityException("Unauthorized access");
}
}
}

14.3. Hibernate declarative security

Usually, declarative security in Hibernate applications is managed in a session facade layer.
Hibernate allows certain actions to be permissioned via JACC, and authorized via JAAS. This
is an optional functionality that is built on top of the event architecture.
First, you must configure the appropriate event listeners, to enable the use of JACC
authorization. Again, see Hibernate Developer Guide for the details. Below is an example of
an appropriate org.hibernate.integrator.spi.Integrator implementation for this
purpose.
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

org.hibernate.event.service.spi.DuplicationStrategy;
org.hibernate.event.service.spi.EventListenerRegistry;
org.hibernate.integrator.spi.Integrator;
org.hibernate.secure.internal.JACCPreDeleteEventListener;
org.hibernate.secure.internal.JACCPreInsertEventListener;
org.hibernate.secure.internal.JACCPreLoadEventListener;
org.hibernate.secure.internal.JACCPreUpdateEventListener;
org.hibernate.secure.internal.JACCSecurityListener;

public class JaccEventListenerIntegrator implements Integrator {

private static final DuplicationStrategy JACC_DUPLICATION_STRATEGY
= new DuplicationStrategy() {
@Override
public boolean areMatch(Object listener, Object original) {
return listener.getClass().equals(
original.getClass() ) &&
JACCSecurityListener.class.isInstance( original );
}
@Override
public Action getAction() {
return Action.KEEP_ORIGINAL;
}
};
@Override
@SuppressWarnings( {"unchecked"})
public void integrate(
Configuration configuration,

SessionFactoryImplementor sessionFactory,
SessionFactoryServiceRegistry serviceRegistry) {
boolean isSecurityEnabled =
configuration.getProperties().containsKey( AvailableSettings.JACC_ENABLED
);
if ( !isSecurityEnabled ) {
return;
}
final EventListenerRegistry eventListenerRegistry =
serviceRegistry.getService( EventListenerRegistry.class );
eventListenerRegistry.addDuplicationStrategy(
JACC_DUPLICATION_STRATEGY );
final String jaccContextId = configuration.getProperty(
Environment.JACC_CONTEXTID );
eventListenerRegistry.prependListeners(
EventType.PRE_DELETE, new JACCPreDeleteEventListener(jaccContextId) );
eventListenerRegistry.prependListeners(
EventType.PRE_INSERT, new JACCPreInsertEventListener(jaccContextId) );
eventListenerRegistry.prependListeners(
EventType.PRE_UPDATE, new JACCPreUpdateEventListener(jaccContextId) );
eventListenerRegistry.prependListeners( EventType.PRE_LOAD,
new JACCPreLoadEventListener(jaccContextId) );
}
}

You must also decide how to configure your JACC provider. One option is to tell Hibernate
what permissions to bind to what roles and have it configure the JACC provider. This would
be done in the hibernate.cfg.xml file.
<grant role="admin" entity-name="User" actions="insert,update,read"/>
<grant role="su" entity-name="User" actions="*"/>

Chapter 15. Batch processing

Table of Contents
15.1. Batch inserts
15.2. Batch updates
15.3. The StatelessSession interface
15.4. DML-style operations
A naive approach to inserting 100,000 rows in the database using Hibernate might look like
this:
Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
for ( int i=0; i<100000; i++ ) {
Customer customer = new Customer(.....);
session.save(customer);
}
tx.commit();
session.close();

This would fall over with an OutOfMemoryException somewhere around the 50,000th row.
That is because Hibernate caches all the newly inserted Customer instances in the sessionlevel cache. In this chapter we will show you how to avoid this problem.
If you are undertaking batch processing you will need to enable the use of JDBC batching.
This is absolutely essential if you want to achieve optimal performance. Set the JDBC batch
size to a reasonable number (10-50, for example):
hibernate.jdbc.batch_size 20

Hibernate disables insert batching at the JDBC level transparently if you use an identity
identifier generator.
You can also do this kind of work in a process where interaction with the second-level cache
is completely disabled:
hibernate.cache.use_second_level_cache false

However, this is not absolutely necessary, since we can explicitly set the CacheMode to
disable interaction with the second-level cache.

15.1. Batch inserts

When making new objects persistent flush() and then clear() the session regularly in order
to control the size of the first-level cache.
Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
for ( int i=0; i<100000; i++ ) {
Customer customer = new Customer(.....);
session.save(customer);
if ( i % 20 == 0 ) { //20, same as the JDBC batch size
//flush a batch of inserts and release memory:
session.flush();
session.clear();
}
}
tx.commit();
session.close();

15.2. Batch updates

For retrieving and updating data, the same ideas apply. In addition, you need to use scroll()
to take advantage of server-side cursors for queries that return many rows of data.
Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
ScrollableResults customers = session.getNamedQuery("GetCustomers")
.setCacheMode(CacheMode.IGNORE)
.scroll(ScrollMode.FORWARD_ONLY);

int count=0;
while ( customers.next() ) {
Customer customer = (Customer) customers.get(0);
customer.updateStuff(...);
if ( ++count % 20 == 0 ) {
//flush a batch of updates and release memory:
session.flush();
session.clear();
}
}
tx.commit();
session.close();

15.3. The StatelessSession interface

Alternatively, Hibernate provides a command-oriented API that can be used for streaming
data to and from the database in the form of detached objects. A StatelessSession has no
persistence context associated with it and does not provide many of the higher-level life cycle
semantics. In particular, a stateless session does not implement a first-level cache nor interact
with any second-level or query cache. It does not implement transactional write-behind or
automatic dirty checking. Operations performed using a stateless session never cascade to
associated instances. Collections are ignored by a stateless session. Operations performed via
a stateless session bypass Hibernate's event model and interceptors. Due to the lack of a firstlevel cache, Stateless sessions are vulnerable to data aliasing effects. A stateless session is a
lower-level abstraction that is much closer to the underlying JDBC.
StatelessSession session = sessionFactory.openStatelessSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
ScrollableResults customers = session.getNamedQuery("GetCustomers")
.scroll(ScrollMode.FORWARD_ONLY);
while ( customers.next() ) {
Customer customer = (Customer) customers.get(0);
customer.updateStuff(...);
session.update(customer);
}
tx.commit();
session.close();

In this code example, the Customer instances returned by the query are immediately detached.
They are never associated with any persistence context.
The insert(), update() and delete() operations defined by the StatelessSession
interface are considered to be direct database row-level operations. They result in the
immediate execution of a SQL INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE respectively. They have different
semantics to the save(), saveOrUpdate() and delete() operations defined by the Session
interface.

15.4. DML-style operations

As already discussed, automatic and transparent object/relational mapping is concerned with
the management of the object state. The object state is available in memory. This means that

manipulating data directly in the database (using the SQL Data Manipulation Language
(DML) the statements: INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) will not affect in-memory state. However,
Hibernate provides methods for bulk SQL-style DML statement execution that is performed
through the Hibernate Query Language (Chapter 16, HQL: The Hibernate Query Language).
The pseudo-syntax for UPDATE and DELETE statements is: ( UPDATE | DELETE ) FROM?
EntityName (WHERE where_conditions)?.
Some points to note:

In the from-clause, the FROM keyword is optional

There can only be a single entity named in the from-clause. It can, however, be
aliased. If the entity name is aliased, then any property references must be qualified
using that alias. If the entity name is not aliased, then it is illegal for any property
references to be qualified.
No Section 16.4, Forms of join syntax, either implicit or explicit, can be specified in
a bulk HQL query. Sub-queries can be used in the where-clause, where the subqueries
themselves may contain joins.
The where-clause is also optional.

As an example, to execute an HQL UPDATE, use the Query.executeUpdate() method. The

method is named for those familiar with JDBC's PreparedStatement.executeUpdate():
Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
String hqlUpdate = "update Customer c set c.name = :newName where c.name =
:oldName";
// or String hqlUpdate = "update Customer set name = :newName where name =
:oldName";
int updatedEntities = s.createQuery( hqlUpdate )
.setString( "newName", newName )
.setString( "oldName", oldName )
.executeUpdate();
tx.commit();
session.close();

In keeping with the EJB3 specification, HQL UPDATE statements, by default, do not effect the
Section 5.1.3.1, Version number or the Section 5.1.3.2, Timestamp property values for
the affected entities. However, you can force Hibernate to reset the version or timestamp
property values through the use of a versioned update. This is achieved by adding the
VERSIONED keyword after the UPDATE keyword.
Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
String hqlVersionedUpdate = "update versioned Customer set name = :newName
where name = :oldName";
int updatedEntities = s.createQuery( hqlUpdate )
.setString( "newName", newName )
.setString( "oldName", oldName )
.executeUpdate();
tx.commit();
session.close();

Custom version types, org.hibernate.usertype.UserVersionType, are not allowed in

conjunction with a update versioned statement.
To execute an HQL DELETE, use the same Query.executeUpdate() method:
Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
String hqlDelete = "delete Customer c where c.name = :oldName";
// or String hqlDelete = "delete Customer where name = :oldName";
int deletedEntities = s.createQuery( hqlDelete )
.setString( "oldName", oldName )
.executeUpdate();
tx.commit();
session.close();

The int value returned by the Query.executeUpdate() method indicates the number of
entities effected by the operation. This may or may not correlate to the number of rows
effected in the database. An HQL bulk operation might result in multiple actual SQL
statements being executed (for joined-subclass, for example). The returned number indicates
the number of actual entities affected by the statement. Going back to the example of joinedsubclass, a delete against one of the subclasses may actually result in deletes against not just
the table to which that subclass is mapped, but also the "root" table and potentially joinedsubclass tables further down the inheritance hierarchy.
The pseudo-syntax for INSERT statements is: INSERT INTO EntityName properties_list
select_statement. Some points to note:

Only the INSERT INTO ... SELECT ... form is supported; not the INSERT INTO ...
VALUES ... form.
The properties_list is analogous to the column specification in the SQL INSERT
statement. For entities involved in mapped inheritance, only properties directly
defined on that given class-level can be used in the properties_list. Superclass
properties are not allowed and subclass properties do not make sense. In other words,
INSERT statements are inherently non-polymorphic.

select_statement can be any valid HQL select query, with the caveat that the return
types must match the types expected by the insert. Currently, this is checked during
query compilation rather than allowing the check to relegate to the database. This
might, however, cause problems between Hibernate Types which are equivalent as
opposed to equal. This might cause issues with mismatches between a property
defined as a org.hibernate.type.DateType and a property defined as a
org.hibernate.type.TimestampType, even though the database might not make a
distinction or might be able to handle the conversion.
For the id property, the insert statement gives you two options. You can either
explicitly specify the id property in the properties_list, in which case its value is taken
from the corresponding select expression, or omit it from the properties_list, in which
case a generated value is used. This latter option is only available when using id
generators that operate in the database; attempting to use this option with any "in
memory" type generators will cause an exception during parsing. For the purposes of
this discussion, in-database generators are considered to be

org.hibernate.id.SequenceGenerator (and its subclasses) and any implementers

of org.hibernate.id.PostInsertIdentifierGenerator. The most notable
exception here is org.hibernate.id.TableHiLoGenerator, which cannot be used

because it does not expose a selectable way to get its values.

For properties mapped as either version or timestamp, the insert statement gives you
two options. You can either specify the property in the properties_list, in which case
its value is taken from the corresponding select expressions, or omit it from the
properties_list, in which case the seed value defined by the
org.hibernate.type.VersionType is used.

The following is an example of an HQL INSERT statement execution:

Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
String hqlInsert = "insert into DelinquentAccount (id, name) select c.id,
c.name from Customer c where ...";
int createdEntities = s.createQuery( hqlInsert )
.executeUpdate();
tx.commit();
session.close();

Chapter 16. HQL: The Hibernate Query Language

Table of Contents
16.1. Case Sensitivity
16.2. The from clause
16.3. Associations and joins
16.4. Forms of join syntax
16.5. Referring to identifier property
16.6. The select clause
16.7. Aggregate functions
16.8. Polymorphic queries
16.9. The where clause
16.10. Expressions
16.11. The order by clause
16.12. The group by clause
16.13. Subqueries
16.14. HQL examples
16.15. Bulk update and delete
16.16. Tips & Tricks
16.17. Components
16.18. Row value constructor syntax
Hibernate uses a powerful query language (HQL) that is similar in appearance to SQL.
Compared with SQL, however, HQL is fully object-oriented and understands notions like
inheritance, polymorphism and association.

16.1. Case Sensitivity

With the exception of names of Java classes and properties, queries are case-insensitive. So
SeLeCT is the same as sELEct is the same as SELECT, but org.hibernate.eg.FOO is not
org.hibernate.eg.Foo, and foo.barSet is not foo.BARSET.
This manual uses lowercase HQL keywords. Some users find queries with uppercase
keywords more readable, but this convention is unsuitable for queries embedded in Java code.

16.2. The from clause

The simplest possible Hibernate query is of the form:
from eg.Cat

This returns all instances of the class eg.Cat. You do not usually need to qualify the class
name, since auto-import is the default. For example:
from Cat

In order to refer to the Cat in other parts of the query, you will need to assign an alias. For
example:
from Cat as cat

This query assigns the alias cat to Cat instances, so you can use that alias later in the query.
The as keyword is optional. You could also write:
from Cat cat

Multiple classes can appear, resulting in a cartesian product or "cross" join.

from Formula, Parameter
from Formula as form, Parameter as param

It is good practice to name query aliases using an initial lowercase as this is consistent with
Java naming standards for local variables (e.g. domesticCat).

16.3. Associations and joins

You can also assign aliases to associated entities or to elements of a collection of values using
a join. For example:
from Cat as cat
inner join cat.mate as mate
left outer join cat.kittens as kitten
from Cat as cat left join cat.mate.kittens as kittens
from Formula form full join form.parameter param

The supported join types are borrowed from ANSI SQL:

inner join
left outer join

right outer join

full join (not usually useful)

The inner join, left outer join and right outer join constructs may be abbreviated.
from Cat as cat
join cat.mate as mate
left join cat.kittens as kitten

You may supply extra join conditions using the HQL with keyword.
from Cat as cat
left join cat.kittens as kitten
with kitten.bodyWeight > 10.0

A "fetch" join allows associations or collections of values to be initialized along with their
parent objects using a single select. This is particularly useful in the case of a collection. It
effectively overrides the outer join and lazy declarations of the mapping file for associations
and collections. See Section 20.1, Fetching strategies for more information.
from Cat as cat
inner join fetch cat.mate
left join fetch cat.kittens

A fetch join does not usually need to assign an alias, because the associated objects should not
be used in the where clause (or any other clause). The associated objects are also not returned
directly in the query results. Instead, they may be accessed via the parent object. The only
reason you might need an alias is if you are recursively join fetching a further collection:
from Cat as cat
inner join fetch cat.mate
left join fetch cat.kittens child
left join fetch child.kittens

The fetch construct cannot be used in queries called using iterate() (though scroll() can
be used). Fetch should not be used together with setMaxResults() or setFirstResult(),
as these operations are based on the result rows which usually contain duplicates for eager
collection fetching, hence, the number of rows is not what you would expect. Fetch should
also not be used together with impromptu with condition. It is possible to create a cartesian
product by join fetching more than one collection in a query, so take care in this case. Join
fetching multiple collection roles can produce unexpected results for bag mappings, so user
discretion is advised when formulating queries in this case. Finally, note that full join
fetch and right join fetch are not meaningful.
If you are using property-level lazy fetching (with bytecode instrumentation), it is possible to
force Hibernate to fetch the lazy properties in the first query immediately using fetch all
properties.
from Document fetch all properties order by name
from Document doc fetch all properties where lower(doc.name) like '%cats%'

16.4. Forms of join syntax

HQL supports two forms of association joining: implicit and explicit.

The queries shown in the previous section all use the explicit form, that is, where the join
keyword is explicitly used in the from clause. This is the recommended form.
The implicit form does not use the join keyword. Instead, the associations are
"dereferenced" using dot-notation. implicit joins can appear in any of the HQL clauses.
implicit join result in inner joins in the resulting SQL statement.
from Cat as cat where cat.mate.name like '%s%'

16.5. Referring to identifier property

There are 2 ways to refer to an entity's identifier property:

The special property (lowercase) id may be used to reference the identifier property of
an entity provided that the entity does not define a non-identifier property named id.
If the entity defines a named identifier property, you can use that property name.

References to composite identifier properties follow the same naming rules. If the entity has a
non-identifier property named id, the composite identifier property can only be referenced by
its defined named. Otherwise, the special id property can be used to reference the identifier
property.

Important
Please note that, starting in version 3.2.2, this has changed significantly. In previous versions,
id always referred to the identifier property regardless of its actual name. A ramification of
that decision was that non-identifier properties named id could never be referenced in
Hibernate queries.

16.6. The select clause

The select clause picks which objects and properties to return in the query result set.
Consider the following:
select mate
from Cat as cat
inner join cat.mate as mate

The query will select mates of other Cats. You can express this query more compactly as:
select cat.mate from Cat cat

Queries can return properties of any value type including properties of component type:
select cat.name from DomesticCat cat
where cat.name like 'fri%'
select cust.name.firstName from Customer as cust

Queries can return multiple objects and/or properties as an array of type Object[]:
select mother, offspr, mate.name
from DomesticCat as mother
inner join mother.mate as mate
left outer join mother.kittens as offspr

Or as a List:
select new list(mother, offspr, mate.name)
from DomesticCat as mother
inner join mother.mate as mate
left outer join mother.kittens as offspr

Or - assuming that the class Family has an appropriate constructor - as an actual typesafe Java
object:
select new Family(mother, mate, offspr)
from DomesticCat as mother
join mother.mate as mate
left join mother.kittens as offspr

You can assign aliases to selected expressions using as:

select max(bodyWeight) as max, min(bodyWeight) as min, count(*) as n
from Cat cat

This is most useful when used together with select new map:
select new map( max(bodyWeight) as max, min(bodyWeight) as min, count(*) as
n )
from Cat cat

This query returns a Map from aliases to selected values.

16.7. Aggregate functions

HQL queries can even return the results of aggregate functions on properties:
select avg(cat.weight), sum(cat.weight), max(cat.weight), count(cat)
from Cat cat

The supported aggregate functions are:

avg(...), sum(...), min(...), max(...)

count(*)
count(...), count(distinct ...), count(all...)

You can use arithmetic operators, concatenation, and recognized SQL functions in the select
clause:
select cat.weight + sum(kitten.weight)
from Cat cat

join cat.kittens kitten

group by cat.id, cat.weight
select firstName||' '||initial||' '||upper(lastName) from Person

The distinct and all keywords can be used and have the same semantics as in SQL.
select distinct cat.name from Cat cat
select count(distinct cat.name), count(cat) from Cat cat

16.8. Polymorphic queries

A query like:
from Cat as cat

returns instances not only of Cat, but also of subclasses like DomesticCat. Hibernate queries
can name any Java class or interface in the from clause. The query will return instances of all
persistent classes that extend that class or implement the interface. The following query would
return all persistent objects:
from java.lang.Object o

The interface Named might be implemented by various persistent classes:

from Named n, Named m where n.name = m.name

These last two queries will require more than one SQL SELECT. This means that the order by
clause does not correctly order the whole result set. It also means you cannot call these
queries using Query.scroll().

16.9. The where clause

The where clause allows you to refine the list of instances returned. If no alias exists, you can
refer to properties by name:
from Cat where name='Fritz'

If there is an alias, use a qualified property name:

from Cat as cat where cat.name='Fritz'

This returns instances of Cat named 'Fritz'.

The following query:
select foo
from Foo foo, Bar bar
where foo.startDate = bar.date

returns all instances of Foo with an instance of bar with a date property equal to the
startDate property of the Foo. Compound path expressions make the where clause
extremely powerful. Consider the following:
from Cat cat where cat.mate.name is not null

This query translates to an SQL query with a table (inner) join. For example:
from Foo foo
where foo.bar.baz.customer.address.city is not null

would result in a query that would require four table joins in SQL.
The = operator can be used to compare not only properties, but also instances:
from Cat cat, Cat rival where cat.mate = rival.mate
select cat, mate
from Cat cat, Cat mate
where cat.mate = mate

The special property (lowercase) id can be used to reference the unique identifier of an
object. See Section 16.5, Referring to identifier property for more information.
from Cat as cat where cat.id = 123
from Cat as cat where cat.mate.id = 69

The second query is efficient and does not require a table join.
Properties of composite identifiers can also be used. Consider the following example where
Person has composite identifiers consisting of country and medicareNumber:
from bank.Person person
where person.id.country = 'AU'
and person.id.medicareNumber = 123456
from bank.Account account
where account.owner.id.country = 'AU'
and account.owner.id.medicareNumber = 123456

Once again, the second query does not require a table join.
See Section 16.5, Referring to identifier property for more information regarding
referencing identifier properties)
The special property class accesses the discriminator value of an instance in the case of
polymorphic persistence. A Java class name embedded in the where clause will be translated
to its discriminator value.
from Cat cat where cat.class = DomesticCat

You can also use components or composite user types, or properties of said component types.
See Section 16.17, Components for more information.

An "any" type has the special properties id and class that allows you to express a join in the
following way (where AuditLog.item is a property mapped with <any>):
from AuditLog log, Payment payment
where log.item.class = 'Payment' and log.item.id = payment.id

The log.item.class and payment.class would refer to the values of completely different
database columns in the above query.

16.10. Expressions
Expressions used in the where clause include the following:

mathematical operators: +, -, *, /
binary comparison operators: =, >=, <=, <>, !=, like
logical operations and, or, not
Parentheses ( ) that indicates grouping
in, not in, between, is null, is not null, is empty, is not empty, member of
and not member of
"Simple" case, case ... when ... then ... else ... end, and "searched" case,
case when ... then ... else ... end
string concatenation ...||... or concat(...,...)
current_date(), current_time(), and current_timestamp()
second(...), minute(...), hour(...), day(...), month(...), and year(...)
Any function or operator defined by EJB-QL 3.0: substring(), trim(), lower(),
upper(), length(), locate(), abs(), sqrt(), bit_length(), mod()
coalesce() and nullif()
str() for converting numeric or temporal values to a readable string
cast(... as ...), where the second argument is the name of a Hibernate type, and
extract(... from ...) if ANSI cast() and extract() is supported by the

underlying database
the HQL index() function, that applies to aliases of a joined indexed collection
HQL functions that take collection-valued path expressions: size(),
minelement(), maxelement(), minindex(), maxindex(), along with the special
elements() and indices functions that can be quantified using some, all,
exists, any, in.
Any database-supported SQL scalar function like sign(), trunc(), rtrim(), and
sin()

in

JDBC-style positional parameters ?

named parameters :name, :start_date, and :x1
SQL literals 'foo', 69, 6.66E+2, '1970-01-01 10:00:01.0'
Java public static final constants eg.Color.TABBY

and between can be used as follows:

from DomesticCat cat where cat.name between 'A' and 'B'

from DomesticCat cat where cat.name in ( 'Foo', 'Bar', 'Baz' )

The negated forms can be written as follows:

from DomesticCat cat where cat.name not between 'A' and 'B'
from DomesticCat cat where cat.name not in ( 'Foo', 'Bar', 'Baz' )

Similarly, is null and is not null can be used to test for null values.
Booleans can be easily used in expressions by declaring HQL query substitutions in Hibernate
configuration:
<property name="hibernate.query.substitutions">true 1, false 0</property>

This will replace the keywords true and false with the literals 1 and 0 in the translated SQL
from this HQL:
from Cat cat where cat.alive = true

You can test the size of a collection with the special property size or the special size()
function.
from Cat cat where cat.kittens.size > 0
from Cat cat where size(cat.kittens) > 0

For indexed collections, you can refer to the minimum and maximum indices using minindex
and maxindex functions. Similarly, you can refer to the minimum and maximum elements of
a collection of basic type using the minelement and maxelement functions. For example:
from Calendar cal where maxelement(cal.holidays) > current_date
from Order order where maxindex(order.items) > 100
from Order order where minelement(order.items) > 10000

The SQL functions any, some, all, exists, in are supported when passed the element
or index set of a collection (elements and indices functions) or the result of a subquery (see
below):
select mother from Cat as mother, Cat as kit
where kit in elements(foo.kittens)
select p from NameList list, Person p
where p.name = some elements(list.names)
from Cat cat where exists elements(cat.kittens)
from Player p where 3 > all elements(p.scores)
from Show show where 'fizard' in indices(show.acts)

Note that these constructs - size, elements, indices, minindex, maxindex, minelement,
maxelement - can only be used in the where clause in Hibernate.
Elements of indexed collections (arrays, lists, and maps) can be referred to by index in a
where clause only:
from Order order where order.items[0].id = 1234
select person from Person person, Calendar calendar
where calendar.holidays['national day'] = person.birthDay
and person.nationality.calendar = calendar
select item from Item item, Order order
where order.items[ order.deliveredItemIndices[0] ] = item and order.id = 11
select item from Item item, Order order

where order.items[ maxindex(order.items) ] = item and order.id = 11

The expression inside [] can even be an arithmetic expression:

select item from Item item, Order order
where order.items[ size(order.items) - 1 ] = item

HQL also provides the built-in index() function for elements of a one-to-many association or
collection of values.
select item, index(item) from Order order
join order.items item
where index(item) < 5

Scalar SQL functions supported by the underlying database can be used:

from DomesticCat cat where upper(cat.name) like 'FRI%'

Consider how much longer and less readable the following query would be in SQL:
select cust
from Product prod,
Store store
inner join store.customers cust
where prod.name = 'widget'
and store.location.name in ( 'Melbourne', 'Sydney' )
and prod = all elements(cust.currentOrder.lineItems)

Hint: something like

SELECT cust.name, cust.address, cust.phone, cust.id, cust.current_order
FROM customers cust,
stores store,
locations loc,
store_customers sc,
product prod
WHERE prod.name = 'widget'
AND store.loc_id = loc.id
AND loc.name IN ( 'Melbourne', 'Sydney' )
AND sc.store_id = store.id
AND sc.cust_id = cust.id
AND prod.id = ALL(
SELECT item.prod_id
FROM line_items item, orders o
WHERE item.order_id = o.id
AND cust.current_order = o.id
)

16.11. The order by clause

The list returned by a query can be ordered by any property of a returned class or components:
from DomesticCat cat
order by cat.name asc, cat.weight desc nulls first, cat.birthdate

The optional asc or desc indicate ascending or descending order respectively.

The optional nulls first or nulls last indicate precedence of null values while sorting.

16.12. The group by clause

A query that returns aggregate values can be grouped by any property of a returned class or
components:
select cat.color, sum(cat.weight), count(cat)
from Cat cat
group by cat.color
select foo.id, avg(name), max(name)
from Foo foo join foo.names name
group by foo.id

A having clause is also allowed.

select cat.color, sum(cat.weight), count(cat)
from Cat cat
group by cat.color
having cat.color in (eg.Color.TABBY, eg.Color.BLACK)

SQL functions and aggregate functions are allowed in the having and order by clauses if
they are supported by the underlying database (i.e., not in MySQL).
select cat
from Cat cat
join cat.kittens kitten
group by cat.id, cat.name, cat.other, cat.properties
having avg(kitten.weight) > 100
order by count(kitten) asc, sum(kitten.weight) desc

Neither the group by clause nor the order by clause can contain arithmetic expressions.
Hibernate also does not currently expand a grouped entity, so you cannot write group by cat
if all properties of cat are non-aggregated. You have to list all non-aggregated properties
explicitly.

16.13. Subqueries
For databases that support subselects, Hibernate supports subqueries within queries. A
subquery must be surrounded by parentheses (often by an SQL aggregate function call). Even
correlated subqueries (subqueries that refer to an alias in the outer query) are allowed.
from Cat as fatcat
where fatcat.weight > (
select avg(cat.weight) from DomesticCat cat
)
from DomesticCat as cat
where cat.name = some (
select name.nickName from Name as name
)
from Cat as cat
where not exists (

from Cat as mate where mate.mate = cat

)
from DomesticCat as cat
where cat.name not in (
select name.nickName from Name as name
)
select cat.id, (select max(kit.weight) from cat.kitten kit)
from Cat as cat

Note that HQL subqueries can occur only in the select or where clauses.
Note that subqueries can also utilize row value constructor syntax. See Section 16.18,
Row value constructor syntax for more information.

16.14. HQL examples

Hibernate queries can be quite powerful and complex. In fact, the power of the query
language is one of Hibernate's main strengths. The following example queries are similar to
queries that have been used on recent projects. Please note that most queries you will write
will be much simpler than the following examples.
The following query returns the order id, number of items, the given minimum total value and
the total value of the order for all unpaid orders for a particular customer. The results are
ordered by total value. In determining the prices, it uses the current catalog. The resulting
SQL query, against the ORDER, ORDER_LINE, PRODUCT, CATALOG and PRICE tables has four
inner joins and an (uncorrelated) subselect.
select order.id, sum(price.amount), count(item)
from Order as order
join order.lineItems as item
join item.product as product,
Catalog as catalog
join catalog.prices as price
where order.paid = false
and order.customer = :customer
and price.product = product
and catalog.effectiveDate < sysdate
and catalog.effectiveDate >= all (
select cat.effectiveDate
from Catalog as cat
where cat.effectiveDate < sysdate
)
group by order
having sum(price.amount) > :minAmount
order by sum(price.amount) desc

What a monster! Actually, in real life, I'm not very keen on subqueries, so my query was
really more like this:
select order.id, sum(price.amount), count(item)
from Order as order
join order.lineItems as item
join item.product as product,
Catalog as catalog
join catalog.prices as price

where order.paid = false

and order.customer = :customer
and price.product = product
and catalog = :currentCatalog
group by order
having sum(price.amount) > :minAmount
order by sum(price.amount) desc

The next query counts the number of payments in each status, excluding all payments in the
AWAITING_APPROVAL status where the most recent status change was made by the current
user. It translates to an SQL query with two inner joins and a correlated subselect against the
PAYMENT, PAYMENT_STATUS and PAYMENT_STATUS_CHANGE tables.
select count(payment), status.name
from Payment as payment
join payment.currentStatus as status
join payment.statusChanges as statusChange
where payment.status.name <> PaymentStatus.AWAITING_APPROVAL
or (
statusChange.timeStamp = (
select max(change.timeStamp)
from PaymentStatusChange change
where change.payment = payment
)
and statusChange.user <> :currentUser
)
group by status.name, status.sortOrder
order by status.sortOrder

If the statusChanges collection was mapped as a list, instead of a set, the query would have
been much simpler to write.
select count(payment), status.name
from Payment as payment
join payment.currentStatus as status
where payment.status.name <> PaymentStatus.AWAITING_APPROVAL
or payment.statusChanges[ maxIndex(payment.statusChanges) ].user <>
:currentUser
group by status.name, status.sortOrder
order by status.sortOrder

The next query uses the MS SQL Server isNull() function to return all the accounts and
unpaid payments for the organization to which the current user belongs. It translates to an
SQL query with three inner joins, an outer join and a subselect against the ACCOUNT, PAYMENT,
PAYMENT_STATUS, ACCOUNT_TYPE, ORGANIZATION and ORG_USER tables.
select account, payment
from Account as account
left outer join account.payments as payment
where :currentUser in elements(account.holder.users)
and PaymentStatus.UNPAID = isNull(payment.currentStatus.name,
PaymentStatus.UNPAID)
order by account.type.sortOrder, account.accountNumber, payment.dueDate

For some databases, we would need to do away with the (correlated) subselect.
select account, payment

from Account as account

join account.holder.users as user
left outer join account.payments as payment
where :currentUser = user
and PaymentStatus.UNPAID = isNull(payment.currentStatus.name,
PaymentStatus.UNPAID)
order by account.type.sortOrder, account.accountNumber, payment.dueDate

16.15. Bulk update and delete

HQL now supports update, delete and insert ... select ... statements. See
Section 15.4, DML-style operations for more information.

16.16. Tips & Tricks

You can count the number of query results without returning them:
( (Integer) session.createQuery("select count(*) from
....").iterate().next() ).intValue()

To order a result by the size of a collection, use the following query:

select usr.id, usr.name
from User as usr
left join usr.messages as msg
group by usr.id, usr.name
order by count(msg)

If your database supports subselects, you can place a condition upon selection size in the
where clause of your query:
from User usr where size(usr.messages) >= 1

If your database does not support subselects, use the following query:
select usr.id, usr.name
from User usr
join usr.messages msg
group by usr.id, usr.name
having count(msg) >= 1

As this solution cannot return a User with zero messages because of the inner join, the
following form is also useful:
select usr.id, usr.name
from User as usr
left join usr.messages as msg
group by usr.id, usr.name
having count(msg) = 0

Properties of a JavaBean can be bound to named query parameters:

Query q = s.createQuery("from foo Foo as foo where foo.name=:name and
foo.size=:size");

q.setProperties(fooBean); // fooBean has getName() and getSize()

List foos = q.list();

Collections are pageable by using the Query interface with a filter:

Query q = s.createFilter( collection, "" ); // the trivial filter
q.setMaxResults(PAGE_SIZE);
q.setFirstResult(PAGE_SIZE * pageNumber);
List page = q.list();

Collection elements can be ordered or grouped using a query filter:

Collection orderedCollection = s.filter( collection, "order by this.amount"
);
Collection counts = s.filter( collection, "select this.type, count(this)
group by this.type" );

You can find the size of a collection without initializing it:

( (Integer) session.createQuery("select count(*) from
....").iterate().next() ).intValue();

16.17. Components
Components can be used similarly to the simple value types that are used in HQL queries.
They can appear in the select clause as follows:
select p.name from Person p
select p.name.first from Person p

where the Person's name property is a component. Components can also be used in the where
clause:
from Person p where p.name = :name
from Person p where p.name.first = :firstName

Components can also be used in the order by clause:

from Person p order by p.name
from Person p order by p.name.first

Another common use of components is in Section 16.18, Row value constructor syntax.

16.18. Row value constructor syntax

HQL supports the use of ANSI SQL row value constructor syntax, sometimes referred to
AS tuple syntax, even though the underlying database may not support that notion. Here, we
are generally referring to multi-valued comparisons, typically associated with components.
Consider an entity Person which defines a name component:
from Person p where p.name.first='John' and p.name.last='JingleheimerSchmidt'

That is valid syntax although it is a little verbose. You can make this more concise by using
row value constructor syntax:
from Person p where p.name=('John', 'Jingleheimer-Schmidt')

It can also be useful to specify this in the select clause:

select p.name from Person p

Using row value constructor syntax can also be beneficial when using subqueries that
need to compare against multiple values:
from Cat as cat
where not ( cat.name, cat.color ) in (
select cat.name, cat.color from DomesticCat cat
)

One thing to consider when deciding if you want to use this syntax, is that the query will be
dependent upon the ordering of the component sub-properties in the metadata.

Chapter 17. Criteria Queries

Table of Contents
17.1. Creating a Criteria instance
17.2. Narrowing the result set
17.3. Ordering the results
17.4. Associations
17.5. Dynamic association fetching
17.6. Components
17.7. Collections
17.8. Example queries
17.9. Projections, aggregation and grouping
17.10. Detached queries and subqueries
17.11. Queries by natural identifier
Hibernate features an intuitive, extensible criteria query API.

17.1. Creating a Criteria instance

The interface org.hibernate.Criteria represents a query against a particular persistent
class. The Session is a factory for Criteria instances.
Criteria crit = sess.createCriteria(Cat.class);
crit.setMaxResults(50);
List cats = crit.list();

17.2. Narrowing the result set

An individual query criterion is an instance of the interface

org.hibernate.criterion.Criterion. The class
org.hibernate.criterion.Restrictions defines factory methods for obtaining certain
built-in Criterion types.
List cats = sess.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add( Restrictions.like("name", "Fritz%") )
.add( Restrictions.between("weight", minWeight, maxWeight) )
.list();

Restrictions can be grouped logically.

List cats = sess.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add( Restrictions.like("name", "Fritz%") )
.add( Restrictions.or(
Restrictions.eq( "age", new Integer(0) ),
Restrictions.isNull("age")
) )
.list();
List cats = sess.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add( Restrictions.in( "name", new String[] { "Fritz", "Izi", "Pk" } )
)
.add( Restrictions.disjunction()
.add( Restrictions.isNull("age") )
.add( Restrictions.eq("age", new Integer(0) ) )
.add( Restrictions.eq("age", new Integer(1) ) )
.add( Restrictions.eq("age", new Integer(2) ) )
) )
.list();

There are a range of built-in criterion types (Restrictions subclasses). One of the most
useful allows you to specify SQL directly.
List cats = sess.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add( Restrictions.sqlRestriction("lower({alias}.name) like lower(?)",
"Fritz%", Hibernate.STRING) )
.list();

The {alias} placeholder will be replaced by the row alias of the queried entity.
You can also obtain a criterion from a Property instance. You can create a Property by
calling Property.forName():
Property age = Property.forName("age");
List cats = sess.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add( Restrictions.disjunction()
.add( age.isNull() )
.add( age.eq( new Integer(0) ) )
.add( age.eq( new Integer(1) ) )
.add( age.eq( new Integer(2) ) )
) )
.add( Property.forName("name").in( new String[] { "Fritz", "Izi", "Pk"
} ) )
.list();

17.3. Ordering the results

You can order the results using org.hibernate.criterion.Order.

List cats = sess.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add( Restrictions.like("name", "F%")
.addOrder( Order.asc("name") )
.addOrder( Order.desc("age") )
.setMaxResults(50)
.list();
List cats = sess.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add( Property.forName("name").like("F%") )
.addOrder( Property.forName("name").asc() )
.addOrder( Property.forName("age").desc() )
.setMaxResults(50)
.list();

17.4. Associations
By navigating associations using createCriteria() you can specify constraints upon related
entities:
List cats = sess.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add( Restrictions.like("name", "F%") )
.createCriteria("kittens")
.add( Restrictions.like("name", "F%") )
.list();

The second createCriteria() returns a new instance of Criteria that refers to the
elements of the kittens collection.
There is also an alternate form that is useful in certain circumstances:
List cats = sess.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.createAlias("kittens", "kt")
.createAlias("mate", "mt")
.add( Restrictions.eqProperty("kt.name", "mt.name") )
.list();

(createAlias() does not create a new instance of Criteria.)

The kittens collections held by the Cat instances returned by the previous two queries are not
pre-filtered by the criteria. If you want to retrieve just the kittens that match the criteria, you
must use a ResultTransformer.
List cats = sess.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.createCriteria("kittens", "kt")
.add( Restrictions.eq("name", "F%") )
.setResultTransformer(Criteria.ALIAS_TO_ENTITY_MAP)
.list();
Iterator iter = cats.iterator();
while ( iter.hasNext() ) {
Map map = (Map) iter.next();
Cat cat = (Cat) map.get(Criteria.ROOT_ALIAS);
Cat kitten = (Cat) map.get("kt");
}

Additionally you may manipulate the result set using a left outer join:
List cats = session.createCriteria( Cat.class )
.createAlias("mate", "mt", Criteria.LEFT_JOIN,
Restrictions.like("mt.name", "good%") )
.addOrder(Order.asc("mt.age"))
.list();

This will return all of the Cats with a mate whose name starts with "good" ordered by their
mate's age, and all cats who do not have a mate. This is useful when there is a need to order or
limit in the database prior to returning complex/large result sets, and removes many instances
where multiple queries would have to be performed and the results unioned by java in
memory.
Without this feature, first all of the cats without a mate would need to be loaded in one query.
A second query would need to retreive the cats with mates who's name started with "good"
sorted by the mates age.
Thirdly, in memory; the lists would need to be joined manually.

17.5. Dynamic association fetching

You can specify association fetching semantics at runtime using setFetchMode().
List cats = sess.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add( Restrictions.like("name", "Fritz%") )
.setFetchMode("mate", FetchMode.EAGER)
.setFetchMode("kittens", FetchMode.EAGER)
.list();

This query will fetch both mate and kittens by outer join. See Section 20.1, Fetching
strategies for more information.

17.6. Components
To add a restriction against a property of an embedded component, the component property
name should be prepended to the property name when creating the Restriction. The criteria
object should be created on the owning entity, and cannot be created on the component itself.
For example, suppose the Cat has a component property fullName with sub-properties
firstName and lastName:
List cats = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add(Restrictions.eq("fullName.lastName",
"Cattington"))
.list();

Note: this does not apply when querying collections of components, for that see below
Section 17.7, Collections

17.7. Collections
When using criteria against collections, there are two distinct cases. One is if the collection
contains entities (eg. <one-to-many/> or <many-to-many/>) or components (<compositeelement/> ), and the second is if the collection contains scalar values (<element/>). In the
first case, the syntax is as given above in the section Section 17.4, Associations where we
restrict the kittens collection. Essentially we create a Criteria object against the collection
property and restrict the entity or component properties using that instance.
For queryng a collection of basic values, we still create the Criteria object against the
collection, but to reference the value, we use the special property "elements". For an indexed
collection, we can also reference the index property using the special property "indices".
List cats = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.createCriteria("nickNames")
.add(Restrictions.eq("elements", "BadBoy"))
.list();

17.8. Example queries

The class org.hibernate.criterion.Example allows you to construct a query criterion
from a given instance.
Cat cat = new Cat();
cat.setSex('F');
cat.setColor(Color.BLACK);
List results = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add( Example.create(cat) )
.list();

Version properties, identifiers and associations are ignored. By default, null valued properties
are excluded.
You can adjust how the Example is applied.
Example example = Example.create(cat)
.excludeZeroes()
//exclude zero valued properties
.excludeProperty("color") //exclude the property named "color"
.ignoreCase()
//perform case insensitive string
comparisons
.enableLike();
//use like for string comparisons
List results = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add(example)
.list();

You can even use examples to place criteria upon associated objects.
List results = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add( Example.create(cat) )
.createCriteria("mate")
.add( Example.create( cat.getMate() ) )
.list();

17.9. Projections, aggregation and grouping

The class org.hibernate.criterion.Projections is a factory for Projection instances.
You can apply a projection to a query by calling setProjection().
List results = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.setProjection( Projections.rowCount() )
.add( Restrictions.eq("color", Color.BLACK) )
.list();
List results = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.setProjection( Projections.projectionList()
.add( Projections.rowCount() )
.add( Projections.avg("weight") )
.add( Projections.max("weight") )
.add( Projections.groupProperty("color") )
)
.list();

There is no explicit "group by" necessary in a criteria query. Certain projection types are
defined to be grouping projections, which also appear in the SQL group by clause.
An alias can be assigned to a projection so that the projected value can be referred to in
restrictions or orderings. Here are two different ways to do this:
List results = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.setProjection( Projections.alias( Projections.groupProperty("color"),
"colr" ) )
.addOrder( Order.asc("colr") )
.list();
List results = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.setProjection( Projections.groupProperty("color").as("colr") )
.addOrder( Order.asc("colr") )
.list();

The alias() and as() methods simply wrap a projection instance in another, aliased,
instance of Projection. As a shortcut, you can assign an alias when you add the projection to
a projection list:
List results = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.setProjection( Projections.projectionList()
.add( Projections.rowCount(), "catCountByColor" )
.add( Projections.avg("weight"), "avgWeight" )
.add( Projections.max("weight"), "maxWeight" )
.add( Projections.groupProperty("color"), "color" )
)
.addOrder( Order.desc("catCountByColor") )
.addOrder( Order.desc("avgWeight") )
.list();
List results = session.createCriteria(Domestic.class, "cat")
.createAlias("kittens", "kit")
.setProjection( Projections.projectionList()
.add( Projections.property("cat.name"), "catName" )
.add( Projections.property("kit.name"), "kitName" )
)
.addOrder( Order.asc("catName") )
.addOrder( Order.asc("kitName") )
.list();

You can also use Property.forName() to express projections:

List results = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.setProjection( Property.forName("name") )
.add( Property.forName("color").eq(Color.BLACK) )
.list();
List results = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.setProjection( Projections.projectionList()
.add( Projections.rowCount().as("catCountByColor") )
.add( Property.forName("weight").avg().as("avgWeight") )
.add( Property.forName("weight").max().as("maxWeight") )
.add( Property.forName("color").group().as("color" )
)
.addOrder( Order.desc("catCountByColor") )
.addOrder( Order.desc("avgWeight") )
.list();

17.10. Detached queries and subqueries

The DetachedCriteria class allows you to create a query outside the scope of a session and
then execute it using an arbitrary Session.
DetachedCriteria query = DetachedCriteria.forClass(Cat.class)
.add( Property.forName("sex").eq('F') );
Session session = ....;
Transaction txn = session.beginTransaction();
List results =
query.getExecutableCriteria(session).setMaxResults(100).list();
txn.commit();
session.close();

A DetachedCriteria can also be used to express a subquery. Criterion instances involving

subqueries can be obtained via Subqueries or Property.
DetachedCriteria avgWeight = DetachedCriteria.forClass(Cat.class)
.setProjection( Property.forName("weight").avg() );
session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add( Property.forName("weight").gt(avgWeight) )
.list();
DetachedCriteria weights = DetachedCriteria.forClass(Cat.class)
.setProjection( Property.forName("weight") );
session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
.add( Subqueries.geAll("weight", weights) )
.list();

Correlated subqueries are also possible:

DetachedCriteria avgWeightForSex = DetachedCriteria.forClass(Cat.class,
"cat2")
.setProjection( Property.forName("weight").avg() )
.add( Property.forName("cat2.sex").eqProperty("cat.sex") );
session.createCriteria(Cat.class, "cat")
.add( Property.forName("weight").gt(avgWeightForSex) )
.list();

Example of multi-column restriction based on a subquery:

DetachedCriteria sizeQuery = DetachedCriteria.forClass( Man.class )

.setProjection( Projections.projectionList().add( Projections.property(
"weight" ) )
.add( Projections.property(
"height" ) ) )
.add( Restrictions.eq( "name", "John" ) );
session.createCriteria( Woman.class )
.add( Subqueries.propertiesEq( new String[] { "weight", "height" },
sizeQuery ) )
.list();

17.11. Queries by natural identifier

For most queries, including criteria queries, the query cache is not efficient because query
cache invalidation occurs too frequently. However, there is a special kind of query where you
can optimize the cache invalidation algorithm: lookups by a constant natural key. In some
applications, this kind of query occurs frequently. The criteria API provides special provision
for this use case.
First, map the natural key of your entity using <natural-id> and enable use of the secondlevel cache.
<class name="User">
<cache usage="read-write"/>
<id name="id">
<generator class="increment"/>
</id>
<natural-id>
<property name="name"/>
<property name="org"/>
</natural-id>
<property name="password"/>
</class>

This functionality is not intended for use with entities with mutable natural keys.
Once you have enabled the Hibernate query cache, the Restrictions.naturalId() allows
you to make use of the more efficient cache algorithm.
session.createCriteria(User.class)
.add( Restrictions.naturalId()
.set("name", "gavin")
.set("org", "hb")
).setCacheable(true)
.uniqueResult();

Chapter 18. Native SQL

Table of Contents
18.1. Using a SQLQuery
18.1.1. Scalar queries
18.1.2. Entity queries
18.1.3. Handling associations and collections

18.1.4. Returning multiple entities

18.1.5. Returning non-managed entities
18.1.6. Handling inheritance
18.1.7. Parameters
18.2. Named SQL queries
18.2.1. Using return-property to explicitly specify column/alias names
18.2.2. Using stored procedures for querying
18.3. Custom SQL for create, update and delete
18.4. Custom SQL for loading
You can also express queries in the native SQL dialect of your database. This is useful if you
want to utilize database-specific features such as query hints or the CONNECT keyword in
Oracle. It also provides a clean migration path from a direct SQL/JDBC based application to
Hibernate.
Hibernate allows you to specify handwritten SQL, including stored procedures, for all create,
update, delete, and load operations.

18.1. Using a SQLQuery

Execution of native SQL queries is controlled via the SQLQuery interface, which is obtained
by calling Session.createSQLQuery(). The following sections describe how to use this API
for querying.

18.1.1. Scalar queries

The most basic SQL query is to get a list of scalars (values).
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS").list();
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE FROM CATS").list();

These will return a List of Object arrays (Object[]) with scalar values for each column in the
CATS table. Hibernate will use ResultSetMetadata to deduce the actual order and types of the
returned scalar values.
To avoid the overhead of using ResultSetMetadata, or simply to be more explicit in what is
returned, one can use addScalar():
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS")
.addScalar("ID", Hibernate.LONG)
.addScalar("NAME", Hibernate.STRING)
.addScalar("BIRTHDATE", Hibernate.DATE)

This query specified:

the SQL query string

the columns and types to return

This will return Object arrays, but now it will not use ResultSetMetadata but will instead
explicitly get the ID, NAME and BIRTHDATE column as respectively a Long, String and a

Short from the underlying resultset. This also means that only these three columns will be
returned, even though the query is using * and could return more than the three listed
columns.
It is possible to leave out the type information for all or some of the scalars.
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS")
.addScalar("ID", Hibernate.LONG)
.addScalar("NAME")
.addScalar("BIRTHDATE")

This is essentially the same query as before, but now ResultSetMetaData is used to
determine the type of NAME and BIRTHDATE, where as the type of ID is explicitly
specified.
How the java.sql.Types returned from ResultSetMetaData is mapped to Hibernate types is
controlled by the Dialect. If a specific type is not mapped, or does not result in the expected
type, it is possible to customize it via calls to registerHibernateType in the Dialect.

18.1.2. Entity queries

The above queries were all about returning scalar values, basically returning the "raw" values
from the resultset. The following shows how to get entity objects from a native sql query via
addEntity().
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS").addEntity(Cat.class);
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE FROM
CATS").addEntity(Cat.class);

This query specified:

the SQL query string

the entity returned by the query

Assuming that Cat is mapped as a class with the columns ID, NAME and BIRTHDATE the
above queries will both return a List where each element is a Cat entity.
If the entity is mapped with a many-to-one to another entity it is required to also return this
when performing the native query, otherwise a database specific "column not found" error
will occur. The additional columns will automatically be returned when using the * notation,
but we prefer to be explicit as in the following example for a many-to-one to a Dog:
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE, DOG_ID FROM
CATS").addEntity(Cat.class);

This will allow cat.getDog() to function properly.

18.1.3. Handling associations and collections

It is possible to eagerly join in the Dog to avoid the possible extra roundtrip for initializing the
proxy. This is done via the addJoin() method, which allows you to join in an association or
collection.
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT c.ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE, DOG_ID, D_ID, D_NAME
FROM CATS c, DOGS d WHERE c.DOG_ID = d.D_ID")
.addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
.addJoin("cat.dog");

In this example, the returned Cat's will have their dog property fully initialized without any
extra roundtrip to the database. Notice that you added an alias name ("cat") to be able to
specify the target property path of the join. It is possible to do the same eager joining for
collections, e.g. if the Cat had a one-to-many to Dog instead.
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE, D_ID, D_NAME, CAT_ID FROM
CATS c, DOGS d WHERE c.ID = d.CAT_ID")
.addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
.addJoin("cat.dogs");

At this stage you are reaching the limits of what is possible with native queries, without
starting to enhance the sql queries to make them usable in Hibernate. Problems can arise when
returning multiple entities of the same type or when the default alias/column names are not
enough.

18.1.4. Returning multiple entities

Until now, the result set column names are assumed to be the same as the column names
specified in the mapping document. This can be problematic for SQL queries that join
multiple tables, since the same column names can appear in more than one table.
Column alias injection is needed in the following query (which most likely will fail):
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT c.*, m.*
= c.ID")
.addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
.addEntity("mother", Cat.class)

FROM CATS c, CATS m WHERE c.MOTHER_ID

The query was intended to return two Cat instances per row: a cat and its mother. The query
will, however, fail because there is a conflict of names; the instances are mapped to the same
column names. Also, on some databases the returned column aliases will most likely be on the
form "c.ID", "c.NAME", etc. which are not equal to the columns specified in the mappings
("ID" and "NAME").
The following form is not vulnerable to column name duplication:
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT {cat.*}, {m.*}
c.MOTHER_ID = m.ID")
.addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
.addEntity("mother", Cat.class)

FROM CATS c, CATS m WHERE

This query specified:

the SQL query string, with placeholders for Hibernate to inject column aliases

the entities returned by the query

The {cat.*} and {mother.*} notation used above is a shorthand for "all properties".
Alternatively, you can list the columns explicitly, but even in this case Hibernate injects the
SQL column aliases for each property. The placeholder for a column alias is just the property
name qualified by the table alias. In the following example, you retrieve Cats and their
mothers from a different table (cat_log) to the one declared in the mapping metadata. You can
even use the property aliases in the where clause.
String sql = "SELECT ID as {c.id}, NAME as {c.name}, " +
"BIRTHDATE as {c.birthDate}, MOTHER_ID as {c.mother}, {mother.*} "
+
"FROM CAT_LOG c, CAT_LOG m WHERE {c.mother} = c.ID";
List loggedCats = sess.createSQLQuery(sql)
.addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
.addEntity("mother", Cat.class).list()

18.1.4.1. Alias and property references

In most cases the above alias injection is needed. For queries relating to more complex
mappings, like composite properties, inheritance discriminators, collections etc., you can use
specific aliases that allow Hibernate to inject the proper aliases.
The following table shows the different ways you can use the alias injection. Please note that
the alias names in the result are simply examples; each alias will have a unique and probably
different name when used.
Table 18.1. Alias injection names
Description
A simple
property

Syntax
{[aliasname].[propertyname]}

Example
A_NAME as {item.name}
CURRENCY as

A composite {[aliasname].[componentname].[propertynam {item.amount.currency

e]}
}, VALUE as
property
{item.amount.value}

Discriminato {[aliasname].class}
r of an entity

DISC as {item.class}

All
properties of {[aliasname].*}
an entity

{item.*}

A collection {[aliasname].key}
key

ORGID as {coll.key}

The id of an {[aliasname].id}
collection

EMPID as {coll.id}

The element
{[aliasname].element}
of an
collection

XID as {coll.element}

Description
Syntax
property of
the element {[aliasname].element.[propertyname]}
in the
collection

Example
NAME as
{coll.element.name}

All
properties of
the element {[aliasname].element.*}
in the
collection

{coll.element.*}

All
properties of {[aliasname].*}
the
collection

{coll.*}

18.1.5. Returning non-managed entities

It is possible to apply a ResultTransformer to native SQL queries, allowing it to return nonmanaged entities.
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT NAME, BIRTHDATE FROM CATS")
.setResultTransformer(Transformers.aliasToBean(CatDTO.class))

This query specified:

the SQL query string

a result transformer

The above query will return a list of CatDTO which has been instantiated and injected the
values of NAME and BIRTHNAME into its corresponding properties or fields.

18.1.6. Handling inheritance

Native SQL queries which query for entities that are mapped as part of an inheritance must
include all properties for the baseclass and all its subclasses.

18.1.7. Parameters
Native SQL queries support positional as well as named parameters:
Query query = sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS WHERE NAME like
?").addEntity(Cat.class);
List pusList = query.setString(0, "Pus%").list();
query = sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS WHERE NAME like
:name").addEntity(Cat.class);
List pusList = query.setString("name", "Pus%").list();

18.2. Named SQL queries

Named SQL queries can also be defined in the mapping document and called in exactly the
same way as a named HQL query (see Section 11.4.1.7, Externalizing named queries). In
this case, you do not need to call addEntity().
Example 18.1. Named sql query using the <sql-query> maping element
<sql-query name="persons">
<return alias="person" class="eg.Person"/>
SELECT person.NAME AS {person.name},
person.AGE AS {person.age},
person.SEX AS {person.sex}
FROM PERSON person
WHERE person.NAME LIKE :namePattern
</sql-query>

Example 18.2. Execution of a named query

List people = sess.getNamedQuery("persons")
.setString("namePattern", namePattern)
.setMaxResults(50)
.list();

The <return-join> element is use to join associations and the <load-collection> element
is used to define queries which initialize collections,
Example 18.3. Named sql query with association
<sql-query name="personsWith">
<return alias="person" class="eg.Person"/>
<return-join alias="address" property="person.mailingAddress"/>
SELECT person.NAME AS {person.name},
person.AGE AS {person.age},
person.SEX AS {person.sex},
address.STREET AS {address.street},
address.CITY AS {address.city},
address.STATE AS {address.state},
address.ZIP AS {address.zip}
FROM PERSON person
JOIN ADDRESS address
ON person.ID = address.PERSON_ID AND address.TYPE='MAILING'
WHERE person.NAME LIKE :namePattern
</sql-query>

A named SQL query may return a scalar value. You must declare the column alias and
Hibernate type using the <return-scalar> element:
Example 18.4. Named query returning a scalar
<sql-query name="mySqlQuery">
<return-scalar column="name" type="string"/>

<return-scalar column="age" type="long"/>

SELECT p.NAME AS name,
p.AGE AS age,
FROM PERSON p WHERE p.NAME LIKE 'Hiber%'
</sql-query>

You can externalize the resultset mapping information in a <resultset> element which will
allow you to either reuse them across several named queries or through the
setResultSetMapping() API.
Example 18.5. <resultset> mapping used to externalize mapping information
<resultset name="personAddress">
<return alias="person" class="eg.Person"/>
<return-join alias="address" property="person.mailingAddress"/>
</resultset>
<sql-query name="personsWith" resultset-ref="personAddress">
SELECT person.NAME AS {person.name},
person.AGE AS {person.age},
person.SEX AS {person.sex},
address.STREET AS {address.street},
address.CITY AS {address.city},
address.STATE AS {address.state},
address.ZIP AS {address.zip}
FROM PERSON person
JOIN ADDRESS address
ON person.ID = address.PERSON_ID AND address.TYPE='MAILING'
WHERE person.NAME LIKE :namePattern
</sql-query>

You can, alternatively, use the resultset mapping information in your hbm files directly in
java code.
Example 18.6. Programmatically specifying the result mapping information
List cats = sess.createSQLQuery(
"select {cat.*}, {kitten.*} from cats cat, cats kitten where
kitten.mother = cat.id"
)
.setResultSetMapping("catAndKitten")
.list();

So far we have only looked at externalizing SQL queries using Hibernate mapping files. The
same concept is also available with anntations and is called named native queries. You can
use @NamedNativeQuery (@NamedNativeQueries) in conjunction with
@SqlResultSetMapping (@SqlResultSetMappings). Like @NamedQuery,
@NamedNativeQuery and @SqlResultSetMapping can be defined at class level, but their
scope is global to the application. Lets look at a view examples.
Example 18.7, Named SQL query using @NamedNativeQuery together with
@SqlResultSetMapping shows how a resultSetMapping parameter is defined in

@NamedNativeQuery.

It represents the name of a defined @SqlResultSetMapping. The

resultset mapping declares the entities retrieved by this native query. Each field of the entity is
bound to an SQL alias (or column name). All fields of the entity including the ones of
subclasses and the foreign key columns of related entities have to be present in the SQL
query. Field definitions are optional provided that they map to the same column name as the
one declared on the class property. In the example 2 entities, Night and Area, are returned
and each property is declared and associated to a column name, actually the column name
retrieved by the query.
In Example 18.8, Implicit result set mapping the result set mapping is implicit. We only
describe the entity class of the result set mapping. The property / column mappings is done
using the entity mapping values. In this case the model property is bound to the model_txt
column.
Finally, if the association to a related entity involve a composite primary key, a
@FieldResult element should be used for each foreign key column. The @FieldResult
name is composed of the property name for the relationship, followed by a dot ("."), followed
by the name or the field or property of the primary key. This can be seen in Example 18.9,
Using dot notation in @FieldResult for specifying associations .
Example 18.7. Named SQL query using @NamedNativeQuery together with
@SqlResultSetMapping
@NamedNativeQuery(name="night&area", query="select night.id nid, night.nigh
t_duration, "
+ " night.night_date, area.id aid, night.area_id, area.name "
+ "from Night night, Area area where night.area_id = area.id",
resultSetMapping="joinMapping")
@SqlResultSetMapping(name="joinMapping", entities={
@EntityResult(entityClass=Night.class, fields = {
@FieldResult(name="id", column="nid"),
@FieldResult(name="duration", column="night_duration"),
@FieldResult(name="date", column="night_date"),
@FieldResult(name="area", column="area_id"),
discriminatorColumn="disc"
}),
@EntityResult(entityClass=org.hibernate.test.annotations.query.Area.cla
ss, fields = {
@FieldResult(name="id", column="aid"),
@FieldResult(name="name", column="name")
})
}
)

Example 18.8. Implicit result set mapping

@Entity
@SqlResultSetMapping(name="implicit",
entities=@EntityResult(entityClass=SpaceShip.class))
@NamedNativeQuery(name="implicitSample",
query="select * from SpaceShip",
resultSetMapping="implicit")
public class SpaceShip {
private String name;

private String model;

private double speed;
@Id
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
@Column(name="model_txt")
public String getModel() {
return model;
}
public void setModel(String model) {
this.model = model;
}
public double getSpeed() {
return speed;
}
public void setSpeed(double speed) {
this.speed = speed;
}
}

Example 18.9. Using dot notation in @FieldResult for specifying associations

@Entity
@SqlResultSetMapping(name="compositekey",
entities=@EntityResult(entityClass=SpaceShip.class,
fields = {
@FieldResult(name="name", column = "name"),
@FieldResult(name="model", column = "model"),
@FieldResult(name="speed", column = "speed"),
@FieldResult(name="captain.firstname", column = "firstn
"),
@FieldResult(name="captain.lastname", column = "lastn")
,
@FieldResult(name="dimensions.length", column = "length
"),
@FieldResult(name="dimensions.width", column = "width")
}),
columns = { @ColumnResult(name = "surface"),
@ColumnResult(name = "volume") } )
@NamedNativeQuery(name="compositekey",
query="select name, model, speed, lname as lastn, fname as firstn, leng
th, width, length * width as surface from SpaceShip",
resultSetMapping="compositekey")
} )
public class SpaceShip {
private String name;
private String model;
private double speed;

private Captain captain;

private Dimensions dimensions;
@Id
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
@ManyToOne(fetch= FetchType.LAZY)
@JoinColumns( {
@JoinColumn(name="fname", referencedColumnName = "firstname"),
@JoinColumn(name="lname", referencedColumnName = "lastname")
} )
public Captain getCaptain() {
return captain;
}
public void setCaptain(Captain captain) {
this.captain = captain;
}
public String getModel() {
return model;
}
public void setModel(String model) {
this.model = model;
}
public double getSpeed() {
return speed;
}
public void setSpeed(double speed) {
this.speed = speed;
}
public Dimensions getDimensions() {
return dimensions;
}
public void setDimensions(Dimensions dimensions) {
this.dimensions = dimensions;
}
}
@Entity
@IdClass(Identity.class)
public class Captain implements Serializable {
private String firstname;
private String lastname;
@Id
public String getFirstname() {
return firstname;
}

public void setFirstname(String firstname) {

this.firstname = firstname;
}
@Id
public String getLastname() {
return lastname;
}
public void setLastname(String lastname) {
this.lastname = lastname;
}
}

Tip
If you retrieve a single entity using the default mapping, you can specify the resultClass
attribute instead of resultSetMapping:
@NamedNativeQuery(name="implicitSample", query="select * from SpaceShip", r
esultClass=SpaceShip.class)
public class SpaceShip {

In some of your native queries, you'll have to return scalar values, for example when building
report queries. You can map them in the @SqlResultsetMapping through @ColumnResult.
You actually can even mix, entities and scalar returns in the same native query (this is
probably not that common though).
Example 18.10. Scalar values via @ColumnResult
@SqlResultSetMapping(name="scalar", columns=@ColumnResult(name="dimension")
)
@NamedNativeQuery(name="scalar", query="select length*width as dimension fr
om SpaceShip", resultSetMapping="scalar")

An other query hint specific to native queries has been introduced:

org.hibernate.callable which can be true or false depending on whether the query is a
stored procedure or not.

18.2.1. Using return-property to explicitly specify column/alias names

You can explicitly tell Hibernate what column aliases to use with <return-property>,
instead of using the {}-syntax to let Hibernate inject its own aliases.For example:
<sql-query name="mySqlQuery">
<return alias="person" class="eg.Person">
<return-property name="name" column="myName"/>
<return-property name="age" column="myAge"/>
<return-property name="sex" column="mySex"/>
</return>
SELECT person.NAME AS myName,
person.AGE AS myAge,

person.SEX AS mySex,
FROM PERSON person WHERE person.NAME LIKE :name
</sql-query>

also works with multiple columns. This solves a limitation with the {}syntax which cannot allow fine grained control of multi-column properties.
<return-property>

<sql-query name="organizationCurrentEmployments">
<return alias="emp" class="Employment">
<return-property name="salary">
<return-column name="VALUE"/>
<return-column name="CURRENCY"/>
</return-property>
<return-property name="endDate" column="myEndDate"/>
</return>
SELECT EMPLOYEE AS {emp.employee}, EMPLOYER AS {emp.employer},
STARTDATE AS {emp.startDate}, ENDDATE AS {emp.endDate},
REGIONCODE as {emp.regionCode}, EID AS {emp.id}, VALUE, CURRENCY
FROM EMPLOYMENT
WHERE EMPLOYER = :id AND ENDDATE IS NULL
ORDER BY STARTDATE ASC
</sql-query>

In this example <return-property> was used in combination with the {}-syntax for
injection. This allows users to choose how they want to refer column and properties.
If your mapping has a discriminator you must use <return-discriminator> to specify the
discriminator column.

18.2.2. Using stored procedures for querying

Hibernate provides support for queries via stored procedures and functions. Most of the
following documentation is equivalent for both. The stored procedure/function must return a
resultset as the first out-parameter to be able to work with Hibernate. An example of such a
stored function in Oracle 9 and higher is as follows:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION selectAllEmployments
RETURN SYS_REFCURSOR
AS
st_cursor SYS_REFCURSOR;
BEGIN
OPEN st_cursor FOR
SELECT EMPLOYEE, EMPLOYER,
STARTDATE, ENDDATE,
REGIONCODE, EID, VALUE, CURRENCY
FROM EMPLOYMENT;
RETURN st_cursor;
END;

To use this query in Hibernate you need to map it via a named query.
<sql-query name="selectAllEmployees_SP" callable="true">
<return alias="emp" class="Employment">
<return-property name="employee" column="EMPLOYEE"/>
<return-property name="employer" column="EMPLOYER"/>
<return-property name="startDate" column="STARTDATE"/>

<return-property name="endDate" column="ENDDATE"/>

<return-property name="regionCode" column="REGIONCODE"/>
<return-property name="id" column="EID"/>
<return-property name="salary">
<return-column name="VALUE"/>
<return-column name="CURRENCY"/>
</return-property>
</return>
{ ? = call selectAllEmployments() }
</sql-query>

Stored procedures currently only return scalars and entities. <return-join> and <loadcollection> are not supported.
18.2.2.1. Rules/limitations for using stored procedures
You cannot use stored procedures with Hibernate unless you follow some procedure/function
rules. If they do not follow those rules they are not usable with Hibernate. If you still want to
use these procedures you have to execute them via session.connection(). The rules are
different for each database, since database vendors have different stored procedure
semantics/syntax.
Stored procedure queries cannot be paged with setFirstResult()/setMaxResults().
The recommended call form is standard SQL92: { ? = call
functionName(<parameters>) } or { ? = call procedureName(<parameters>}. Native
call syntax is not supported.
For Oracle the following rules apply:

A function must return a result set. The first parameter of a procedure must be an OUT
that returns a result set. This is done by using a SYS_REFCURSOR type in Oracle 9 or
10. In Oracle you need to define a REF CURSOR type. See Oracle literature for further
information.

For Sybase or MS SQL server the following rules apply:

The procedure must return a result set. Note that since these servers can return
multiple result sets and update counts, Hibernate will iterate the results and take the
first result that is a result set as its return value. Everything else will be discarded.
If you can enable SET NOCOUNT ON in your procedure it will probably be more
efficient, but this is not a requirement.

18.3. Custom SQL for create, update and delete

Hibernate can use custom SQL for create, update, and delete operations. The SQL can be
overridden at the statement level or inidividual column level. This section describes statement
overrides. For columns, see Section 5.6, Column transformers: read and write expressions.
Example 18.11, Custom CRUD via annotations shows how to define custom SQL
operatons using annotations.

Example 18.11. Custom CRUD via annotations

@Entity
@Table(name="CHAOS")
@SQLInsert( sql="INSERT INTO CHAOS(size, name, nickname, id) VALUES(?,upper
(?),?,?)")
@SQLUpdate( sql="UPDATE CHAOS SET size = ?, name = upper(?), nickname = ? W
HERE id = ?")
@SQLDelete( sql="DELETE CHAOS WHERE id = ?")
@SQLDeleteAll( sql="DELETE CHAOS")
@Loader(namedQuery = "chaos")
@NamedNativeQuery(name="chaos", query="select id, size, name, lower( nickna
me ) as nickname from CHAOS where xml:id= ?", resultClass = Chaos.class)
public class Chaos {
@Id
private Long id;
private Long size;
private String name;
private String nickname;

@SQLInsert, @SQLUpdate, @SQLDelete, @SQLDeleteAll

respectively override the INSERT,

UPDATE, DELETE, and DELETE all statement. The same can be achieved using Hibernate
mapping files and the <sql-insert>, <sql-update> and <sql-delete> nodes. This can be
seen in Example 18.12, Custom CRUD XML.
Example 18.12. Custom CRUD XML
<class name="Person">
<id name="id">
<generator class="increment"/>
</id>
<property name="name" not-null="true"/>
<sql-insert>INSERT INTO PERSON (NAME, ID) VALUES ( UPPER(?), ? )</sqlinsert>
<sql-update>UPDATE PERSON SET NAME=UPPER(?) WHERE xml:id=?</sql-update>
<sql-delete>DELETE FROM PERSON WHERE xml:id=?</sql-delete>
</class>

If you expect to call a store procedure, be sure to set the callable attribute to true. In
annotations as well as in xml.
To check that the execution happens correctly, Hibernate allows you to define one of those
three strategies:

none: no check is performed: the store procedure is expected to fail upon issues
count: use of rowcount to check that the update is successful
param: like COUNT but using an output parameter rather that the standard mechanism

To define the result check style, use the check parameter which is again available in
annoations as well as in xml.

You can use the exact same set of annotations respectively xml nodes to override the
collection related statements -see Example 18.13, Overriding SQL statements for collections
using annotations.
Example 18.13. Overriding SQL statements for collections using annotations
@OneToMany
@JoinColumn(name="chaos_fk")
@SQLInsert( sql="UPDATE CASIMIR_PARTICULE SET chaos_fk = ? where id = ?")
@SQLDelete( sql="UPDATE CASIMIR_PARTICULE SET chaos_fk = null where id = ?"
)
private Set<CasimirParticle> particles = new HashSet<CasimirParticle>();

Tip
The parameter order is important and is defined by the order Hibernate handles properties.
You can see the expected order by enabling debug logging for the
org.hibernate.persister.entity level. With this level enabled Hibernate will print out
the static SQL that is used to create, update, delete etc. entities. (To see the expected
sequence, remember to not include your custom SQL through annotations or mapping files as
that will override the Hibernate generated static sql)
Overriding SQL statements for secondary tables is also possible using
@org.hibernate.annotations.Table and either (or all) attributes sqlInsert, sqlUpdate,
sqlDelete:
Example 18.14. Overriding SQL statements for secondary tables
@Entity
@SecondaryTables({
@SecondaryTable(name = "`Cat nbr1`"),
@SecondaryTable(name = "Cat2"})
@org.hibernate.annotations.Tables( {
@Table(appliesTo = "Cat", comment = "My cat table" ),
@Table(appliesTo = "Cat2", foreignKey = @ForeignKey(name="FK_CAT2_CAT")
, fetch = FetchMode.SELECT,
sqlInsert=@SQLInsert(sql="insert into Cat2(storyPart2, id) values(u
pper(?), ?)") )
} )
public class Cat implements Serializable {

The previous example also shows that you can give a comment to a given table (primary or
secondary): This comment will be used for DDL generation.

Tip
The SQL is directly executed in your database, so you can use any dialect you like. This will,
however, reduce the portability of your mapping if you use database specific SQL.

Last but not least, stored procedures are in most cases required to return the number of rows
inserted, updated and deleted. Hibernate always registers the first statement parameter as a
numeric output parameter for the CUD operations:
Example 18.15. Stored procedures and their return value
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION updatePerson (uid IN NUMBER, uname IN VARCHAR2)
RETURN NUMBER IS
BEGIN
update PERSON
set
NAME = uname,
where
ID = uid;
return SQL%ROWCOUNT;
END updatePerson;

18.4. Custom SQL for loading

You can also declare your own SQL (or HQL) queries for entity loading. As with inserts,
updates, and deletes, this can be done at the individual column level as described in
Section 5.6, Column transformers: read and write expressions or at the statement level.
Here is an example of a statement level override:
<sql-query name="person">
<return alias="pers" class="Person" lock-mode="upgrade"/>
SELECT NAME AS {pers.name}, ID AS {pers.id}
FROM PERSON
WHERE xml:id=?
FOR UPDATE
</sql-query>

This is just a named query declaration, as discussed earlier. You can reference this named
query in a class mapping:
<class name="Person">
<id name="id">
<generator class="increment"/>
</id>
<property name="name" not-null="true"/>
<loader query-ref="person"/>
</class>

This even works with stored procedures.

You can even define a query for collection loading:
<set name="employments" inverse="true">
<key/>
<one-to-many class="Employment"/>
<loader query-ref="employments"/>

</set>
<sql-query name="employments">
<load-collection alias="emp" role="Person.employments"/>
SELECT {emp.*}
FROM EMPLOYMENT emp
WHERE EMPLOYER = :id
ORDER BY STARTDATE ASC, EMPLOYEE ASC
</sql-query>

You can also define an entity loader that loads a collection by join fetching:
<sql-query name="person">
<return alias="pers" class="Person"/>
<return-join alias="emp" property="pers.employments"/>
SELECT NAME AS {pers.*}, {emp.*}
FROM PERSON pers
LEFT OUTER JOIN EMPLOYMENT emp
ON pers.ID = emp.PERSON_ID
WHERE xml:id=?
</sql-query>

The annotation equivalent <loader> is the @Loader annotation as seen in Example 18.11,
Custom CRUD via annotations.

Chapter 19. Filtering data

Table of Contents
19.1. Hibernate filters
Hibernate provides an innovative new approach to handling data with "visibility" rules. A
Hibernate filter is a global, named, parameterized filter that can be enabled or disabled for a
particular Hibernate session.

19.1. Hibernate filters

Hibernate has the ability to pre-define filter criteria and attach those filters at both a class
level and a collection level. A filter criteria allows you to define a restriction clause similar to
the existing "where" attribute available on the class and various collection elements. These
filter conditions, however, can be parameterized. The application can then decide at runtime
whether certain filters should be enabled and what their parameter values should be. Filters
can be used like database views, but they are parameterized inside the application.
Using annotatons filters are defined via @org.hibernate.annotations.FilterDef or
@org.hibernate.annotations.FilterDefs. A filter definition has a name() and an array
of parameters(). A parameter will allow you to adjust the behavior of the filter at runtime.
Each parameter is defined by a @ParamDef which has a name and a type. You can also define
a defaultCondition() parameter for a given @FilterDef to set the default condition to use
when none are defined in each individual @Filter. @FilterDef(s) can be defined at the class
or package level.

We now need to define the SQL filter clause applied to either the entity load or the collection
load. @Filter is used and placed either on the entity or the collection element. The
connection between @FilterName and @Filter is a matching name.
Example 19.1. @FilterDef and @Filter annotations
@Entity
@FilterDef(name="minLength", parameters=@ParamDef( name="minLength", type="
integer" ) )
@Filters( {
@Filter(name="betweenLength", condition=":minLength <= length and :maxL
ength >= length"),
@Filter(name="minLength", condition=":minLength <= length")
} )
public class Forest { ... }

When the collection use an association table as a relational representation, you might want to
apply the filter condition to the association table itself or to the target entity table. To apply
the constraint on the target entity, use the regular @Filter annotation. However, if you want
to target the association table, use the @FilterJoinTable annotation.
Example 19.2. Using @FilterJoinTable for filterting on the association table
@OneToMany
@JoinTable
//filter on the target entity table
@Filter(name="betweenLength", condition=":minLength <= length and :maxLengt
h >= length")
//filter on the association table
@FilterJoinTable(name="security", condition=":userlevel >= requredLevel")
public Set<Forest> getForests() { ... }

By default, Hibernate attempts to automatically determine all points within the @Filter SQL
condition fragment that an alias should be injected. To control the alias injection, set
deduceAliasInjectionPoints to false within the @Filter. Injection points are then
marked using @SqlFragmentAlias annotations or within the SQL's condition fragment using
{alias}.
In addition to allowing explicit alias control, deduceAliasInjectionPoints provides an out
when Hibernate assumes an ANSI SQL reserved keyword is a column and incorrectly aliases
it.
Example 19.3. @Filter annotation, disabling deduceAliasInjectionPoints
@Entity
@Table(name="T_TREE")
@Filters({
@Filter(name="isTall", condition="{alias}.LENGTH >= 100", deduceAliasIn
jectionPoints = false),
@Filter(name="isOak", condition="{t}.WOODTYPE like 'oak'", deduceAliasI
njectionPoints = false,
aliases={@SqlFragmentAlias(alias="t", table="T_TREE")})

})
public class Tree { ... }

Using Hibernate mapping files for defining filters the situtation is very similar. The filters
must first be defined and then attached to the appropriate mapping elements. To define a
filter, use the <filter-def/> element within a <hibernate-mapping/> element:
Example 19.4. Defining a filter definition via <filter-def>
<filter-def name="myFilter">
<filter-param name="myFilterParam" type="string"/>
</filter-def>

This filter can then be attached to a class or collection (or, to both or multiples of each at the
same time):
Example 19.5. Attaching a filter to a class or collection using <filter>
<class name="myClass" ...>
...
<filter name="myFilter" condition=":myFilterParam =
MY_FILTERED_COLUMN"/>
<set ...>
<filter name="myFilter" condition=":myFilterParam =
MY_FILTERED_COLUMN"/>
</set>
</class>

The methods on Session are: enableFilter(String filterName),

getEnabledFilter(String filterName), and disableFilter(String filterName). By
default, filters are not enabled for a given session. Filters must be enabled through use of the
Session.enableFilter() method, which returns an instance of the Filter interface. If you
used the simple filter defined above, it would look like this:
session.enableFilter("myFilter").setParameter("myFilterParam", "somevalue");

Methods on the org.hibernate.Filter interface do allow the method-chaining common to much

of Hibernate.
The following is a full example, using temporal data with an effective record date pattern:
<filter-def name="effectiveDate">
<filter-param name="asOfDate" type="date"/>
</filter-def>
<class name="Employee" ...>
...
<many-to-one name="department" column="dept_id" class="Department"/>
<property name="effectiveStartDate" type="date" column="eff_start_dt"/>

<property name="effectiveEndDate" type="date" column="eff_end_dt"/>

...
<!-Note that this assumes non-terminal records have an eff_end_dt set
to
a max db date for simplicity-sake
-->
<filter name="effectiveDate"
condition=":asOfDate BETWEEN eff_start_dt and eff_end_dt"/>
</class>
<class name="Department" ...>
...
<set name="employees" lazy="true">
<key column="dept_id"/>
<one-to-many class="Employee"/>
<filter name="effectiveDate"
condition=":asOfDate BETWEEN eff_start_dt and eff_end_dt"/>
</set>
</class>

In order to ensure that you are provided with currently effective records, enable the filter on
the session prior to retrieving employee data:
Session session = ...;
session.enableFilter("effectiveDate").setParameter("asOfDate", new Date());
List results = session.createQuery("from Employee as e where e.salary >
:targetSalary")
.setLong("targetSalary", new Long(1000000))
.list();

Even though a salary constraint was mentioned explicitly on the results in the above HQL,
because of the enabled filter, the query will return only currently active employees who have
a salary greater than one million dollars.
If you want to use filters with outer joining, either through HQL or load fetching, be careful of
the direction of the condition expression. It is safest to set this up for left outer joining. Place
the parameter first followed by the column name(s) after the operator.
After being defined, a filter might be attached to multiple entities and/or collections each with
its own condition. This can be problematic when the conditions are the same each time. Using
<filter-def/> allows you to definine a default condition, either as an attribute or CDATA:
<filter-def name="myFilter" condition="abc > xyz">...</filter-def>
<filter-def name="myOtherFilter">abc=xyz</filter-def>

This default condition will be used whenever the filter is attached to something without
specifying a condition. This means you can give a specific condition as part of the attachment
of the filter that overrides the default condition in that particular case.

Chapter 20. Improving performance

Table of Contents
20.1. Fetching strategies

20.1.1. Working with lazy associations

20.1.2. Tuning fetch strategies
20.1.3. Single-ended association proxies
20.1.4. Initializing collections and proxies
20.1.5. Using batch fetching
20.1.6. Using subselect fetching
20.1.7. Fetch profiles
20.1.8. Using lazy property fetching
20.2. The Second Level Cache
20.2.1. Cache mappings
20.2.2. Strategy: read only
20.2.3. Strategy: read/write
20.2.4. Strategy: nonstrict read/write
20.2.5. Strategy: transactional
20.2.6. Cache-provider/concurrency-strategy compatibility
20.3. Managing the caches
20.4. The Query Cache
20.4.1. Enabling query caching
20.4.2. Query cache regions
20.5. Bytecode Enhancement
20.5.1. Implementing org.hibernate.engine.spi.ManagedEntity interface
20.5.2. Runtime instrument
20.5.3. Build-time instrument
20.6. Understanding Collection performance
20.6.1. Taxonomy
20.6.2. Lists, maps, idbags and sets are the most efficient collections to update
20.6.3. Bags and lists are the most efficient inverse collections
20.6.4. One shot delete
20.7. Monitoring performance
20.7.1. Monitoring a SessionFactory
20.7.2. Metrics

20.1. Fetching strategies

Hibernate uses a fetching strategy to retrieve associated objects if the application needs to
navigate the association. Fetch strategies can be declared in the O/R mapping metadata, or
over-ridden by a particular HQL or Criteria query.
Hibernate defines the following fetching strategies:

Join fetching: Hibernate retrieves the associated instance or collection in the same
SELECT, using an OUTER JOIN.
Select fetching: a second SELECT is used to retrieve the associated entity or collection.
Unless you explicitly disable lazy fetching by specifying lazy="false", this second
select will only be executed when you access the association.
Subselect fetching: a second SELECT is used to retrieve the associated collections for
all entities retrieved in a previous query or fetch. Unless you explicitly disable lazy
fetching by specifying lazy="false", this second select will only be executed when
you access the association.

Batch fetching: an optimization strategy for select fetching. Hibernate retrieves a batch
of entity instances or collections in a single SELECT by specifying a list of primary or
foreign keys.

Hibernate also distinguishes between:

Immediate fetching: an association, collection or attribute is fetched immediately when

the owner is loaded.
Lazy collection fetching: a collection is fetched when the application invokes an
operation upon that collection. This is the default for collections.
"Extra-lazy" collection fetching: individual elements of the collection are accessed
from the database as needed. Hibernate tries not to fetch the whole collection into
memory unless absolutely needed. It is suitable for large collections.
Proxy fetching: a single-valued association is fetched when a method other than the
identifier getter is invoked upon the associated object.
"No-proxy" fetching: a single-valued association is fetched when the instance variable
is accessed. Compared to proxy fetching, this approach is less lazy; the association is
fetched even when only the identifier is accessed. It is also more transparent, since no
proxy is visible to the application. This approach requires buildtime bytecode
instrumentation and is rarely necessary.
Lazy attribute fetching: an attribute or single valued association is fetched when the
instance variable is accessed. This approach requires buildtime bytecode
instrumentation and is rarely necessary.

We have two orthogonal notions here: when is the association fetched and how is it fetched. It
is important that you do not confuse them. We use fetch to tune performance. We can use
lazy to define a contract for what data is always available in any detached instance of a
particular class.

20.1.1. Working with lazy associations

By default, Hibernate uses lazy select fetching for collections and lazy proxy fetching for
single-valued associations. These defaults make sense for most associations in the majority of
applications.
If you set hibernate.default_batch_fetch_size, Hibernate will use the batch fetch
optimization for lazy fetching. This optimization can also be enabled at a more granular level.
Please be aware that access to a lazy association outside of the context of an open Hibernate
session will result in an exception. For example:
s = sessions.openSession();
Transaction tx = s.beginTransaction();
User u = (User) s.createQuery("from User u where u.name=:userName")
.setString("userName", userName).uniqueResult();
Map permissions = u.getPermissions();
tx.commit();
s.close();
Integer accessLevel = (Integer) permissions.get("accounts");

// Error!

Since the permissions collection was not initialized when the Session was closed, the
collection will not be able to load its state. Hibernate does not support lazy initialization for
detached objects. This can be fixed by moving the code that reads from the collection to just
before the transaction is committed.
Alternatively, you can use a non-lazy collection or association, by specifying lazy="false"
for the association mapping. However, it is intended that lazy initialization be used for almost
all collections and associations. If you define too many non-lazy associations in your object
model, Hibernate will fetch the entire database into memory in every transaction.
On the other hand, you can use join fetching, which is non-lazy by nature, instead of select
fetching in a particular transaction. We will now explain how to customize the fetching
strategy. In Hibernate, the mechanisms for choosing a fetch strategy are identical for singlevalued associations and collections.

20.1.2. Tuning fetch strategies

Select fetching (the default) is extremely vulnerable to N+1 selects problems, so we might
want to enable join fetching in the mapping document:
<set name="permissions"
fetch="join">
<key column="userId"/>
<one-to-many class="Permission"/>
</set
<many-to-one name="mother" class="Cat" fetch="join"/>

The fetch strategy defined in the mapping document affects:

retrieval via get() or load()

retrieval that happens implicitly when an association is navigated
Criteria queries
HQL queries if subselect fetching is used

Irrespective of the fetching strategy you use, the defined non-lazy graph is guaranteed to be
loaded into memory. This might, however, result in several immediate selects being used to
execute a particular HQL query.
Usually, the mapping document is not used to customize fetching. Instead, we keep the
default behavior, and override it for a particular transaction, using left join fetch in HQL.
This tells Hibernate to fetch the association eagerly in the first select, using an outer join. In
the Criteria query API, you would use setFetchMode(FetchMode.JOIN).
If you want to change the fetching strategy used by get() or load(), you can use a Criteria
query. For example:
User user = (User) session.createCriteria(User.class)
.setFetchMode("permissions", FetchMode.JOIN)
.add( Restrictions.idEq(userId) )
.uniqueResult();

This is Hibernate's equivalent of what some ORM solutions call a "fetch plan".
A completely different approach to problems with N+1 selects is to use the second-level
cache.

20.1.3. Single-ended association proxies

Lazy fetching for collections is implemented using Hibernate's own implementation of
persistent collections. However, a different mechanism is needed for lazy behavior in singleended associations. The target entity of the association must be proxied. Hibernate
implements lazy initializing proxies for persistent objects using runtime bytecode
enhancement which is accessed via the bytecode provider.
At startup, Hibernate generates proxies by default for all persistent classes and uses them to
enable lazy fetching of many-to-one and one-to-one associations.
The mapping file may declare an interface to use as the proxy interface for that class, with the
proxy attribute. By default, Hibernate uses a subclass of the class. The proxied class must
implement a default constructor with at least package visibility. This constructor is
recommended for all persistent classes.
There are potential problems to note when extending this approach to polymorphic classes.For
example:
<class name="Cat" proxy="Cat">
......
<subclass name="DomesticCat">
.....
</subclass>
</class>

Firstly, instances of Cat will never be castable to DomesticCat, even if the underlying
instance is an instance of DomesticCat:
Cat cat = (Cat) session.load(Cat.class, id);
not hit the db)
if ( cat.isDomesticCat() ) {
the proxy
DomesticCat dc = (DomesticCat) cat;
....
}

// instantiate a proxy (does

// hit the db to initialize
// Error!

Secondly, it is possible to break proxy ==:

Cat cat = (Cat) session.load(Cat.class, id);
// instantiate a
Cat proxy
DomesticCat dc =
(DomesticCat) session.load(DomesticCat.class, id); // acquire new
DomesticCat proxy!
System.out.println(cat==dc);
// false

However, the situation is not quite as bad as it looks. Even though we now have two
references to different proxy objects, the underlying instance will still be the same object:

cat.setWeight(11.0); // hit the db to initialize the proxy

System.out.println( dc.getWeight() ); // 11.0

Third, you cannot use a bytecode provider generated proxy for a final class or a class with
any final methods.
Finally, if your persistent object acquires any resources upon instantiation (e.g. in initializers
or default constructor), then those resources will also be acquired by the proxy. The proxy
class is an actual subclass of the persistent class.
These problems are all due to fundamental limitations in Java's single inheritance model. To
avoid these problems your persistent classes must each implement an interface that declares
its business methods. You should specify these interfaces in the mapping file where CatImpl
implements the interface Cat and DomesticCatImpl implements the interface DomesticCat.
For example:
<class name="CatImpl" proxy="Cat">
......
<subclass name="DomesticCatImpl" proxy="DomesticCat">
.....
</subclass>
</class>

Then proxies for instances of Cat and DomesticCat can be returned by load() or
iterate().
Cat cat = (Cat) session.load(CatImpl.class, catid);
Iterator iter = session.createQuery("from CatImpl as cat where
cat.name='fritz'").iterate();
Cat fritz = (Cat) iter.next();

Note
list()

does not usually return proxies.

Relationships are also lazily initialized. This means you must declare any properties to be of
type Cat, not CatImpl.
Certain operations do not require proxy initialization:

equals(): if the persistent class does not override equals()

hashCode(): if the persistent class does not override hashCode()

The identifier getter method

Hibernate will detect persistent classes that override equals() or hashCode().

By choosing lazy="no-proxy" instead of the default lazy="proxy", you can avoid problems
associated with typecasting. However, buildtime bytecode instrumentation is required, and all
operations will result in immediate proxy initialization.

20.1.4. Initializing collections and proxies

A LazyInitializationException will be thrown by Hibernate if an uninitialized collection

or proxy is accessed outside of the scope of the Session, i.e., when the entity owning the
collection or having the reference to the proxy is in the detached state.
Sometimes a proxy or collection needs to be initialized before closing the Session. You can
force initialization by calling cat.getSex() or cat.getKittens().size(), for example.
However, this can be confusing to readers of the code and it is not convenient for generic
code.
The static methods Hibernate.initialize() and Hibernate.isInitialized(), provide
the application with a convenient way of working with lazily initialized collections or proxies.
Hibernate.initialize(cat) will force the initialization of a proxy, cat, as long as its
Session is still open. Hibernate.initialize( cat.getKittens() ) has a similar effect
for the collection of kittens.
Another option is to keep the Session open until all required collections and proxies have
been loaded. In some application architectures, particularly where the code that accesses data
using Hibernate, and the code that uses it are in different application layers or different
physical processes, it can be a problem to ensure that the Session is open when a collection is
initialized. There are two basic ways to deal with this issue:

In a web-based application, a servlet filter can be used to close the Session only at the
end of a user request, once the rendering of the view is complete (the Open Session in
View pattern). Of course, this places heavy demands on the correctness of the
exception handling of your application infrastructure. It is vitally important that the
Session is closed and the transaction ended before returning to the user, even when an
exception occurs during rendering of the view. See the Hibernate Wiki for examples
of this "Open Session in View" pattern.
In an application with a separate business tier, the business logic must "prepare" all
collections that the web tier needs before returning. This means that the business tier
should load all the data and return all the data already initialized to the
presentation/web tier that is required for a particular use case. Usually, the application
calls Hibernate.initialize() for each collection that will be needed in the web tier
(this call must occur before the session is closed) or retrieves the collection eagerly
using a Hibernate query with a FETCH clause or a FetchMode.JOIN in Criteria. This
is usually easier if you adopt the Command pattern instead of a Session Facade.
You can also attach a previously loaded object to a new Session with merge() or
lock() before accessing uninitialized collections or other proxies. Hibernate does not,
and certainly should not, do this automatically since it would introduce impromptu
transaction semantics.

Sometimes you do not want to initialize a large collection, but still need some information
about it, like its size, for example, or a subset of the data.
You can use a collection filter to get the size of a collection without initializing it:
( (Integer) s.createFilter( collection, "select count(*)" ).list().get(0)
).intValue()

The createFilter() method is also used to efficiently retrieve subsets of a collection

without needing to initialize the whole collection:
s.createFilter( lazyCollection,
"").setFirstResult(0).setMaxResults(10).list();

20.1.5. Using batch fetching

Using batch fetching, Hibernate can load several uninitialized proxies if one proxy is
accessed. Batch fetching is an optimization of the lazy select fetching strategy. There are two
ways you can configure batch fetching: on the class level and the collection level.
Batch fetching for classes/entities is easier to understand. Consider the following example: at
runtime you have 25 Cat instances loaded in a Session, and each Cat has a reference to its
owner, a Person. The Person class is mapped with a proxy, lazy="true". If you now iterate
through all cats and call getOwner() on each, Hibernate will, by default, execute 25 SELECT
statements to retrieve the proxied owners. You can tune this behavior by specifying a batchsize in the mapping of Person:
<class name="Person" batch-size="10">...</class>

With this batch-size specified, Hibernate will now execute queries on demand when need to
access the uninitialized proxy, as above, but the difference is that instead of querying the
exactly proxy entity that being accessed, it will query more Person's owner at once, so, when
accessing other person's owner, it may already been initialized by this batch fetch with only a
few ( much less than 25) queries will be executed.
This behavior is controlled by the batch-size and batch fetch style configuration. The batch
fetch style configuration ( hibernate.batch_fetch_style ) is a new performance
improvement since 4.2.0, there are 3 different strategies provided, which is legacy, padded
and dynamic.

LEGACY

The legacy algorithm where we keep a set of pre-built batch sizes based on
org.hibernate.internal.util.collections.ArrayHelper#getBatchSizes.

Batches are performed using the next-smaller pre-built batch size from the number of
existing batchable identifiers.
In the above example, with a batch-size setting of 25 the pre-built batch sizes would
be [25, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7, .., 1].
And since there are 25 persons' owner to be initialized, then only one query will be
executed using these 25 owners' identifier.
But in another case, suppose there are only 24 persons, there will be 3 queries (12, 10,
2) will be executed to go through all person's owner, and the query will looks like :
select * from owner where id in (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)
select * from owner where id in (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)
select * from owner where id in (?, ?)

PADDED

This is kind of similar with the legacy algorithm, it uses the pre-build batch sizes
based on same
org.hibernate.internal.util.collections.ArrayHelper#getBatchSizes.

The
difference is that here hibernate will use the next-bigger batch size and pads the extra
identifier placeholders.
So, using the same example above, initializing 25 persons the query would be same as
above, only 1 query will be executed to batch query all the owners.
However, the attempt to batch load 24 owners would result just a single batch of size
25, the identifiers to load would be "padded" (aka, repeated) to make up the
difference.

DYNAMIC

Dynamically builds its SQL based on the actual number of available ids. Does still
limit to the batch-size defined on the entity.
You can also enable batch fetching of collections. For example, if each Person has a lazy
collection of Cats, and 10 persons are currently loaded in the Session, iterating through all
persons will generate 10 SELECTs, one for every call to getCats(). If you enable batch
fetching for the cats collection in the mapping of Person, Hibernate can pre-fetch
collections:
<class name="Person">
<set name="cats" batch-size="3">
...
</set>
</class>

For example, with a batch-size of 3 and using legacy batch style, Hibernate will load 3, 3,
3, 1 collections in four SELECTs. Again, the value of the attribute depends on the expected
number of uninitialized collections in a particular Session.
Batch fetching of collections is particularly useful if you have a nested tree of items, i.e. the
typical bill-of-materials pattern. However, a nested set or a materialized path might be a
better option for read-mostly trees.

20.1.6. Using subselect fetching

If one lazy collection or single-valued proxy has to be fetched, Hibernate will load all of
them, re-running the original query in a subselect. This works in the same way as batchfetching but without the piecemeal loading.

20.1.7. Fetch profiles

Another way to affect the fetching strategy for loading associated objects is through
something called a fetch profile, which is a named configuration associated with the
org.hibernate.SessionFactory but enabled, by name, on the org.hibernate.Session.
Once enabled on a org.hibernate.Session, the fetch profile will be in affect for that
org.hibernate.Session until it is explicitly disabled.
So what does that mean? Well lets explain that by way of an example which show the
different available approaches to configure a fetch profile:
Example 20.1. Specifying a fetch profile using @FetchProfile
@Entity
@FetchProfile(name = "customer-with-orders", fetchOverrides = {
@FetchProfile.FetchOverride(entity = Customer.class, association =
"orders", mode = FetchMode.JOIN)
})
public class Customer {
@Id
@GeneratedValue
private long id;
private String name;
private long customerNumber;
@OneToMany
private Set<Order> orders;
// standard getter/setter
...
}

Example 20.2. Specifying a fetch profile using <fetch-profile> outside <class> node
<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="Customer">
...
<set name="orders" inverse="true">
<key column="cust_id"/>
<one-to-many class="Order"/>
</set>
</class>
<class name="Order">
...
</class>
<fetch-profile name="customer-with-orders">
<fetch entity="Customer" association="orders" style="join"/>
</fetch-profile>
</hibernate-mapping>

Example 20.3. Specifying a fetch profile using <fetch-profile> inside <class> node
<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="Customer">
...

<set name="orders" inverse="true">

<key column="cust_id"/>
<one-to-many class="Order"/>
</set>
<fetch-profile name="customer-with-orders">
<fetch association="orders" style="join"/>
</fetch-profile>
</class>
<class name="Order">
...
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

Now normally when you get a reference to a particular customer, that customer's set of orders
will be lazy meaning we will not yet have loaded those orders from the database. Normally
this is a good thing. Now lets say that you have a certain use case where it is more efficient to
load the customer and their orders together. One way certainly is to use "dynamic fetching"
strategies via an HQL or criteria queries. But another option is to use a fetch profile to achieve
that. The following code will load both the customer andtheir orders:
Example 20.4. Activating a fetch profile for a given Session
Session session = ...;
session.enableFetchProfile( "customer-with-orders" ); // name matches from
mapping
Customer customer = (Customer) session.get( Customer.class, customerId );

Note
definitions are global and it does not matter on which class you place them.
You can place the @FetchProfile annotation either onto a class or package (packageinfo.java). In order to define multiple fetch profiles for the same class or package
@FetchProfiles can be used.
@FetchProfile

Currently only join style fetch profiles are supported, but they plan is to support additional
styles. See HHH-3414 for details.

20.1.8. Using lazy property fetching

Hibernate supports the lazy fetching of individual properties. This optimization technique is
also known as fetch groups. Please note that this is mostly a marketing feature; optimizing
row reads is much more important than optimization of column reads. However, only loading
some properties of a class could be useful in extreme cases. For example, when legacy tables
have hundreds of columns and the data model cannot be improved.
To enable lazy property loading, set the lazy attribute on your particular property mappings:
<class name="Document">
<id name="id">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>

<property name="name" not-null="true" length="50"/>

<property name="summary" not-null="true" length="200" lazy="true"/>
<property name="text" not-null="true" length="2000" lazy="true"/>
</class>

Lazy property loading requires buildtime bytecode instrumentation. If your persistent classes
are not enhanced, Hibernate will ignore lazy property settings and return to immediate
fetching.
For bytecode instrumentation, use the following Ant task:
<target name="instrument" depends="compile">
<taskdef name="instrument"
classname="org.hibernate.tool.instrument.InstrumentTask">
<classpath path="${jar.path}"/>
<classpath path="${classes.dir}"/>
<classpath refxml:id="lib.class.path"/>
</taskdef>
<instrument verbose="true">
<fileset dir="${testclasses.dir}/org/hibernate/auction/model">
<include name="*.class"/>
</fileset>
</instrument>
</target>

A different way of avoiding unnecessary column reads, at least for read-only transactions, is
to use the projection features of HQL or Criteria queries. This avoids the need for buildtime
bytecode processing and is certainly a preferred solution.
You can force the usual eager fetching of properties using fetch all properties in HQL.

20.2. The Second Level Cache

A Hibernate Session is a transaction-level cache of persistent data. It is possible to configure
a cluster or JVM-level (SessionFactory-level) cache on a class-by-class and collection-bycollection basis. You can even plug in a clustered cache. Be aware that caches are not aware
of changes made to the persistent store by another application. They can, however, be
configured to regularly expire cached data.
You have the option to tell Hibernate which caching implementation to use by specifying the
name of a class that implements org.hibernate.cache.spi.CacheProvider using the
property hibernate.cache.provider_class. Hibernate is bundled with a number of built-in
integrations with the open-source cache providers that are listed in Table 20.1, Cache
Providers. You can also implement your own and plug it in as outlined above. Note that
versions prior to Hibernate 3.2 use EhCache as the default cache provider.
Table 20.1. Cache Providers

Cache

Provider class

Type

Query
Cluster Cache
Safe
Suppor
ted

ConcurrentHa
shMap (only
for testing
org.hibernate.testing.cache.CachingReg
purpose, in
memory
ionFactory
hibernatetesting
module)

yes

EHCache

memory,
disk,
org.hibernate.cache.ehcache.EhCacheReg
transacti yes
ionFactory
onal,
clustered

yes

Infinispan

clustered
(ip
org.hibernate.cache.infinispan.Infinis multicast
panRegionFactory
),
transacti
onal

yes
(clock
sync
req.)

yes
(replicati
on or
invalidat
ion)

20.2.1. Cache mappings

As we have done in previous chapters we are looking at the two different possibiltites to
configure caching. First configuration via annotations and then via Hibernate mapping files.
By default, entities are not part of the second level cache and we recommend you to stick to
this setting. However, you can override this by setting the shared-cache-mode element in
your persistence.xml file or by using the javax.persistence.sharedCache.mode
property in your configuration. The following values are possible:

(Default and recommended value): entities are not cached unless

explicitly marked as cacheable.
DISABLE_SELECTIVE: entities are cached unless explicitly marked as not cacheable.
ALL: all entities are always cached even if marked as non cacheable.
NONE: no entity are cached even if marked as cacheable. This option can make sense to
disable second-level cache altogether.
ENABLE_SELECTIVE

The cache concurrency strategy used by default can be set globaly via the
hibernate.cache.default_cache_concurrency_strategy configuration property. The
values for this property are:

read-only
read-write
nonstrict-read-write
transactional

Note
It is recommended to define the cache concurrency strategy per entity rather than using a
global one. Use the @org.hibernate.annotations.Cache annotation for that.
Example 20.5. Definition of cache concurrency strategy via @Cache
@Entity
@Cacheable
@Cache(usage = CacheConcurrencyStrategy.NONSTRICT_READ_WRITE)
public class Forest { ... }

Hibernate also let's you cache the content of a collection or the identifiers if the collection
contains other entities. Use the @Cache annotation on the collection property.
Example 20.6. Caching collections using annotations
@OneToMany(cascade=CascadeType.ALL, fetch=FetchType.EAGER)
@JoinColumn(name="CUST_ID")
@Cache(usage = CacheConcurrencyStrategy.NONSTRICT_READ_WRITE)
public SortedSet<Ticket> getTickets() {
return tickets;
}

Example 20.7, @Cache annotation with attributesshows the

@org.hibernate.annotations.Cache annotations with its attributes. It allows you to define
the caching strategy and region of a given second level cache.
Example 20.7. @Cache annotation with attributes
@Cache(
CacheConcurrencyStrategy usage();
String region() default "";
String include() default "all";
)

usage: the given cache concurrency strategy (NONE, READ_ONLY,

NONSTRICT_READ_WRITE, READ_WRITE, TRANSACTIONAL)
region (optional): the cache region (default to the fqcn of the class or the fq role name of
the collection)
include (optional): all to include all properties, non-lazy to only include non lazy
properties (default all).

Let's now take a look at Hibernate mapping files. There the <cache> element of a class or
collection mapping is used to configure the second level cache. Looking at Example 20.8,
The Hibernate <cache> mapping element the parallels to anotations is obvious.

Example 20.8. The Hibernate <cache> mapping element

<cache
usage="transactional|read-write|nonstrict-read-write|re

ad-only"

region="RegionName"
include="all|non-lazy"
/>
usage (required) specifies the caching strategy: transactional, read-write,
nonstrict-read-write or read-only

(optional: defaults to the class or collection role name): specifies the name of the
second level cache region
include (optional: defaults to all) non-lazy: specifies that properties of the entity
mapped with lazy="true" cannot be cached when attribute-level lazy fetching is
enabled
region

Alternatively to <cache>, you can use <class-cache> and <collection-cache> elements

in hibernate.cfg.xml.
Let's now have a closer look at the different usage strategies

20.2.2. Strategy: read only

If your application needs to read, but not modify, instances of a persistent class, a read-only
cache can be used. This is the simplest and optimal performing strategy. It is even safe for use
in a cluster.

20.2.3. Strategy: read/write

If the application needs to update data, a read-write cache might be appropriate. This cache
strategy should never be used if serializable transaction isolation level is required. If the cache
is used in a JTA environment, you must specify the property
hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_class and naming a strategy for obtaining the
JTA TransactionManager. In other environments, you should ensure that the transaction is
completed when Session.close() or Session.disconnect() is called. If you want to use
this strategy in a cluster, you should ensure that the underlying cache implementation supports
locking. The built-in cache providers do not support locking.

20.2.4. Strategy: nonstrict read/write

If the application only occasionally needs to update data (i.e. if it is extremely unlikely that
two transactions would try to update the same item simultaneously), and strict transaction
isolation is not required, a nonstrict-read-write cache might be appropriate. If the cache
is used in a JTA environment, you must specify
hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_class. In other environments, you should

ensure that the transaction is completed when Session.close() or Session.disconnect()

is called.

20.2.5. Strategy: transactional

The transactional cache strategy provides support for fully transactional cache providers
such as JBoss TreeCache. Such a cache can only be used in a JTA environment and you must
specify hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_class.

20.2.6. Cache-provider/concurrency-strategy compatibility

Important
None of the cache providers support all of the cache concurrency strategies.
The following table shows which providers are compatible with which concurrency strategies.
Table 20.2. Cache Concurrency Strategy Support
Cache

readonly

nonstrict-read- readwrite
write

ConcurrentHashMap (not intended for

production use)

yes

yes

yes

EHCache

yes

yes

yes

Infinispan

yes

transactional

yes
yes

20.3. Managing the caches

Whenever you pass an object to save(), update() or saveOrUpdate(), and whenever you
retrieve an object using load(), get(), list(), iterate() or scroll(), that object is added
to the internal cache of the Session.
When flush() is subsequently called, the state of that object will be synchronized with the
database. If you do not want this synchronization to occur, or if you are processing a huge
number of objects and need to manage memory efficiently, the evict() method can be used
to remove the object and its collections from the first-level cache.
Example 20.9. Explcitly evicting a cached instance from the first level cache using
Session.evict()
ScrollableResult cats = sess.createQuery("from Cat as cat").scroll(); //a
huge result set
while ( cats.next() ) {
Cat cat = (Cat) cats.get(0);
doSomethingWithACat(cat);
sess.evict(cat);
}

The Session also provides a contains() method to determine if an instance belongs to the
session cache.
To evict all objects from the session cache, call Session.clear()
For the second-level cache, there are methods defined on SessionFactory for evicting the
cached state of an instance, entire class, collection instance or entire collection role.
Example 20.10. Second-level cache eviction via SessionFactoty.evict() and
SessionFacyory.evictCollection()
sessionFactory.evict(Cat.class, catId); //evict a particular Cat
sessionFactory.evict(Cat.class); //evict all Cats
sessionFactory.evictCollection("Cat.kittens", catId); //evict a particular
collection of kittens
sessionFactory.evictCollection("Cat.kittens"); //evict all kitten
collections

The CacheMode controls how a particular session interacts with the second-level cache:

CacheMode.NORMAL: will read items from and write items to the second-level cache
CacheMode.GET: will read items from the second-level cache. Do not write to the

second-level cache except when updating data

CacheMode.PUT: will write items to the second-level cache. Do not read from the
second-level cache
CacheMode.REFRESH: will write items to the second-level cache. Do not read from the
second-level cache. Bypass the effect of hibernate.cache.use_minimal_puts
forcing a refresh of the second-level cache for all items read from the database

To browse the contents of a second-level or query cache region, use the Statistics API:
Example 20.11. Browsing the second-level cache entries via the Statistics API
Map cacheEntries = sessionFactory.getStatistics()
.getSecondLevelCacheStatistics(regionName)
.getEntries();

You will need to enable statistics and, optionally, force Hibernate to keep the cache entries in
a more readable format:
Example 20.12. Enabling Hibernate statistics
hibernate.generate_statistics true
hibernate.cache.use_structured_entries true

20.4. The Query Cache

Query result sets can also be cached. This is only useful for queries that are run frequently
with the same parameters.

20.4.1. Enabling query caching

Caching of query results introduces some overhead in terms of your applications normal
transactional processing. For example, if you cache results of a query against Person
Hibernate will need to keep track of when those results should be invalidated because changes
have been committed against Person. That, coupled with the fact that most applications
simply gain no benefit from caching query results, leads Hibernate to disable caching of query
results by default. To use query caching, you will first need to enable the query cache:
hibernate.cache.use_query_cache true

This setting creates two new cache regions:

org.hibernate.cache.internal.StandardQueryCache,

holding the cached query

results

org.hibernate.cache.spi.UpdateTimestampsCache,

holding timestamps of the

most recent updates to queryable tables. These are used to validate the results as they
are served from the query cache.

Important
If you configure your underlying cache implementation to use expiry or timeouts is very
important that the cache timeout of the underlying cache region for the
UpdateTimestampsCache be set to a higher value than the timeouts of any of the query
caches. In fact, we recommend that the the UpdateTimestampsCache region not be configured
for expiry at all. Note, in particular, that an LRU cache expiry policy is never appropriate.
As mentioned above, most queries do not benefit from caching or their results. So by default,
individual queries are not cached even after enabling query caching. To enable results caching
for a particular query, call org.hibernate.Query.setCacheable(true). This call allows
the query to look for existing cache results or add its results to the cache when it is executed.

Note
The query cache does not cache the state of the actual entities in the cache; it caches only
identifier values and results of value type. For this reaso, the query cache should always be
used in conjunction with the second-level cache for those entities expected to be cached as
part of a query result cache (just as with collection caching).

20.4.2. Query cache regions

If you require fine-grained control over query cache expiration policies, you can specify a
named cache region for a particular query by calling Query.setCacheRegion().
List blogs = sess.createQuery("from Blog blog where blog.blogger =
:blogger")

.setEntity("blogger", blogger)
.setMaxResults(15)
.setCacheable(true)
.setCacheRegion("frontpages")
.list();

If you want to force the query cache to refresh one of its regions (disregard any cached results
it finds there) you can use org.hibernate.Query.setCacheMode(CacheMode.REFRESH). In
conjunction with the region you have defined for the given query, Hibernate will selectively
force the results cached in that particular region to be refreshed. This is particularly useful in
cases where underlying data may have been updated via a separate process and is a far more
efficient alternative to bulk eviction of the region via
org.hibernate.SessionFactory.evictQueries().

20.5. Bytecode Enhancement

Hibernate internally needs an entry ( org.hibernate.engine.spi.EntityEntry ) to tell the
current state of an object with respect to its persistent state, when the object is associated with
a Session. However, maintaining this association was kind of heavy operation due to lots of
other rules must by applied, since 4.2.0, there is a new improvement designed for this
purpose, which will reduce session-related memory and CPU overloads.
Basically, the idea is, instead of having a customized ( kind of heavy and which was usually
identified as hotspot ) map to do the look up, we change it to
EntityEntry entry = (ManagedEntity)entity.$$_hibernate_getEntityEntry();

There are three ways to get benefits from this new improvement:

20.5.1. Implementing org.hibernate.engine.spi.ManagedEntity interface

An entity can choose to implement this interface by itself, then it is the entity's responsibility
to maintain the bi-association that essentially provides access to information about an
instance's association to a Session/EntityManager. More info about
org.hibernate.engine.spi.ManagedEntity please find from its javadoc.

20.5.2. Runtime instrument

Sometimes, you probably don't want to implement an intrusive interface, maybe due to
portable concern, which is fine and Hibernate will take care of this internally with a wrapper
class which implements that interface, and also an internal cache that maps this entity instance
and the wrapper together.
Obviously, this is the easiest way to choose, since it doesn't require any change of the project
source code, but it also cost more memory and CUP usage, comparing to the first one.

20.5.3. Build-time instrument

Besides the above two approaches, Hibernate also provides a third choice which is build time
bytecode enhancement. Applications can use enhanced entity classes, annotated with either
javax.persistence.Entity or composite javax.persistence.Embeddable.
1. Ant Task

To use the task org.hibernate.tool.enhance.EnhancementTask define a taskdef and call

the task, as shown below. This code uses a pre-defined classpathref and a property referencing
the compiled classes directory.
<taskdef name="enhance"
classname="org.hibernate.tool.enhance.EnhancementTask"
classpathref="enhancement.classpath" />
<enhance>
<fileset dir="${ejb-classes}/org/hibernate/auction/model"
includes="**/*.class"/>
</enhance>

Note
The EnhancementTask is intended as a total replacement for InstrumentTask. Further, it is
also incompatible with InstrumentTask, so any existing instrumented classes will need to be
built from source again.
2. Maven Plugin

The Maven Plugin uses a Mojo descriptor to attach the Mojo to the compile phase for your
project.
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate.javax.persistence</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-jpa-[SPEC-VERSION]-api</artifactId>
<version>[IMPL-VERSION]</version>
<scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.hibernate.orm.tooling</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-enhance-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>VERSION</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<goals>
<goal>enhance</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
3. Gradle Plugin

The Gradle plugin adds an enhance task using the output directory of the compile task as the
source location of entity class files to enhance.

apply plugin: 'java'

apply plugin: 'maven'
apply plugin: 'enhance'
buildscript {
repositories {
mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
classpath 'org.hibernate:hibernate-gradle-plugin:VERSION'
}
}
dependencies {
compile group: 'org.hibernate.javax.persistence', name: 'hibernate-jpa[SPEC-VERSION]-api', version: '[IMPL-VERSION]'
compile group: 'org.hibernate', name: 'hibernate-gradle-plugin',
version: 'VERSION'
}

20.6. Understanding Collection performance

In the previous sections we have covered collections and their applications. In this section we
explore some more issues in relation to collections at runtime.

20.6.1. Taxonomy
Hibernate defines three basic kinds of collections:

collections of values
one-to-many associations
many-to-many associations

This classification distinguishes the various table and foreign key relationships but does not
tell us quite everything we need to know about the relational model. To fully understand the
relational structure and performance characteristics, we must also consider the structure of the
primary key that is used by Hibernate to update or delete collection rows. This suggests the
following classification:

indexed collections
sets
bags

All indexed collections (maps, lists, and arrays) have a primary key consisting of the <key>
and <index> columns. In this case, collection updates are extremely efficient. The primary
key can be efficiently indexed and a particular row can be efficiently located when Hibernate
tries to update or delete it.
Sets have a primary key consisting of <key> and element columns. This can be less efficient
for some types of collection element, particularly composite elements or large text or binary
fields, as the database may not be able to index a complex primary key as efficiently.
However, for one-to-many or many-to-many associations, particularly in the case of synthetic
identifiers, it is likely to be just as efficient. If you want SchemaExport to actually create the
primary key of a <set>, you must declare all columns as not-null="true".

mappings define a surrogate key, so they are efficient to update. In fact, they are the
best case.
<idbag>

Bags are the worst case since they permit duplicate element values and, as they have no index
column, no primary key can be defined. Hibernate has no way of distinguishing between
duplicate rows. Hibernate resolves this problem by completely removing in a single DELETE
and recreating the collection whenever it changes. This can be inefficient.
For a one-to-many association, the "primary key" may not be the physical primary key of the
database table. Even in this case, the above classification is still useful. It reflects how
Hibernate "locates" individual rows of the collection.

20.6.2. Lists, maps, idbags and sets are the most efficient collections to update
From the discussion above, it should be clear that indexed collections and sets allow the most
efficient operation in terms of adding, removing and updating elements.
There is, arguably, one more advantage that indexed collections have over sets for many-tomany associations or collections of values. Because of the structure of a Set, Hibernate does
not UPDATE a row when an element is "changed". Changes to a Set always work via INSERT
and DELETE of individual rows. Once again, this consideration does not apply to one-to-many
associations.
After observing that arrays cannot be lazy, you can conclude that lists, maps and idbags are
the most performant (non-inverse) collection types, with sets not far behind. You can expect
sets to be the most common kind of collection in Hibernate applications. This is because the
"set" semantics are most natural in the relational model.
However, in well-designed Hibernate domain models, most collections are in fact one-tomany associations with inverse="true". For these associations, the update is handled by the
many-to-one end of the association, and so considerations of collection update performance
simply do not apply.

20.6.3. Bags and lists are the most efficient inverse collections
There is a particular case, however, in which bags, and also lists, are much more performant
than sets. For a collection with inverse="true", the standard bidirectional one-to-many
relationship idiom, for example, we can add elements to a bag or list without needing to
initialize (fetch) the bag elements. This is because, unlike a set, Collection.add() or
Collection.addAll() must always return true for a bag or List. This can make the
following common code much faster:
Parent p = (Parent) sess.load(Parent.class, id);
Child c = new Child();
c.setParent(p);
p.getChildren().add(c); //no need to fetch the collection!
sess.flush();

20.6.4. One shot delete

Deleting collection elements one by one can sometimes be extremely inefficient. Hibernate
knows not to do that in the case of an newly-empty collection (if you called list.clear(),
for example). In this case, Hibernate will issue a single DELETE.
Suppose you added a single element to a collection of size twenty and then remove two
elements. Hibernate will issue one INSERT statement and two DELETE statements, unless the
collection is a bag. This is certainly desirable.
However, suppose that we remove eighteen elements, leaving two and then add thee new
elements. There are two possible ways to proceed

delete eighteen rows one by one and then insert three rows
remove the whole collection in one SQL DELETE and insert all five current elements
one by one

Hibernate cannot know that the second option is probably quicker. It would probably be
undesirable for Hibernate to be that intuitive as such behavior might confuse database
triggers, etc.
Fortunately, you can force this behavior (i.e. the second strategy) at any time by discarding
(i.e. dereferencing) the original collection and returning a newly instantiated collection with
all the current elements.
One-shot-delete does not apply to collections mapped inverse="true".

20.7. Monitoring performance

Optimization is not much use without monitoring and access to performance numbers.
Hibernate provides a full range of figures about its internal operations. Statistics in Hibernate
are available per SessionFactory.

20.7.1. Monitoring a SessionFactory

You can access SessionFactory metrics in two ways. Your first option is to call
sessionFactory.getStatistics() and read or display the Statistics yourself.
Hibernate can also use JMX to publish metrics if you enable the StatisticsService
MBean. You can enable a single MBean for all your SessionFactory or one per factory. See
the following code for minimalistic configuration examples:
// MBean service registration for a specific SessionFactory
Hashtable tb = new Hashtable();
tb.put("type", "statistics");
tb.put("sessionFactory", "myFinancialApp");
ObjectName on = new ObjectName("hibernate", tb); // MBean object name
StatisticsService stats = new StatisticsService(); // MBean implementation
stats.setSessionFactory(sessionFactory); // Bind the stats to a
SessionFactory
server.registerMBean(stats, on); // Register the Mbean on the server
// MBean service registration for all SessionFactory's

Hashtable tb = new Hashtable();

tb.put("type", "statistics");
tb.put("sessionFactory", "all");
ObjectName on = new ObjectName("hibernate", tb); // MBean object name
StatisticsService stats = new StatisticsService(); // MBean implementation
server.registerMBean(stats, on); // Register the MBean on the server

You can activate and deactivate the monitoring for a SessionFactory:

at configuration time, set hibernate.generate_statistics to false

at runtime: sf.getStatistics().setStatisticsEnabled(true) or
hibernateStatsBean.setStatisticsEnabled(true)

Statistics can be reset programmatically using the clear() method. A summary can be sent to
a logger (info level) using the logSummary() method.

20.7.2. Metrics
Hibernate provides a number of metrics, from basic information to more specialized
information that is only relevant in certain scenarios. All available counters are described in
the Statistics interface API, in three categories:

Metrics related to the general Session usage, such as number of open sessions,
retrieved JDBC connections, etc.
Metrics related to the entities, collections, queries, and caches as a whole (aka global
metrics).
Detailed metrics related to a particular entity, collection, query or cache region.

For example, you can check the cache hit, miss, and put ratio of entities, collections and
queries, and the average time a query needs. Be aware that the number of milliseconds is
subject to approximation in Java. Hibernate is tied to the JVM precision and on some
platforms this might only be accurate to 10 seconds.
Simple getters are used to access the global metrics (i.e. not tied to a particular entity,
collection, cache region, etc.). You can access the metrics of a particular entity, collection or
cache region through its name, and through its HQL or SQL representation for queries. Please
refer to the Statistics, EntityStatistics, CollectionStatistics,
SecondLevelCacheStatistics, and QueryStatistics API Javadoc for more information.
The following code is a simple example:
Statistics stats = HibernateUtil.sessionFactory.getStatistics();
double queryCacheHitCount = stats.getQueryCacheHitCount();
double queryCacheMissCount = stats.getQueryCacheMissCount();
double queryCacheHitRatio =
queryCacheHitCount / (queryCacheHitCount + queryCacheMissCount);
log.info("Query Hit ratio:" + queryCacheHitRatio);
EntityStatistics entityStats =
stats.getEntityStatistics( Cat.class.getName() );

long changes =
entityStats.getInsertCount()
+ entityStats.getUpdateCount()
+ entityStats.getDeleteCount();
log.info(Cat.class.getName() + " changed " + changes + "times"

);

You can work on all entities, collections, queries and region caches, by retrieving the list of
names of entities, collections, queries and region caches using the following methods:
getQueries(), getEntityNames(), getCollectionRoleNames(), and
getSecondLevelCacheRegionNames().

Chapter 21. Toolset Guide

Table of Contents
21.1. Automatic schema generation
21.1.1. Customizing the schema
21.1.2. Running the tool
21.1.3. Properties
21.1.4. Using Ant
21.1.5. Incremental schema updates
21.1.6. Using Ant for incremental schema updates
21.1.7. Schema validation
21.1.8. Using Ant for schema validation
Roundtrip engineering with Hibernate is possible using a set of Eclipse plugins, commandline
tools, and Ant tasks.
Hibernate Tools currently include plugins for the Eclipse IDE as well as Ant tasks for reverse
engineering of existing databases:

Mapping Editor: an editor for Hibernate XML mapping files that supports autocompletion and syntax highlighting. It also supports semantic auto-completion for
class names and property/field names, making it more versatile than a normal XML
editor.
Console: the console is a new view in Eclipse. In addition to a tree overview of your
console configurations, you are also provided with an interactive view of your
persistent classes and their relationships. The console allows you to execute HQL
queries against your database and browse the result directly in Eclipse.
Development Wizards: several wizards are provided with the Hibernate Eclipse tools.
You can use a wizard to quickly generate Hibernate configuration (cfg.xml) files, or to
reverse engineer an existing database schema into POJO source files and Hibernate
mapping files. The reverse engineering wizard supports customizable templates.

Please refer to the Hibernate Tools package documentation for more information.
However, the Hibernate main package comes bundled with an integrated tool : SchemaExport
aka hbm2ddl.It can even be used from "inside" Hibernate.

21.1. Automatic schema generation

DDL can be generated from your mapping files by a Hibernate utility. The generated schema
includes referential integrity constraints, primary and foreign keys, for entity and collection
tables. Tables and sequences are also created for mapped identifier generators.
You must specify a SQL Dialect via the hibernate.dialect property when using this tool,
as DDL is highly vendor-specific.
First, you must customize your mapping files to improve the generated schema. The next
section covers schema customization.

21.1.1. Customizing the schema

Many Hibernate mapping elements define optional attributes named length, precision and
scale. You can set the length, precision and scale of a column with this attribute.
<property name="zip" length="5"/>
<property name="balance" precision="12" scale="2"/>

Some tags also accept a not-null attribute for generating a NOT NULL constraint on table
columns, and a unique attribute for generating UNIQUE constraint on table columns.
<many-to-one name="bar" column="barId" not-null="true"/>
<element column="serialNumber" type="long" not-null="true" unique="true"/>

A unique-key attribute can be used to group columns in a single, unique key constraint. The
attribute overrides the name of any generated unique key constraint.
<many-to-one name="org" column="orgId" unique-key="OrgEmployeeId"/>
<property name="employeeId" unique-key="OrgEmployee"/>

An index attribute specifies the name of an index that will be created using the mapped
column or columns. Multiple columns can be grouped into the same index by simply
specifying the same index name.
<property name="lastName" index="CustName"/>
<property name="firstName" index="CustName"/>

A foreign-key attribute can be used to override the name of any generated foreign key
constraint.
<many-to-one name="bar" column="barId" foreign-key="FKFooBar"/>

Many mapping elements also accept a child <column> element. This is particularly useful for
mapping multi-column types:
<property name="name" type="my.customtypes.Name"/>
<column name="last" not-null="true" index="bar_idx" length="30"/>
<column name="first" not-null="true" index="bar_idx" length="20"/>
<column name="initial"/>
</property>

The default attribute allows you to specify a default value for a column.You should assign
the same value to the mapped property before saving a new instance of the mapped class.
<property name="credits" type="integer" insert="false">
<column name="credits" default="10"/>
</property>
<version name="version" type="integer" insert="false">
<column name="version" default="0"/>
</property>

The sql-type attribute allows the user to override the default mapping of a Hibernate type to
SQL datatype.
<property name="balance" type="float">
<column name="balance" sql-type="decimal(13,3)"/>
</property>

The check attribute allows you to specify a check constraint.

<property name="foo" type="integer">
<column name="foo" check="foo > 10"/>
</property>
<class name="Foo" table="foos" check="bar < 100.0">
...
<property name="bar" type="float"/>
</class>

The following table summarizes these optional attributes.

Table 21.1. Summary
Attribute
length

Values
number

Interpretation
column length

precision

number

column decimal precision

scale

number

column decimal scale

not-null

true|false

specifies that the column should be non-nullable

unique

true|false

specifies that the column should have a unique constraint

index

index_name

specifies the name of a (multi-column) index

uniquekey

unique_key_name

specifies the name of a multi-column unique constraint

foreignkey

specifies the name of the foreign key constraint generated

for an association, for a <one-to-one>, <many-to-one>,
foreign_key_name <key>, or <many-to-many> mapping element. Note that
inverse="true" sides will not be considered by
SchemaExport.

sql-type

SQL column type

overrides the default column type (attribute of <column>

element only)

default

SQL expression

specify a default value for the column

check

SQL expression

create an SQL check constraint on either column or table

The <comment> element allows you to specify comments for the generated schema.
<class name="Customer" table="CurCust">
<comment>Current customers only</comment>
...
</class>
<property name="balance">
<column name="bal">
<comment>Balance in USD</comment>
</column>
</property>

This results in a comment on table or comment on column statement in the generated DDL
where supported.

21.1.2. Running the tool

The SchemaExport tool writes a DDL script to standard out and/or executes the DDL
statements.
The following table displays the SchemaExport command line options
hibernate_classpaths org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaExport options
mapping_files
java -cp

Table 21.2. SchemaExport Command Line Options

Option
--quiet

Description
do not output the script to stdout

--drop

only drop the tables

--create

only create the tables

--text

do not export to the database

--output=my_schema.ddl

output the ddl script to a file

--naming=eg.MyNamingStrategy

select a NamingStrategy

--config=hibernate.cfg.xml

read Hibernate configuration from an XML file

--properties=hibernate.properties

read database properties from a file

--format

format the generated SQL nicely in the script

--delimiter=;

set an end of line delimiter for the script

You can even embed SchemaExport in your application:

Configuration cfg = ....;
new SchemaExport(cfg).create(false, true);

21.1.3. Properties

Database properties can be specified:

as system properties with -D<property>

in hibernate.properties
in a named properties file with --properties

The needed properties are:

Table 21.3. SchemaExport Connection Properties
Property Name

Description

hibernate.connection.driver_class

jdbc driver class

hibernate.connection.url

jdbc url

hibernate.connection.username

database user

hibernate.connection.password

user password

hibernate.dialect

dialect

21.1.4. Using Ant

You can call SchemaExport from your Ant build script:
<target name="schemaexport">
<taskdef name="schemaexport"
classname="org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaExportTask"
classpathref="class.path"/>
<schemaexport
properties="hibernate.properties"
quiet="no"
text="no"
drop="no"
delimiter=";"
output="schema-export.sql">
<fileset dir="src">
<include name="**/*.hbm.xml"/>
</fileset>
</schemaexport>
</target>

21.1.5. Incremental schema updates

The SchemaUpdate tool will update an existing schema with "incremental" changes. The
SchemaUpdate depends upon the JDBC metadata API and, as such, will not work with all
JDBC drivers.
hibernate_classpaths org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaUpdate options
mapping_files
java -cp

Table 21.4. SchemaUpdate Command Line Options

Option
--quiet

Description
do not output the script to stdout

--text

do not export the script to the database

--naming=eg.MyNamingStrategy

select a NamingStrategy

--properties=hibernate.properties

read database properties from a file

--config=hibernate.cfg.xml

specify a .cfg.xml file

You can embed SchemaUpdate in your application:

Configuration cfg = ....;
new SchemaUpdate(cfg).execute(false);

21.1.6. Using Ant for incremental schema updates

You can call SchemaUpdate from the Ant script:
<target name="schemaupdate">
<taskdef name="schemaupdate"
classname="org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaUpdateTask"
classpathref="class.path"/>
<schemaupdate
properties="hibernate.properties"
quiet="no">
<fileset dir="src">
<include name="**/*.hbm.xml"/>
</fileset>
</schemaupdate>
</target>

21.1.7. Schema validation

The SchemaValidator tool will validate that the existing database schema "matches" your
mapping documents. The SchemaValidator depends heavily upon the JDBC metadata API
and, as such, will not work with all JDBC drivers. This tool is extremely useful for testing.
hibernate_classpaths org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaValidator options
mapping_files
java -cp

The following table displays the SchemaValidator command line options:

Table 21.5. SchemaValidator Command Line Options
Option

Description

--naming=eg.MyNamingStrategy

select a NamingStrategy

--properties=hibernate.properties

read database properties from a file

--config=hibernate.cfg.xml

specify a .cfg.xml file

You can embed SchemaValidator in your application:

Configuration cfg = ....;
new SchemaValidator(cfg).validate();

21.1.8. Using Ant for schema validation

You can call SchemaValidator from the Ant script:
<target name="schemavalidate">
<taskdef name="schemavalidator"
classname="org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaValidatorTask"
classpathref="class.path"/>
<schemavalidator
properties="hibernate.properties">
<fileset dir="src">
<include name="**/*.hbm.xml"/>
</fileset>
</schemavalidator>
</target>

Chapter 22. Additional modules

Table of Contents
22.1. Bean Validation
22.1.1. Adding Bean Validation
22.1.2. Configuration
22.1.3. Catching violations
22.1.4. Database schema
22.2. Hibernate Search
22.2.1. Description
22.2.2. Integration with Hibernate Annotations
Hibernate Core also offers integration with some external modules/projects. This includes
Hibernate Validator the reference implementation of Bean Validation (JSR 303) and
Hibernate Search.

22.1. Bean Validation

Bean Validation standardizes how to define and declare domain model level constraints. You
can, for example, express that a property should never be null, that the account balance should
be strictly positive, etc. These domain model constraints are declared in the bean itself by
annotating its properties. Bean Validation can then read them and check for constraint
violations. The validation mechanism can be executed in different layers in your application
without having to duplicate any of these rules (presentation layer, data access layer).
Following the DRY principle, Bean Validation and its reference implementation Hibernate
Validator has been designed for that purpose.

The integration between Hibernate and Bean Validation works at two levels. First, it is able to
check in-memory instances of a class for constraint violations. Second, it can apply the
constraints to the Hibernate metamodel and incorporate them into the generated database
schema.
Each constraint annotation is associated to a validator implementation responsible for
checking the constraint on the entity instance. A validator can also (optionally) apply the
constraint to the Hibernate metamodel, allowing Hibernate to generate DDL that expresses the
constraint. With the appropriate event listener, you can execute the checking operation on
inserts, updates and deletes done by Hibernate.
When checking instances at runtime, Hibernate Validator returns information about constraint
violations in a set of ConstraintViolations. Among other information, the
ConstraintViolation contains an error description message that can embed the parameter
values bundle with the annotation (eg. size limit), and message strings that may be
externalized to a ResourceBundle.

22.1.1. Adding Bean Validation

To enable Hibernate's Bean Validation integration, simply add a Bean Validation provider
(preferably Hibernate Validation 4) on your classpath.

22.1.2. Configuration
By default, no configuration is necessary.
The Default group is validated on entity insert and update and the database model is updated
accordingly based on the Default group as well.
You can customize the Bean Validation integration by setting the validation mode. Use the
javax.persistence.validation.mode property and set it up for example in your
persistence.xml file or your hibernate.cfg.xml file. Several options are possible:

(default): enable integration between Bean Validation and Hibernate (callback

and ddl generation) only if Bean Validation is present in the classpath.
none: disable all integration between Bean Validation and Hibernate
callback: only validate entities when they are either inserted, updated or deleted. An
exception is raised if no Bean Validation provider is present in the classpath.
ddl: only apply constraints to the database schema when generated by Hibernate. An
exception is raised if no Bean Validation provider is present in the classpath. This
value is not defined by the Java Persistence spec and is specific to Hibernate.
auto

Note
You can use both callback and ddl together by setting the property to callback, dll
<persistence ...>
<persistence-unit ...>
...

<properties>
<property name="javax.persistence.validation.mode"
value="callback, ddl"/>
</properties>
</persistence-unit>
</persistence>

This is equivalent to auto except that if no Bean Validation provider is present, an exception
is raised.
If you want to validate different groups during insertion, update and deletion, use:

javax.persistence.validation.group.pre-persist: groups validated when an

entity is about to be persisted (default to Default)
javax.persistence.validation.group.pre-update: groups validated when an
entity is about to be updated (default to Default)
javax.persistence.validation.group.pre-remove: groups validated when an

entity is about to be deleted (default to no group)

org.hibernate.validator.group.ddl: groups considered when applying
constraints on the database schema (default to Default)

Each property accepts the fully qualified class names of the groups validated separated by a
comma (,)
Example 22.1. Using custom groups for validation
<persistence ...>
<persistence-unit ...>
...
<properties>
<property name="javax.persistence.validation.group.pre-update"
value="javax.validation.group.Default, com.acme.group.Stric
t"/>
<property name="javax.persistence.validation.group.pre-remove"
value="com.acme.group.OnDelete"/>
<property name="org.hibernate.validator.group.ddl"
value="com.acme.group.DDL"/>
</properties>
</persistence-unit>
</persistence>

Note
You can set these properties in hibernate.cfg.xml, hibernate.properties or
programmatically.

22.1.3. Catching violations

If an entity is found to be invalid, the list of constraint violations is propagated by the
ConstraintViolationException which exposes the set of ConstraintViolations.

This exception is wrapped in a RollbackException when the violation happens at commit

time. Otherwise the ConstraintViolationException is returned (for example when calling
flush(). Note that generally, catchable violations are validated at a higher level (for example
in Seam / JSF 2 via the JSF - Bean Validation integration or in your business layer by
explicitly calling Bean Validation).
An application code will rarely be looking for a ConstraintViolationException raised by
Hibernate. This exception should be treated as fatal and the persistence context should be
discarded (EntityManager or Session).

22.1.4. Database schema

Hibernate uses Bean Validation constraints to generate an accurate database schema:

leads to a not null column (unless it conflicts with components or table

inheritance)
@Size.max leads to a varchar(max) definition for Strings
@Min, @Max lead to column checks (like value <= max)
@Digits leads to the definition of precision and scale (ever wondered which is which?
It's easy now with @Digits :) )
@NotNull

These constraints can be declared directly on the entity properties or indirectly by using
constraint composition.
For more information check the Hibernate Validator reference documentation at
http://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/stable/validator/reference/en-US/html/

22.2. Hibernate Search

22.2.1. Description
Full text search engines like Apache Lucene are a very powerful technology to bring free
text/efficient queries to applications. If suffers several mismatches when dealing with a object
domain model (keeping the index up to date, mismatch between the index structure and the
domain model, querying mismatch...) Hibernate Search indexes your domain model thanks to
a few annotations, takes care of the database / index synchronization and brings you back
regular managed objects from free text queries. Hibernate Search is using Apache Lucene
under the covers.

22.2.2. Integration with Hibernate Annotations

Hibernate Search integrates with Hibernate Core transparently provided that the Hibernate
Search jar is present on the classpath. If you do not wish to automatically register Hibernate
Search event listeners, you can set hibernate.search.autoregister_listeners to false.
Such a need is very uncommon and not recommended.
Check the Hibernate Search reference documentation (
http://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/stable/validator/reference/en-US/html/ ) for more information.

Chapter 23. Example: Parent/Child

Table of Contents
23.1. A note about collections
23.2. Bidirectional one-to-many
23.3. Cascading life cycle
23.4. Cascades and unsaved-value
23.5. Conclusion
One of the first things that new users want to do with Hibernate is to model a parent/child
type relationship. There are two different approaches to this. The most convenient approach,
especially for new users, is to model both Parent and Child as entity classes with a <oneto-many> association from Parent to Child. The alternative approach is to declare the Child
as a <composite-element>. The default semantics of a one-to-many association in Hibernate
are much less close to the usual semantics of a parent/child relationship than those of a
composite element mapping. We will explain how to use a bidirectional one-to-many
association with cascades to model a parent/child relationship efficiently and elegantly.

23.1. A note about collections

Hibernate collections are considered to be a logical part of their owning entity and not of the
contained entities. Be aware that this is a critical distinction that has the following
consequences:

When you remove/add an object from/to a collection, the version number of the
collection owner is incremented.
If an object that was removed from a collection is an instance of a value type (e.g. a
composite element), that object will cease to be persistent and its state will be
completely removed from the database. Likewise, adding a value type instance to the
collection will cause its state to be immediately persistent.
Conversely, if an entity is removed from a collection (a one-to-many or many-to-many
association), it will not be deleted by default. This behavior is completely consistent; a
change to the internal state of another entity should not cause the associated entity to
vanish. Likewise, adding an entity to a collection does not cause that entity to become
persistent, by default.

Adding an entity to a collection, by default, merely creates a link between the two entities.
Removing the entity will remove the link. This is appropriate for all sorts of cases. However,
it is not appropriate in the case of a parent/child relationship. In this case, the life of the child
is bound to the life cycle of the parent.

23.2. Bidirectional one-to-many

Suppose we start with a simple <one-to-many> association from Parent to Child.
<set name="children">
<key column="parent_id"/>
<one-to-many class="Child"/>

</set>

If we were to execute the following code:

Parent p = .....;
Child c = new Child();
p.getChildren().add(c);
session.save(c);
session.flush();

Hibernate would issue two SQL statements:

an INSERT to create the record for c

an UPDATE to create the link from p to c

This is not only inefficient, but also violates any NOT NULL constraint on the parent_id
column. You can fix the nullability constraint violation by specifying not-null="true" in
the collection mapping:
<set name="children">
<key column="parent_id" not-null="true"/>
<one-to-many class="Child"/>
</set>

However, this is not the recommended solution.

The underlying cause of this behavior is that the link (the foreign key parent_id) from p to c
is not considered part of the state of the Child object and is therefore not created in the
INSERT. The solution is to make the link part of the Child mapping.
<many-to-one name="parent" column="parent_id" not-null="true"/>

You also need to add the parent property to the Child class.
Now that the Child entity is managing the state of the link, we tell the collection not to update
the link. We use the inverse attribute to do this:
<set name="children" inverse="true">
<key column="parent_id"/>
<one-to-many class="Child"/>
</set>

The following code would be used to add a new Child:

Parent p = (Parent) session.load(Parent.class, pid);
Child c = new Child();
c.setParent(p);
p.getChildren().add(c);
session.save(c);
session.flush();

Only one SQL INSERT would now be issued.

You could also create an addChild() method of Parent.

public void addChild(Child c) {
c.setParent(this);
children.add(c);
}

The code to add a Child looks like this:

Parent p = (Parent) session.load(Parent.class, pid);
Child c = new Child();
p.addChild(c);
session.save(c);
session.flush();

23.3. Cascading life cycle

You can address the frustrations of the explicit call to save() by using cascades.
<set name="children" inverse="true" cascade="all">
<key column="parent_id"/>
<one-to-many class="Child"/>
</set>

This simplifies the code above to:

Parent p = (Parent) session.load(Parent.class, pid);
Child c = new Child();
p.addChild(c);
session.flush();

Similarly, we do not need to iterate over the children when saving or deleting a Parent. The
following removes p and all its children from the database.
Parent p = (Parent) session.load(Parent.class, pid);
session.delete(p);
session.flush();

However, the following code:

Parent p = (Parent) session.load(Parent.class, pid);
Child c = (Child) p.getChildren().iterator().next();
p.getChildren().remove(c);
c.setParent(null);
session.flush();

will not remove c from the database. In this case, it will only remove the link to p and cause a
NOT NULL constraint violation. You need to explicitly delete() the Child.
Parent p = (Parent) session.load(Parent.class, pid);
Child c = (Child) p.getChildren().iterator().next();
p.getChildren().remove(c);
session.delete(c);
session.flush();

In our case, a Child cannot exist without its parent. So if we remove a Child from the
collection, we do want it to be deleted. To do this, we must use cascade="all-deleteorphan".
<set name="children" inverse="true" cascade="all-delete-orphan">
<key column="parent_id"/>
<one-to-many class="Child"/>
</set>

Even though the collection mapping specifies inverse="true", cascades are still processed
by iterating the collection elements. If you need an object be saved, deleted or updated by
cascade, you must add it to the collection. It is not enough to simply call setParent().

23.4. Cascades and unsaved-value

Suppose we loaded up a Parent in one Session, made some changes in a UI action and
wanted to persist these changes in a new session by calling update(). The Parent will
contain a collection of children and, since the cascading update is enabled, Hibernate needs to
know which children are newly instantiated and which represent existing rows in the
database. We will also assume that both Parent and Child have generated identifier
properties of type Long. Hibernate will use the identifier and version/timestamp property
value to determine which of the children are new. (See Section 11.7, Automatic state
detection.) In Hibernate, it is no longer necessary to specify an unsaved-value explicitly.
The following code will update parent and child and insert newChild:
//parent and child were both loaded in a previous session
parent.addChild(child);
Child newChild = new Child();
parent.addChild(newChild);
session.update(parent);
session.flush();

This may be suitable for the case of a generated identifier, but what about assigned identifiers
and composite identifiers? This is more difficult, since Hibernate cannot use the identifier
property to distinguish between a newly instantiated object, with an identifier assigned by the
user, and an object loaded in a previous session. In this case, Hibernate will either use the
timestamp or version property, or will actually query the second-level cache or, worst case,
the database, to see if the row exists.

23.5. Conclusion
The sections we have just covered can be a bit confusing. However, in practice, it all works
out nicely. Most Hibernate applications use the parent/child pattern in many places.
We mentioned an alternative in the first paragraph. None of the above issues exist in the case
of <composite-element> mappings, which have exactly the semantics of a parent/child
relationship. Unfortunately, there are two big limitations with composite element classes:
composite elements cannot own collections and they should not be the child of any entity
other than the unique parent.

Chapter 24. Example: Weblog Application

Table of Contents
24.1. Persistent Classes
24.2. Hibernate Mappings
24.3. Hibernate Code

24.1. Persistent Classes

The persistent classes here represent a weblog and an item posted in a weblog. They are to be
modelled as a standard parent/child relationship, but we will use an ordered bag, instead of a
set:
package eg;
import java.util.List;
public class Blog {
private Long _id;
private String _name;
private List _items;
public Long getId() {
return _id;
}
public List getItems() {
return _items;
}
public String getName() {
return _name;
}
public void setId(Long long1) {
_id = long1;
}
public void setItems(List list) {
_items = list;
}
public void setName(String string) {
_name = string;
}
}
package eg;
import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.util.Calendar;
public class BlogItem {
private Long _id;
private Calendar _datetime;
private String _text;
private String _title;
private Blog _blog;
public Blog getBlog() {
return _blog;
}

public Calendar getDatetime() {

return _datetime;
}
public Long getId() {
return _id;
}
public String getText() {
return _text;
}
public String getTitle() {
return _title;
}
public void setBlog(Blog blog) {
_blog = blog;
}
public void setDatetime(Calendar calendar) {
_datetime = calendar;
}
public void setId(Long long1) {
_id = long1;
}
public void setText(String string) {
_text = string;
}
public void setTitle(String string) {
_title = string;
}
}

24.2. Hibernate Mappings

The XML mappings are now straightforward. For example:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC
"-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD 3.0//EN"
"http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd">
<hibernate-mapping package="eg">
<class
name="Blog"
table="BLOGS">
<id
name="id"
column="BLOG_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property
name="name"
column="NAME"
not-null="true"
unique="true"/>
<bag
name="items"

inverse="true"
order-by="DATE_TIME"
cascade="all">
<key column="BLOG_ID"/>
<one-to-many class="BlogItem"/>
</bag>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC
"-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD 3.0//EN"
"http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd">
<hibernate-mapping package="eg">
<class
name="BlogItem"
table="BLOG_ITEMS"
dynamic-update="true">
<id
name="id"
column="BLOG_ITEM_ID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property
name="title"
column="TITLE"
not-null="true"/>
<property
name="text"
column="TEXT"
not-null="true"/>
<property
name="datetime"
column="DATE_TIME"
not-null="true"/>
<many-to-one
name="blog"
column="BLOG_ID"
not-null="true"/>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

24.3. Hibernate Code

The following class demonstrates some of the kinds of things we can do with these classes
using Hibernate:

package eg;
import
import
import
import

java.util.ArrayList;
java.util.Calendar;
java.util.Iterator;
java.util.List;

import
import
import
import
import
import
import

org.hibernate.HibernateException;
org.hibernate.Query;
org.hibernate.Session;
org.hibernate.SessionFactory;
org.hibernate.Transaction;
org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration;
org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaExport;

public class BlogMain {

private SessionFactory _sessions;
public void configure() throws HibernateException {
_sessions = new Configuration()
.addClass(Blog.class)
.addClass(BlogItem.class)
.buildSessionFactory();
}
public void exportTables() throws HibernateException {
Configuration cfg = new Configuration()
.addClass(Blog.class)
.addClass(BlogItem.class);
new SchemaExport(cfg).create(true, true);
}
public Blog createBlog(String name) throws HibernateException {
Blog blog = new Blog();
blog.setName(name);
blog.setItems( new ArrayList() );
Session session = _sessions.openSession();
Transaction tx = null;
try {
tx = session.beginTransaction();
session.persist(blog);
tx.commit();
}
catch (HibernateException he) {
if (tx!=null) tx.rollback();
throw he;
}
finally {
session.close();
}
return blog;
}
public BlogItem createBlogItem(Blog blog, String title, String text)
throws HibernateException {
BlogItem item = new BlogItem();
item.setTitle(title);

item.setText(text);
item.setBlog(blog);
item.setDatetime( Calendar.getInstance() );
blog.getItems().add(item);
Session session = _sessions.openSession();
Transaction tx = null;
try {
tx = session.beginTransaction();
session.update(blog);
tx.commit();
}
catch (HibernateException he) {
if (tx!=null) tx.rollback();
throw he;
}
finally {
session.close();
}
return item;
}
public BlogItem createBlogItem(Long blogid, String title, String text)
throws HibernateException {
BlogItem item = new BlogItem();
item.setTitle(title);
item.setText(text);
item.setDatetime( Calendar.getInstance() );
Session session = _sessions.openSession();
Transaction tx = null;
try {
tx = session.beginTransaction();
Blog blog = (Blog) session.load(Blog.class, blogid);
item.setBlog(blog);
blog.getItems().add(item);
tx.commit();
}
catch (HibernateException he) {
if (tx!=null) tx.rollback();
throw he;
}
finally {
session.close();
}
return item;
}
public void updateBlogItem(BlogItem item, String text)
throws HibernateException {
item.setText(text);
Session session = _sessions.openSession();
Transaction tx = null;
try {
tx = session.beginTransaction();
session.update(item);
tx.commit();
}

catch (HibernateException he) {

if (tx!=null) tx.rollback();
throw he;
}
finally {
session.close();
}
}
public void updateBlogItem(Long itemid, String text)
throws HibernateException {
Session session = _sessions.openSession();
Transaction tx = null;
try {
tx = session.beginTransaction();
BlogItem item = (BlogItem) session.load(BlogItem.class,
itemid);
item.setText(text);
tx.commit();
}
catch (HibernateException he) {
if (tx!=null) tx.rollback();
throw he;
}
finally {
session.close();
}
}
public List listAllBlogNamesAndItemCounts(int max)
throws HibernateException {
Session session = _sessions.openSession();
Transaction tx = null;
List result = null;
try {
tx = session.beginTransaction();
Query q = session.createQuery(
"select blog.id, blog.name, count(blogItem) " +
"from Blog as blog " +
"left outer join blog.items as blogItem " +
"group by blog.name, blog.id " +
"order by max(blogItem.datetime)"
);
q.setMaxResults(max);
result = q.list();
tx.commit();
}
catch (HibernateException he) {
if (tx!=null) tx.rollback();
throw he;
}
finally {
session.close();
}
return result;
}
public Blog getBlogAndAllItems(Long blogid)
throws HibernateException {

Session session = _sessions.openSession();

Transaction tx = null;
Blog blog = null;
try {
tx = session.beginTransaction();
Query q = session.createQuery(
"from Blog as blog " +
"left outer join fetch blog.items " +
"where blog.id = :blogid"
);
q.setParameter("blogid", blogid);
blog = (Blog) q.uniqueResult();
tx.commit();
}
catch (HibernateException he) {
if (tx!=null) tx.rollback();
throw he;
}
finally {
session.close();
}
return blog;
}
public List listBlogsAndRecentItems() throws HibernateException {
Session session = _sessions.openSession();
Transaction tx = null;
List result = null;
try {
tx = session.beginTransaction();
Query q = session.createQuery(
"from Blog as blog " +
"inner join blog.items as blogItem " +
"where blogItem.datetime > :minDate"
);
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.roll(Calendar.MONTH, false);
q.setCalendar("minDate", cal);
result = q.list();
tx.commit();
}
catch (HibernateException he) {
if (tx!=null) tx.rollback();
throw he;
}
finally {
session.close();
}
return result;
}
}

Chapter 25. Example: Various Mappings

Table of Contents

25.1. Employer/Employee
25.2. Author/Work
25.3. Customer/Order/Product
25.4. Miscellaneous example mappings
25.4.1. "Typed" one-to-one association
25.4.2. Composite key example
25.4.3. Many-to-many with shared composite key attribute
25.4.4. Content based discrimination
25.4.5. Associations on alternate keys
This chapters explores some more complex association mappings.

25.1. Employer/Employee
The following model of the relationship between Employer and Employee uses an entity class
(Employment) to represent the association. You can do this when there might be more than
one period of employment for the same two parties. Components are used to model monetary
values and employee names.

Here is a possible mapping document:

<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="Employer" table="employers">
<id name="id">
<generator class="sequence">
<param name="sequence">employer_id_seq</param>
</generator>
</id>
<property name="name"/>
</class>

<class name="Employment" table="employment_periods">

<id name="id">
<generator class="sequence">
<param name="sequence">employment_id_seq</param>
</generator>
</id>
<property name="startDate" column="start_date"/>
<property name="endDate" column="end_date"/>
<component name="hourlyRate" class="MonetaryAmount">
<property name="amount">
<column name="hourly_rate" sql-type="NUMERIC(12, 2)"/>
</property>
<property name="currency" length="12"/>
</component>
<many-to-one name="employer" column="employer_id" not-null="true"/>
<many-to-one name="employee" column="employee_id" not-null="true"/>
</class>
<class name="Employee" table="employees">
<id name="id">
<generator class="sequence">
<param name="sequence">employee_id_seq</param>
</generator>
</id>
<property name="taxfileNumber"/>
<component name="name" class="Name">
<property name="firstName"/>
<property name="initial"/>
<property name="lastName"/>
</component>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

Here is the table schema generated by SchemaExport.

create table employers (
id BIGINT not null,
name VARCHAR(255),
primary key (id)
)
create table employment_periods (
id BIGINT not null,
hourly_rate NUMERIC(12, 2),
currency VARCHAR(12),
employee_id BIGINT not null,
employer_id BIGINT not null,
end_date TIMESTAMP,
start_date TIMESTAMP,
primary key (id)
)
create table employees (
id BIGINT not null,
firstName VARCHAR(255),
initial CHAR(1),

lastName VARCHAR(255),
taxfileNumber VARCHAR(255),
primary key (id)
)
alter table employment_periods
add constraint employment_periodsFK0 foreign key (employer_id)
references employers
alter table employment_periods
add constraint employment_periodsFK1 foreign key (employee_id)
references employees
create sequence employee_id_seq
create sequence employment_id_seq
create sequence employer_id_seq

25.2. Author/Work
Consider the following model of the relationships between Work, Author and Person. In the
example, the relationship between Work and Author is represented as a many-to-many
association and the relationship between Author and Person is represented as one-to-one
association. Another possibility would be to have Author extend Person.

The following mapping document correctly represents these relationships:

<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="Work" table="works" discriminator-value="W">
<id name="id" column="id">
<generator class="native"/>

</id>
<discriminator column="type" type="character"/>
<property name="title"/>
<set name="authors" table="author_work">
<key column name="work_id"/>
<many-to-many class="Author" column name="author_id"/>
</set>
<subclass name="Book" discriminator-value="B">
<property name="text"/>
</subclass>
<subclass name="Song" discriminator-value="S">
<property name="tempo"/>
<property name="genre"/>
</subclass>
</class>
<class name="Author" table="authors">
<id name="id" column="id">
<!-- The Author must have the same identifier as the Person -->
<generator class="assigned"/>
</id>
<property name="alias"/>
<one-to-one name="person" constrained="true"/>
<set name="works" table="author_work" inverse="true">
<key column="author_id"/>
<many-to-many class="Work" column="work_id"/>
</set>
</class>
<class name="Person" table="persons">
<id name="id" column="id">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property name="name"/>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

There are four tables in this mapping: works, authors and persons hold work, author and
person data respectively. author_work is an association table linking authors to works. Here
is the table schema, as generated by SchemaExport:
create table works (
id BIGINT not null generated by default as identity,
tempo FLOAT,
genre VARCHAR(255),
text INTEGER,
title VARCHAR(255),
type CHAR(1) not null,
primary key (id)
)

create table author_work (

author_id BIGINT not null,
work_id BIGINT not null,
primary key (work_id, author_id)
)
create table authors (
id BIGINT not null generated by default as identity,
alias VARCHAR(255),
primary key (id)
)
create table persons (
id BIGINT not null generated by default as identity,
name VARCHAR(255),
primary key (id)
)
alter table authors
add constraint authorsFK0 foreign key (id) references persons
alter table author_work
add constraint author_workFK0 foreign key (author_id) references
authors
alter table author_work
add constraint author_workFK1 foreign key (work_id) references works

25.3. Customer/Order/Product
In this section we consider a model of the relationships between Customer, Order, Line
Item and Product. There is a one-to-many association between Customer and Order, but
how can you represent Order / LineItem / Product? In the example, LineItem is mapped as
an association class representing the many-to-many association between Order and Product.
In Hibernate this is called a composite element.

The mapping document will look like this:

<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="Customer" table="customers">
<id name="id">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property name="name"/>

<set name="orders" inverse="true">

<key column="customer_id"/>
<one-to-many class="Order"/>
</set>
</class>
<class name="Order" table="orders">
<id name="id">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property name="date"/>
<many-to-one name="customer" column="customer_id"/>
<list name="lineItems" table="line_items">
<key column="order_id"/>
<list-index column="line_number"/>
<composite-element class="LineItem">
<property name="quantity"/>
<many-to-one name="product" column="product_id"/>
</composite-element>
</list>
</class>
<class name="Product" table="products">
<id name="id">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property name="serialNumber"/>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>
customers, orders, line_items and products hold customer, order, order line item and
product data respectively. line_items also acts as an association table linking orders with

products.
create table customers (
id BIGINT not null generated by default as identity,
name VARCHAR(255),
primary key (id)
)
create table orders (
id BIGINT not null generated by default as identity,
customer_id BIGINT,
date TIMESTAMP,
primary key (id)
)
create table line_items (
line_number INTEGER not null,
order_id BIGINT not null,
product_id BIGINT,
quantity INTEGER,
primary key (order_id, line_number)
)
create table products (
id BIGINT not null generated by default as identity,
serialNumber VARCHAR(255),
primary key (id)

)
alter table orders
add constraint ordersFK0 foreign key (customer_id) references customers
alter table line_items
add constraint line_itemsFK0 foreign key (product_id) references
products
alter table line_items
add constraint line_itemsFK1 foreign key (order_id) references orders

25.4. Miscellaneous example mappings

These examples are available from the Hibernate test suite. You will find many other useful
example mappings there by searching in the test folder of the Hibernate distribution.

25.4.1. "Typed" one-to-one association

<class name="Person">
<id name="name"/>
<one-to-one name="address"
cascade="all">
<formula>name</formula>
<formula>'HOME'</formula>
</one-to-one>
<one-to-one name="mailingAddress"
cascade="all">
<formula>name</formula>
<formula>'MAILING'</formula>
</one-to-one>
</class>
<class name="Address" batch-size="2"
check="addressType in ('MAILING', 'HOME', 'BUSINESS')">
<composite-id>
<key-many-to-one name="person"
column="personName"/>
<key-property name="type"
column="addressType"/>
</composite-id>
<property name="street" type="text"/>
<property name="state"/>
<property name="zip"/>
</class>

25.4.2. Composite key example

<class name="Customer">
<id name="customerId"
length="10">
<generator class="assigned"/>
</id>
<property name="name" not-null="true" length="100"/>
<property name="address" not-null="true" length="200"/>
<list name="orders"
inverse="true"

cascade="save-update">
<key column="customerId"/>
<index column="orderNumber"/>
<one-to-many class="Order"/>
</list>
</class>
<class name="Order" table="CustomerOrder" lazy="true">
<synchronize table="LineItem"/>
<synchronize table="Product"/>
<composite-id name="id"
class="Order$Id">
<key-property name="customerId" length="10"/>
<key-property name="orderNumber"/>
</composite-id>
<property name="orderDate"
type="calendar_date"
not-null="true"/>
<property name="total">
<formula>
( select sum(li.quantity*p.price)
from LineItem li, Product p
where li.productId = p.productId
and li.customerId = customerId
and li.orderNumber = orderNumber )
</formula>
</property>
<many-to-one name="customer"
column="customerId"
insert="false"
update="false"
not-null="true"/>
<bag name="lineItems"
fetch="join"
inverse="true"
cascade="save-update">
<key>
<column name="customerId"/>
<column name="orderNumber"/>
</key>
<one-to-many class="LineItem"/>
</bag>
</class>
<class name="LineItem">
<composite-id name="id"
class="LineItem$Id">
<key-property name="customerId" length="10"/>
<key-property name="orderNumber"/>
<key-property name="productId" length="10"/>
</composite-id>
<property name="quantity"/>

<many-to-one name="order"
insert="false"
update="false"
not-null="true">
<column name="customerId"/>
<column name="orderNumber"/>
</many-to-one>
<many-to-one name="product"
insert="false"
update="false"
not-null="true"
column="productId"/>
</class>
<class name="Product">
<synchronize table="LineItem"/>
<id name="productId"
length="10">
<generator class="assigned"/>
</id>
<property name="description"
not-null="true"
length="200"/>
<property name="price" length="3"/>
<property name="numberAvailable"/>
<property name="numberOrdered">
<formula>
( select sum(li.quantity)
from LineItem li
where li.productId = productId )
</formula>
</property>
</class>

25.4.3. Many-to-many with shared composite key attribute

<class name="User" table="`User`">
<composite-id>
<key-property name="name"/>
<key-property name="org"/>
</composite-id>
<set name="groups" table="UserGroup">
<key>
<column name="userName"/>
<column name="org"/>
</key>
<many-to-many class="Group">
<column name="groupName"/>
<formula>org</formula>
</many-to-many>
</set>
</class>

<class name="Group" table="`Group`">

<composite-id>
<key-property name="name"/>
<key-property name="org"/>
</composite-id>
<property name="description"/>
<set name="users" table="UserGroup" inverse="true">
<key>
<column name="groupName"/>
<column name="org"/>
</key>
<many-to-many class="User">
<column name="userName"/>
<formula>org</formula>
</many-to-many>
</set>
</class>

25.4.4. Content based discrimination

<class name="Person"
discriminator-value="P">
<id name="id"
column="person_id"
unsaved-value="0">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<discriminator
type="character">
<formula>
case
when title is not null then 'E'
when salesperson is not null then 'C'
else 'P'
end
</formula>
</discriminator>
<property name="name"
not-null="true"
length="80"/>
<property name="sex"
not-null="true"
update="false"/>
<component name="address">
<property name="address"/>
<property name="zip"/>
<property name="country"/>
</component>
<subclass name="Employee"
discriminator-value="E">
<property name="title"
length="20"/>
<property name="salary"/>

<many-to-one name="manager"/>
</subclass>
<subclass name="Customer"
discriminator-value="C">
<property name="comments"/>
<many-to-one name="salesperson"/>
</subclass>
</class>

25.4.5. Associations on alternate keys

<class name="Person">
<id name="id">
<generator class="hilo"/>
</id>
<property name="name" length="100"/>
<one-to-one name="address"
property-ref="person"
cascade="all"
fetch="join"/>
<set name="accounts"
inverse="true">
<key column="userId"
property-ref="userId"/>
<one-to-many class="Account"/>
</set>
<property name="userId" length="8"/>
</class>
<class name="Address">
<id name="id">
<generator class="hilo"/>
</id>
<property name="address" length="300"/>
<property name="zip" length="5"/>
<property name="country" length="25"/>
<many-to-one name="person" unique="true" not-null="true"/>
</class>
<class name="Account">
<id name="accountId" length="32">
<generator class="uuid"/>
</id>
<many-to-one name="user"
column="userId"
property-ref="userId"/>
<property name="type" not-null="true"/>

</class>

Chapter 26. Best Practices

Write fine-grained classes and map them using <component>:
Use an Address class to encapsulate street, suburb, state, postcode. This
encourages code reuse and simplifies refactoring.
Declare identifier properties on persistent classes:
Hibernate makes identifier properties optional. There are a range of reasons why you
should use them. We recommend that identifiers be 'synthetic', that is, generated with
no business meaning.
Identify natural keys:
Identify natural keys for all entities, and map them using <natural-id>. Implement
equals() and hashCode() to compare the properties that make up the natural key.
Place each class mapping in its own file:
Do not use a single monolithic mapping document. Map com.eg.Foo in the file
com/eg/Foo.hbm.xml. This makes sense, particularly in a team environment.
Load mappings as resources:
Deploy the mappings along with the classes they map.
Consider externalizing query strings:
This is recommended if your queries call non-ANSI-standard SQL functions.
Externalizing the query strings to mapping files will make the application more
portable.
Use bind variables.
As in JDBC, always replace non-constant values by "?". Do not use string
manipulation to bind a non-constant value in a query. You should also consider using
named parameters in queries.
Do not manage your own JDBC connections:
Hibernate allows the application to manage JDBC connections, but his approach
should be considered a last-resort. If you cannot use the built-in connection providers,
consider providing your own implementation of
org.hibernate.connection.ConnectionProvider.
Consider using a custom type:

Suppose you have a Java type from a library that needs to be persisted but does not
provide the accessors needed to map it as a component. You should consider
implementing org.hibernate.UserType. This approach frees the application code
from implementing transformations to/from a Hibernate type.
Use hand-coded JDBC in bottlenecks:
In performance-critical areas of the system, some kinds of operations might benefit
from direct JDBC. Do not assume, however, that JDBC is necessarily faster. Please
wait until you know something is a bottleneck. If you need to use direct JDBC, you
can open a Hibernate Session, wrap your JDBC operation as a
org.hibernate.jdbc.Work object and using that JDBC connection. This way you
can still use the same transaction strategy and underlying connection provider.
Understand Session flushing:
Sometimes the Session synchronizes its persistent state with the database.
Performance will be affected if this process occurs too often. You can sometimes
minimize unnecessary flushing by disabling automatic flushing, or even by changing
the order of queries and other operations within a particular transaction.
In a three tiered architecture, consider using detached objects:
When using a servlet/session bean architecture, you can pass persistent objects loaded
in the session bean to and from the servlet/JSP layer. Use a new session to service
each request. Use Session.merge() or Session.saveOrUpdate() to synchronize
objects with the database.
In a two tiered architecture, consider using long persistence contexts:
Database Transactions have to be as short as possible for best scalability. However, it
is often necessary to implement long running application transactions, a single unitof-work from the point of view of a user. An application transaction might span
several client request/response cycles. It is common to use detached objects to
implement application transactions. An appropriate alternative in a two tiered
architecture, is to maintain a single open persistence contact session for the whole life
cycle of the application transaction. Then simply disconnect from the JDBC
connection at the end of each request and reconnect at the beginning of the subsequent
request. Never share a single session across more than one application transaction or
you will be working with stale data.
Do not treat exceptions as recoverable:
This is more of a necessary practice than a "best" practice. When an exception occurs,
roll back the Transaction and close the Session. If you do not do this, Hibernate
cannot guarantee that in-memory state accurately represents the persistent state. For
example, do not use Session.load() to determine if an instance with the given
identifier exists on the database; use Session.get() or a query instead.
Prefer lazy fetching for associations:

Use eager fetching sparingly. Use proxies and lazy collections for most associations to
classes that are not likely to be completely held in the second-level cache. For
associations to cached classes, where there is an a extremely high probability of a
cache hit, explicitly disable eager fetching using lazy="false". When join fetching is
appropriate to a particular use case, use a query with a left join fetch.
Use the open session in view pattern, or a disciplined assembly phase to avoid problems with
unfetched data:
Hibernate frees the developer from writing tedious Data Transfer Objects (DTO). In a
traditional EJB architecture, DTOs serve dual purposes: first, they work around the
problem that entity beans are not serializable; second, they implicitly define an
assembly phase where all data to be used by the view is fetched and marshalled into
the DTOs before returning control to the presentation tier. Hibernate eliminates the
first purpose. Unless you are prepared to hold the persistence context (the session)
open across the view rendering process, you will still need an assembly phase. Think
of your business methods as having a strict contract with the presentation tier about
what data is available in the detached objects. This is not a limitation of Hibernate. It
is a fundamental requirement of safe transactional data access.
Consider abstracting your business logic from Hibernate:
Hide Hibernate data-access code behind an interface. Combine the DAO and Thread
Local Session patterns. You can even have some classes persisted by handcoded JDBC
associated to Hibernate via a UserType. This advice is, however, intended for
"sufficiently large" applications. It is not appropriate for an application with five
tables.
Do not use exotic association mappings:
Practical test cases for real many-to-many associations are rare. Most of the time you
need additional information stored in the "link table". In this case, it is much better to
use two one-to-many associations to an intermediate link class. In fact, most
associations are one-to-many and many-to-one. For this reason, you should proceed
cautiously when using any other association style.
Prefer bidirectional associations:
Unidirectional associations are more difficult to query. In a large application, almost
all associations must be navigable in both directions in queries.

Chapter 27. Database Portability Considerations

Table of Contents
27.1. Portability Basics
27.2. Dialect
27.3. Dialect resolution
27.4. Identifier generation

27.5. Database functions

27.6. Type mappings

27.1. Portability Basics

One of the selling points of Hibernate (and really Object/Relational Mapping as a whole) is
the notion of database portability. This could mean an internal IT user migrating from one
database vendor to another, or it could mean a framework or deployable application
consuming Hibernate to simultaneously target multiple database products by their users.
Regardless of the exact scenario, the basic idea is that you want Hibernate to help you run
against any number of databases without changes to your code, and ideally without any
changes to the mapping metadata.

27.2. Dialect
The first line of portability for Hibernate is the dialect, which is a specialization of the
org.hibernate.dialect.Dialect contract. A dialect encapsulates all the differences in
how Hibernate must communicate with a particular database to accomplish some task like
getting a sequence value or structuring a SELECT query. Hibernate bundles a wide range of
dialects for many of the most popular databases. If you find that your particular database is
not among them, it is not terribly difficult to write your own.

27.3. Dialect resolution

Originally, Hibernate would always require that users specify which dialect to use. In the case
of users looking to simultaneously target multiple databases with their build that was
problematic. Generally this required their users to configure the Hibernate dialect or defining
their own method of setting that value.
Starting with version 3.2, Hibernate introduced the notion of automatically detecting the
dialect to use based on the java.sql.DatabaseMetaData obtained from a
java.sql.Connection to that database. This was much better, expect that this resolution was
limited to databases Hibernate know about ahead of time and was in no way configurable or
overrideable.
Starting with version 3.3, Hibernate has a fare more powerful way to automatically determine
which dialect to should be used by relying on a series of delegates which implement the
org.hibernate.dialect.resolver.DialectResolver which defines only a single method:
public Dialect resolveDialect(DatabaseMetaData metaData) throws
JDBCConnectionException

The basic contract here is that if the resolver 'understands' the given database metadata then it
returns the corresponding Dialect; if not it returns null and the process continues to the next
resolver. The signature also identifies
org.hibernate.exception.JDBCConnectionException as possibly being thrown. A
JDBCConnectionException here is interpreted to imply a "non transient" (aka nonrecoverable) connection problem and is used to indicate an immediate stop to resolution
attempts. All other exceptions result in a warning and continuing on to the next resolver.

The cool part about these resolvers is that users can also register their own custom resolvers
which will be processed ahead of the built-in Hibernate ones. This might be useful in a
number of different situations: it allows easy integration for auto-detection of dialects beyond
those shipped with HIbernate itself; it allows you to specify to use a custom dialect when a
particular database is recognized; etc. To register one or more resolvers, simply specify them
(seperated by commas, tabs or spaces) using the 'hibernate.dialect_resolvers' configuration
setting (see the DIALECT_RESOLVERS constant on org.hibernate.cfg.Environment).

27.4. Identifier generation

When considering portability between databases, another important decision is selecting the
identifier generation stratagy you want to use. Originally Hibernate provided the native
generator for this purpose, which was intended to select between a sequence, identity, or table
strategy depending on the capability of the underlying database. However, an insidious
implication of this approach comes about when targtetting some databases which support
identity generation and some which do not. identity generation relies on the SQL definition of
an IDENTITY (or auto-increment) column to manage the identifier value; it is what is known
as a post-insert generation strategy becauase the insert must actually happen before we can
know the identifier value. Because Hibernate relies on this identifier value to uniquely
reference entities within a persistence context it must then issue the insert immediately when
the users requests the entitiy be associated with the session (like via save() e.g.) regardless of
current transactional semantics.

Note
Hibernate was changed slightly once the implication of this was better understood so that the
insert is delayed in cases where that is feasible.
The underlying issue is that the actual semanctics of the application itself changes in these
cases.
Starting with version 3.2.3, Hibernate comes with a set of enhanced identifier generators
targetting portability in a much different way.

Note
There are specifically 2 bundled enhancedgenerators:

org.hibernate.id.enhanced.SequenceStyleGenerator
org.hibernate.id.enhanced.TableGenerator

The idea behind these generators is to port the actual semantics of the identifer value
generation to the different databases. For example, the
org.hibernate.id.enhanced.SequenceStyleGenerator mimics the behavior of a
sequence on databases which do not support sequences by using a table.

27.5. Database functions

Warning
This is an area in Hibernate in need of improvement. In terms of portability concerns, this
function handling currently works pretty well from HQL; however, it is quite lacking in all
other aspects.
SQL functions can be referenced in many ways by users. However, not all databases support
the same set of functions. Hibernate, provides a means of mapping a logical function name to
a delegate which knows how to render that particular function, perhaps even using a totally
different physical function call.

Important
Technically this function registration is handled through the
class which is intended to
allow users to provide custom function definitions without having to provide a custom dialect.
This specific behavior is not fully completed as of yet.
org.hibernate.dialect.function.SQLFunctionRegistry

It is sort of implemented such that users can programatically register functions with the
org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration and those functions will be recognized for HQL.

27.6. Type mappings

This section scheduled for completion at a later date...

References
[PoEAA] Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture. 0-321-12742-0. Martin Fowler.
Copyright 2003 Pearson Education, Inc.. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
[JPwH] Java Persistence with Hibernate. Second Edition of Hibernate in Action. 1-93239488-5. http://www.manning.com/bauer2 . Christian Bauer and Gavin King. Copyright 2007
Manning Publications Co.. Manning Publications Co..