Hibernate entity serializable

Question

I've read a few topics about hibernate & entity serialization, but still can't grasp why my application works despite of fact that I don't implement Serializable.

"If an entity instance be passed by value as a detached object, such as through a session bean’s remote business interface, the class must implement the Serializable interface." (c)

What I have: Simple Spring MVC project that use Hibernate. I have MyEntity datatable, and functionality to edit it by user from my application.

• User makes a request to getMyEntity(), and gets the empty MyEntity object

• Then in the form he sets all needed parameters

• Then send updated myEntity to the server

What the problem: As I understand, a user will possess a myEntity object when they're filling up the form. So, myEntity is in detached state. BUT, MyEntity DOESN'T implement Serializable

My questions:

• Why does it work without MyEntity implements Serializable?

• I have the same scheme (described above) for all my entities. Do I need to implement Serializable?

Answer 1

Hibernate doesn't require entities to be Serializable.

"If an entity instance be passed by value as a detached object, such as through a session bean’s remote business interface, the class must implement the Serializable interface." (c)

This statement is a common source of confusion, because it has nothing to do with Hibernate. Actually it means that if you plan to use your entities in contexts where serializability is required, they should be Serializable.

Since Spring MVC doesn't require model attributes to be Serializable as well (unless you want to leverage session persistence for attributes stored in session using @SessionAttributes), therefore you don't need to worry about serializability in your case.