Is it possible to dynamically define column names in Hibernate / JPA?

Question

So i have this existing DB schema with a number of tables that i want to model with JPA/Hibernate. Each table has the same group of 30 additional columns ( to allow for runtime expansion of the number of fields recorded).

CREATE TABLE XX
  (
    "ID"          VARCHAR2(100 BYTE) NOT NULL ENABLE,
    "USER_LABEL"      VARCHAR2(256 BYTE),
    "CREATION_DATE"   NUMBER(38,0) NOT NULL ENABLE,
    "ADD_STR_FIELD_0" VARCHAR2(200 BYTE),
    "ADD_LNG_FIELD_0" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_DBL_FIELD_0" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_STR_FIELD_1" VARCHAR2(200 BYTE),
    "ADD_LNG_FIELD_1" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_DBL_FIELD_1" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_STR_FIELD_2" VARCHAR2(200 BYTE),
    "ADD_LNG_FIELD_2" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_DBL_FIELD_2" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_STR_FIELD_3" VARCHAR2(200 BYTE),
    "ADD_LNG_FIELD_3" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_DBL_FIELD_3" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_STR_FIELD_4" VARCHAR2(200 BYTE),
    "ADD_LNG_FIELD_4" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_DBL_FIELD_4" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_STR_FIELD_5" VARCHAR2(200 BYTE),
    "ADD_LNG_FIELD_5" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_DBL_FIELD_5" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_STR_FIELD_6" VARCHAR2(200 BYTE),
    "ADD_LNG_FIELD_6" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_DBL_FIELD_6" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_STR_FIELD_7" VARCHAR2(200 BYTE),
    "ADD_LNG_FIELD_7" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_DBL_FIELD_7" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_STR_FIELD_8" VARCHAR2(200 BYTE),
    "ADD_LNG_FIELD_8" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_DBL_FIELD_8" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_STR_FIELD_9" VARCHAR2(200 BYTE),
    "ADD_LNG_FIELD_9" NUMBER(38,0),
    "ADD_DBL_FIELD_9" NUMBER(38,0),
}

I plan to define simple classes for each table

import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.Table;

@Entity
@Table(name="XX")
public class XX {

    @Id
    Long id = null;
}

and then define the common additional parameters in a common class

import javax.persistence.Column;

public abstract class AdditionalParameters {

    @Column(name="ADD_STR_FIELD_0")
    private String addStringField0 = null;
    @Column(name="ADD_LNG_FIELD_0")
    private Long addLongField0 = null;
    @Column(name="ADD_DBL_FIELD_0")
    private Double addDoubleField0 = null;
    ....
    ....
    ....
    @Column(name="ADD_STR_FIELD_8")
    private String addStringField8 = null;
    @Column(name="ADD_LNG_FIELD_8")
    private Long addLongField8 = null;
    @Column(name="ADD_DBL_FIELD_8")
    private Double addDoubleField8 = null;
}

while this will work, i don't like the hardcoded nature of the class.

I would like to model each set of string,long and double fields as an additional parameter group, and then have 0..9 groups. This would allow me easily add extra groups later if required.

If i use the xml mapping solution i can dynamically determine the correct column name when generating the .hbm.xml for each table. I would prefer to use an annotated solution, but is there a way to override the @Column getName() method so that i can return a dynamically generated column name?

Answer 1

You need to create a custom NamingStrategy.

Assuming you use spring and hibernate with JPA, here is a configuration snippet with a custom NamingStrategy:

<bean id="entityManagerFactory"
    class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean">
    <property name="persistenceUnitName" value="myunit" />
    <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource" />
    <property name="persistenceXmlLocation"
              value="classpath:META-INF/persistence.xml" />
    <property name="jpaVendorAdapter">
        <bean class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.HibernateJpaVendorAdapter">
            <property name="showSql" value="false" />
            <property name="generateDdl" value="true" />
            <property name="database" value="MYSQL" />
        </bean>
    </property>
    <property name="jpaProperties">
        <props>
            <prop 
                key="hibernate.ejb.naming_strategy">
                com.yourcompany.CustomNamingStrategy
            </prop>
        </props>
    </property>
</bean>

If you don't use spring, configuration will be different, but you can still use a custom NamingStrategy (see Implementing a NamingStrategy from the Hibernate Documentation).

Anyway, here is a sample NamingStrategy that builds table names of the form TYPE1_TYPE2 for join tables and adds a common prefix to all tables:

public class CustomNamingStrategy extends ImprovedNamingStrategy {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    private static final String PREFIX = "PFX_";

    @Override
    public String classToTableName(final String className) {
        return this.addPrefix(super.classToTableName(className));
    }

    @Override
    public String collectionTableName(final String ownerEntity,
            final String ownerEntityTable, final String associatedEntity,
            final String associatedEntityTable, final String propertyName) {
        return this.addPrefix(super.collectionTableName(ownerEntity,
                ownerEntityTable, associatedEntity, associatedEntityTable,
                propertyName));
    }

    @Override
    public String logicalCollectionTableName(final String tableName,
            final String ownerEntityTable, final String associatedEntityTable,
            final String propertyName) {
        return this.addPrefix(super.logicalCollectionTableName(tableName,
                ownerEntityTable, associatedEntityTable, propertyName));
    }

    private String addPrefix(final String composedTableName) {

        return PREFIX
                + composedTableName.toUpperCase().replace("_", "");

    }

}