Mapping many-to-many association table with extra column(s)

Question

My database contains 3 tables: User and Service entities have many-to-many relationship and are joined with the SERVICE_USER table as follows:

USERS - SERVICE_USER - SERVICES

SERVICE_USER table contains additional BLOCKED column.

What is the best way to perform such a mapping? These are my Entity classes

@Entity
@Table(name = "USERS")
public class User implements java.io.Serializable {

private String userid;
private String email;

@Id
@Column(name = "USERID", unique = true, nullable = false,)
public String getUserid() {
return this.userid;
}

.... some get/set methods
}

@Entity
@Table(name = "SERVICES")
public class CmsService implements java.io.Serializable {
private String serviceCode;

@Id
@Column(name = "SERVICE_CODE", unique = true, nullable = false, length = 100)
public String getServiceCode() {
return this.serviceCode;
}
.... some additional fields and get/set methods
}

I followed this example http://giannigar.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/m ... using-jpa/ Here is some test code:

User user = new User();
user.setEmail("e2");
user.setUserid("ui2");
user.setPassword("p2");

CmsService service= new CmsService("cd2","name2");

List<UserService> userServiceList = new ArrayList<UserService>();

UserService userService = new UserService();
userService.setService(service);
userService.setUser(user);
userService.setBlocked(true);
service.getUserServices().add(userService);

userDAO.save(user);

The problem is that hibernate persists User object and UserService one. No success with the CmsService object

I tried to use EAGER fetch - no progress

Is it possible to achieve the behaviour I'm expecting with the mapping provided above?

Maybe there is some more elegant way of mapping many to many join table with additional column?

Answer 1

Since the SERVICE_USER table is not a pure join table, but has additional functional fields (blocked), you must map it as an entity, and decompose the many to many association between User and Service into two OneToMany associations : One User has many UserServices, and one Service has many UserServices.

You haven't shown us the most important part : the mapping and initialization of the relationships between your entities (i.e. the part you have problems with). So I'll show you how it should look like.

If you make the relationships bidirectional, you should thus have

class User {
    @OneToMany(mappedBy = "user")
    private Set<UserService> userServices = new HashSet<UserService>();
}

class UserService {
    @ManyToOne
    @JoinColumn(name = "user_id")
    private User user;

    @ManyToOne
    @JoinColumn(name = "service_code")
    private Service service;

    @Column(name = "blocked")
    private boolean blocked;
}

class Service {
    @OneToMany(mappedBy = "service")
    private Set<UserService> userServices = new HashSet<UserService>();
}

If you don't put any cascade on your relationships, then you must persist/save all the entities. Although only the owning side of the relationship (here, the UserService side) must be initialized, it's also a good practice to make sure both sides are in coherence.

User user = new User();
Service service = new Service();
UserService userService = new UserService();

user.addUserService(userService);
userService.setUser(user);

service.addUserService(userService);
userService.setService(service);

session.save(user);
session.save(service);
session.save(userService);

Answer 2

I search a way to map a many-to-many association table with extra column(s) with hibernate in xml files configuration.

Assuming with have two table 'a' & 'c' with a many to many association with a column named 'extra'. Cause I didn't find any complete example, here is my code. Hope it will help :).

First here is the Java objects.

public class A implements Serializable{  

    protected int id;
    // put some others fields if needed ...   
    private Set<AC> ac = new HashSet<AC>();

    public A(int id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public int getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(int id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public Set<AC> getAC() {
        return ac;
    }

    public void setAC(Set<AC> ac) {
        this.ac = ac;
    }

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    public int hashCode() {
        final int prime = 97;
        int result = 1;
        result = prime * result + id;
        return result;
    }

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object obj) {
        if (this == obj)
            return true;
        if (obj == null)
            return false;
        if (!(obj instanceof A))
            return false;
        final A other = (A) obj;
        if (id != other.getId())
            return false;
        return true;
    }

}

public class C implements Serializable{

    protected int id;
    // put some others fields if needed ...    

    public C(int id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public int getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(int id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    public int hashCode() {
        final int prime = 98;
        int result = 1;
        result = prime * result + id;
        return result;
    }

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object obj) {
        if (this == obj)
            return true;
        if (obj == null)
            return false;
        if (!(obj instanceof C))
            return false;
        final C other = (C) obj;
        if (id != other.getId())
            return false;
        return true;
    }

}

Now, we have to create the association table. The first step is to create an object representing a complex primary key (a.id, c.id).

public class ACId implements Serializable{

    private A a;
    private C c;

    public ACId() {
        super();
    }

    public A getA() {
        return a;
    }
    public void setA(A a) {
        this.a = a;
    }
    public C getC() {
        return c;
    }
    public void setC(C c) {
        this.c = c;
    }
    @Override
    public int hashCode() {
        final int prime = 31;
        int result = 1;
        result = prime * result + ((a == null) ? 0 : a.hashCode());
        result = prime * result
                + ((c == null) ? 0 : c.hashCode());
        return result;
    }
    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object obj) {
        if (this == obj)
            return true;
        if (obj == null)
            return false;
        if (getClass() != obj.getClass())
            return false;
        ACId other = (ACId) obj;
        if (a == null) {
            if (other.a != null)
                return false;
        } else if (!a.equals(other.a))
            return false;
        if (c == null) {
            if (other.c != null)
                return false;
        } else if (!c.equals(other.c))
            return false;
        return true;
    }
}

Now let's create the association object itself.

public class AC implements java.io.Serializable{

    private ACId id = new ACId();
    private String extra;

    public AC(){

    }

    public ACId getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(ACId id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public A getA(){
        return getId().getA();
    }

    public C getC(){
        return getId().getC();
    }

    public void setC(C C){
        getId().setC(C);
    }

    public void setA(A A){
        getId().setA(A);
    }

    public String getExtra() {
        return extra;
    }

    public void setExtra(String extra) {
        this.extra = extra;
    }

    public boolean equals(Object o) {
        if (this == o)
            return true;
        if (o == null || getClass() != o.getClass())
            return false;

        AC that = (AC) o;

        if (getId() != null ? !getId().equals(that.getId())
                : that.getId() != null)
            return false;

        return true;
    }

    public int hashCode() {
        return (getId() != null ? getId().hashCode() : 0);
    }
}

At this point, it's time to map all our classes with hibernate xml configuration.

A.hbm.xml and C.hxml.xml (quiete the same).

<class name="A" table="a">
        <id name="id" column="id_a" unsaved-value="0">
            <generator class="identity">
                <param name="sequence">a_id_seq</param>
            </generator>
        </id>
<!-- here you should map all others table columns -->
<!-- <property name="otherprop" column="otherprop" type="string" access="field" /> -->
    <set name="ac" table="a_c" lazy="true" access="field" fetch="select" cascade="all">
        <key>
            <column name="id_a" not-null="true" />
        </key>
        <one-to-many class="AC" />
    </set>
</class>

<class name="C" table="c">
        <id name="id" column="id_c" unsaved-value="0">
            <generator class="identity">
                <param name="sequence">c_id_seq</param>
            </generator>
        </id>
</class>

And then association mapping file, a_c.hbm.xml.

<class name="AC" table="a_c">
    <composite-id name="id" class="ACId">
        <key-many-to-one name="a" class="A" column="id_a" />
        <key-many-to-one name="c" class="C" column="id_c" />
    </composite-id>
    <property name="extra" type="string" column="extra" />
</class>

Here is the code sample to test.

A = ADao.get(1);
C = CDao.get(1);

if(A != null && C != null){
    boolean exists = false;
            // just check if it's updated or not
    for(AC a : a.getAC()){
        if(a.getC().equals(c)){
            // update field
            a.setExtra("extra updated");
            exists = true;
            break;
        }
    }

    // add 
    if(!exists){
        ACId idAC = new ACId();
        idAC.setA(a);
        idAC.setC(c);

        AC AC = new AC();
        AC.setId(idAC);
        AC.setExtra("extra added"); 
        a.getAC().add(AC);
    }

    ADao.save(A);
}

Answer 3

As said before, with JPA, in order to have the chance to have extra columns, you need to use two OneToMany associations, instead of a single ManyToMany relationship. You can also add a column with autogenerated values; this way, it can work as the primary key of the table, if useful.

For instance, the implementation code of the extra class should look like that:

@Entity
@Table(name = "USER_SERVICES")
public class UserService{

    // example of auto-generated ID
    @Id
    @Column(name = "USER_SERVICES_ID", nullable = false)
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    private long userServiceID;



    @ManyToOne(fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
    @JoinColumn(name = "USER_ID")
    private User user;

    @ManyToOne(fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
    @JoinColumn(name = "SERVICE_ID")
    private Service service;



    // example of extra column
    @Column(name="VISIBILITY")    
    private boolean visibility;



    public long getUserServiceID() {
        return userServiceID;
    }


    public User getUser() {
        return user;
    }

    public void setUser(User user) {
        this.user = user;
    }

    public Service getService() {
        return service;
    }

    public void setService(Service service) {
        this.service = service;
    }

    public boolean getVisibility() {
        return visibility;
    }

    public void setVisibility(boolean visibility) {
        this.visibility = visibility;
    }

}