Hibernate Unidirectional Parent/Child relationship - delete() performs update on child table instead of delete

Question

If I delete a record from the Parent table I want the corresponding records in the child table to be deleted. How can I make Hibernate delete from the Child table rather than attempt to update with a null?

I'm using Hibernate 3 but cannot use annotations at this time. I've attached copies of HBM, DAO etc below. -- Thank you in Advance

When attempting to delete data from tables in Parent/Child relationship I get the following error:

Testcase: testDelete(com.dressbarn.imbo.model.data.hibernate.dao.CharityTransferDAOTest):        Caused an ERROR
Hibernate flushing: Could not execute JDBC batch update; uncategorized SQLException for SQL [update RMS12.DRS_CHARITY_TRANSFER_ITEM set TSF_NO=null, TSF_SEQ_NO=null where TSF_NO=?]; SQL state [72000]; error code [1407]; ORA-01407: cannot update ("RMS12"."DRS_CHARITY_TRANSFER_ITEM"."TSF_NO") to NULL
; nested exception is java.sql.BatchUpdateException: ORA-01407: cannot update ("RMS12"."DRS_CHARITY_TRANSFER_ITEM"."TSF_NO") to NULL

org.springframework.jdbc.UncategorizedSQLException: Hibernate flushing: Could not execute JDBC batch update; uncategorized SQLException for SQL [update RMS12.DRS_CHARITY_TRANSFER_ITEM set TSF_NO=null, TSF_SEQ_NO=null where TSF_NO=?]; SQL state [72000]; error code [1407]; ORA-01407: cannot update ("RMS12"."DRS_CHARITY_TRANSFER_ITEM"."TSF_NO") to NULL
; nested exception is java.sql.BatchUpdateException: ORA-01407: cannot update ("RMS12"."DRS_CHARITY_TRANSFER_ITEM"."TSF_NO") to NULL

Caused by: java.sql.BatchUpdateException: ORA-01407: cannot update ("RMS12"."DRS_CHARITY_TRANSFER_ITEM"."TSF_NO") to NULL

        at oracle.jdbc.driver.DatabaseError.throwBatchUpdateException(DatabaseError.java:498)
        at oracle.jdbc.driver.OraclePreparedStatement.executeBatch(OraclePreparedStatement.java:12368)
        at org.hibernate.jdbc.BatchingBatcher.doExecuteBatch(BatchingBatcher.java:48)
        at org.hibernate.jdbc.AbstractBatcher.executeBatch(AbstractBatcher.java:246)
        at org.hibernate.engine.ActionQueue.executeActions(ActionQueue.java:237)
        at org.hibernate.engine.ActionQueue.executeActions(ActionQueue.java:143)
        at org.hibernate.event.def.AbstractFlushingEventListener.performExecutions(AbstractFlushingEventListener.java:298)
        at org.hibernate.event.def.DefaultFlushEventListener.onFlush(DefaultFlushEventListener.java:27)
        at org.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.flush(SessionImpl.java:1000)
        at org.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.managedFlush(SessionImpl.java:338)
        at org.hibernate.transaction.JDBCTransaction.commit(JDBCTransaction.java:106)
        at org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTransactionManager.doCommit(HibernateTransactionManager.java:578)
        at org.springframework.transaction.support.AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.processCommit(AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.java:662)
        at org.springframework.transaction.support.AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.commit(AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.java:632)
        at org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionAspectSupport.commitTransactionAfterReturning(TransactionAspectSupport.java:314)
        at org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionInterceptor.invoke(TransactionInterceptor.java:116)
        at org.springframework.aop.framework.ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed(ReflectiveMethodInvocation.java:171)
        at org.springframework.aop.framework.Cglib2AopProxy$DynamicAdvisedInterceptor.intercept(Cglib2AopProxy.java:629)
        at com.dressbarn.imbo.model.data.hibernate.dao.CharityTransferDAO$$EnhancerByCGLIB$$6a21cd58.delete(<generated>)
        at com.dressbarn.imbo.model.data.hibernate.dao.CharityTransferDAOTest.testDelete(CharityTransferDAOTest.java:112)
        at org.springframework.test.ConditionalTestCase.runBare(ConditionalTestCase.java:69)

My tables are:

Parent:

CREATE TABLE DRS_CHARITY_TRANSFER
(
  TSF_NO          NUMBER(10)                    NOT NULL Primary Key,
  FROM_LOC        NUMBER(10),
  CHARITY_LOC_ID  NUMBER(10),
  STATUS          VARCHAR2(1 CHAR),
  CREATE_DATE     DATE,
  EXT_REF_NO      VARCHAR2(30 CHAR),
  COMMENT_DESC    VARCHAR2(2000 CHAR),
  USER_ID         VARCHAR2(30 CHAR)
)

Child:

CREATE TABLE DRS_CHARITY_TRANSFER_ITEM
 (
  TSF_NO      NUMBER(10)  NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
  ITEM        VARCHAR2(25 BYTE)  NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
  TSF_SEQ_NO  INTEGER,
  TSF_QTY     INTEGER
)

HBM XML

<hibernate-mapping package="com.dressbarn.imbo.model.data.hibernate.transfer" schema="RMS12">
   <class name="CharityTransfer" table="DRS_CHARITY_TRANSFER">
       <id name="transferNumber" column="TSF_NO" unsaved-value="undefined">

       </id>
       <property column="FROM_LOC" length="10" name="fromLocation" type="java.lang.Long"/>
       <property column="CHARITY_LOC_ID" length="10" name="toCharityLocId" type="java.lang.Long"/>
       <property column="STATUS" name="status" type="string"/>
       <property column="EXT_REF_NO" name="documentNumber" type="string"/>
       <property column="COMMENT_DESC" name="comment" type="string"/>
       <property column="CREATE_DATE" name="createDate" type="string"/>
       <property column="USER_ID" name="userId" type="string"/>
    <list name="charityTransferItemList" cascade="all-delete-orphan" lazy="false">
        <key column="TSF_NO" />
        <list-index column="TSF_SEQ_NO"/>
        <one-to-many class="CharityTransferItem" />
    </list>
</class>

<class name="CharityTransferItem" table="DRS_CHARITY_TRANSFER_ITEM">
    <id name="item" column="TSF_NO" unsaved-value="undefined">

    </id>
    <property column="ITEM" name="item" type="string"/>
    <property column="TSF_SEQ_NO" length="10" name="sequence" type="integer"/>
    <property column="TSF_QTY" length="12" name="quantity" type="long"/>
</class>

DAO

public class CharityTransferDAO extends HibernateDaoSupport implements ICharityTransfer {

   public void delete(CharityTransfer charityTransfer) throws IMADataException {
       try {
         getSessionFactory()
                 .getCurrentSession()
                 .delete(charityTransfer);
      }
      catch (HibernateException e) {
        throw new IMADataException("failed to delete charity shipping information", e);
      }    
}

Answer 1

I encountered this error all the time.

Just put an inverse="true" on the relationship and your problem will go away!

<list name="charityTransferItemList" inverse="true" cascade="all-delete-orphan" lazy="false" >
        <key column="TSF_NO" />
        <list-index column="TSF_SEQ_NO"/>
        <one-to-many class="CharityTransferItem" />
    </list>

Basically the inverse will tell hibernate the child cannot exist without a parent, thereby causing hibernate to delete the child.

Having said that, you'll also need to remove the charityTransfer object from the collection in the parent as well.

Answer 2

(Note: This has been raised as an incorrect answer by two users).

Hibernate docs say you can just mark the key column as not-null="true":

<list name="charityTransferItemList" cascade="all,delete-orphan" lazy="false">
        <key column="TSF_NO" not-null="true" />
        <list-index column="TSF_SEQ_NO"/>
        <one-to-many class="CharityTransferItem" />
</list>

From Hibernate doc on collections:

If the foreign key column of a association is declared NOT NULL, you must declare the mapping not-null="true" or use a bidirectional association with the collection mapping marked inverse="true". See the discussion of bidirectional associations later in this chapter for more information.

I also think there is a typo in your cascade style (all-delete-orphan should be all,delete-orphan).