how to make a composite primary key (java persistence annotation)

Question

How to make it so that the table user_roles defines the two columns (userID, roleID) as a composite primary key. should be easy, just can't remember/find.

In user entity:

@ManyToMany(fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
@JoinTable(name = "user_roles")
public List<RoleDAO> getRoles() {
    return roles;
}

@Id
@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
public Integer getUserID() {
    return userID;
}

In roles entity:

@ManyToMany(fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
@JoinTable(name = "user_roles")
public List<UserDAO> getUsers() {
    return users;
}

@Id
@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
public Integer getRoleID() {
    return roleID;
}

Thank you.

** MORE INFO

So there is a third table user_roles (auto generated by above) that takes userID from user entity and roleID from roles entity. Now I need those two columns in the generated table (user_roles) to be a composite primary key.

Answer 1

You've already had a few good answers here on how to do exactly as you ask..

For reference let me just mention the recommended way to do this in Hibernate instead, which is to use a surrogate key as primary key, and to mark business keys as NaturalId's:

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 inside the element. Hibernate will generate the necessary unique key and nullability constraints and, as a result, your mapping will be more self-documenting.

It is recommended that you implement equals() and hashCode() to compare the natural key properties of the entity.

In code, using annotations, this would look something like this:

@Entity
public class UserRole {
  @Id
  @GeneratedValue
  private long id;

  @NaturalId
  private User user;
  @NaturalId
  private Role role;
}

Using this will save you a lot of headaches down the road, as you'll find out when you frequently have to reference / map the composed primary key.

I found this out the hard way, and in the end just gave up fighting against Hibernate and instead decided to go with the flow. I fully understand that this might not be possible in your case, as you might be dealing with legacy software or dependencies, but I just wanted to mention it for future reference. (if you can't use it maybe someone else can!)

Answer 2

In order to fulfill your requirement, you can map your @ManyToMany as a @OneToMany mapping. This way, USER_ROLE will contain both USER_ID and ROLE_ID as compound primary key

I will show you how to:

@Entity
@Table(name="USER")
public class User {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue
    private Integer id;

    @OneToMany(cascade=CascadeType.ALL, mappedBy="joinedUserRoleId.user")
    private List<JoinedUserRole> joinedUserRoleList = new ArrayList<JoinedUserRole>();

    // no-arg required constructor
    public User() {}

    public User(Integer id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    // addRole sets up bidirectional relationship
    public void addRole(Role role) {
        // Notice a JoinedUserRole object
        JoinedUserRole joinedUserRole = new JoinedUserRole(new JoinedUserRole.JoinedUserRoleId(this, role));

        joinedUserRole.setUser(this);
        joinedUserRole.setRole(role);

        joinedUserRoleList.add(joinedUserRole);
    }

}

@Entity
@Table(name="USER_ROLE")
public class JoinedUserRole {

    public JoinedUserRole() {}

    public JoinedUserRole(JoinedUserRoleId joinedUserRoleId) {
        this.joinedUserRoleId = joinedUserRoleId;
    }

    @ManyToOne
    @JoinColumn(name="USER_ID", insertable=false, updatable=false)
    private User user;

    @ManyToOne
    @JoinColumn(name="ROLE_ID", insertable=false, updatable=false)
    private Role role;

    @EmbeddedId
    // Implemented as static class - see bellow
    private JoinedUserRoleId joinedUserRoleId;

    // required because JoinedUserRole contains composite id
    @Embeddable
    public static class JoinedUserRoleId implements Serializable {

        @ManyToOne
        @JoinColumn(name="USER_ID")
        private User user;

        @ManyToOne
        @JoinColumn(name="ROLE_ID")
        private Role role;

        // required no arg constructor
        public JoinedUserRoleId() {}

        public JoinedUserRoleId(User user, Role role) {
            this.user = user;
            this.role = role;
        }

        public JoinedUserRoleId(Integer userId, Integer roleId) {
            this(new User(userId), new Role(roleId));
        }

        @Override
        public boolean equals(Object instance) {
            if (instance == null)
                return false;

            if (!(instance instanceof JoinedUserRoleId))
                return false;

            final JoinedUserRoleId other = (JoinedUserRoleId) instance;
            if (!(user.getId().equals(other.getUser().getId())))
                return false;

            if (!(role.getId().equals(other.getRole().getId())))
                return false;

            return true;
        }

        @Override
        public int hashCode() {
            int hash = 7;
            hash = 47 * hash + (this.user != null ? this.user.hashCode() : 0);
            hash = 47 * hash + (this.role != null ? this.role.hashCode() : 0);
            return hash;
        }

    }

}

remember

If an object has an assigned identifier, or a composite key, the identifier SHOULD BE ASSIGNED to the object instance BEFORE calling save().

So we have created a JoinedUserRoleId constructor like this one in order to take care of it

public JoinedUserRoleId(User user, Role role) {
    this.user = user;
    this.role = role;
}

And finally Role class

@Entity
@Table(name="ROLE")
public class Role {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue
    private Integer id;

    @OneToMany(cascade=CascadeType.ALL, mappedBy="JoinedUserRoleId.role")
    private List<JoinedUserRole> joinedUserRoleList = new ArrayList<JoinedUserRole>();

    // no-arg required constructor
    public Role() {}

    public Role(Integer id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    // addUser sets up bidirectional relationship
    public void addUser(User user) {
        // Notice a JoinedUserRole object
        JoinedUserRole joinedUserRole = new JoinedUserRole(new JoinedUserRole.JoinedUserRoleId(user, this));

        joinedUserRole.setUser(user);
        joinedUserRole.setRole(this);

        joinedUserRoleList.add(joinedUserRole);
    }

}

According to test it, let's write the following

User user = new User();
Role role = new Role();

// code in order to save a User and a Role
Session session = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().openSession();
session.beginTransaction();

Serializable userId  = session.save(user);
Serializable roleId = session.save(role);

session.getTransaction().commit();
session.clear();
session.close();

// code in order to set up bidirectional relationship
Session anotherSession = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().openSession();
anotherSession.beginTransaction();

User savedUser = (User) anotherSession.load(User.class, userId);
Role savedRole = (Role) anotherSession.load(Role.class, roleId);

// Automatic dirty checking
// It will set up bidirectional relationship
savedUser.addRole(savedRole);

anotherSession.getTransaction().commit();
anotherSession.clear();
anotherSession.close();

Notice according to code above NO REFERENCE to JoinedUserRole class.

If you want to retrieve a JoinedUserRole, try the following

Session session = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().openSession();
session.beginTransaction();

Integer userId;
Integer roleId;

// Lets say you have set up both userId and roleId
JoinedUserRole joinedUserRole = (JoinedUserRole) session.get(JoinedUserRole.class, new JoinedUserRole.JoinedUserRoleId(userId, roleId));

// some operations

session.getTransaction().commit();
session.clear();
session.close();

regards,