This is Stuff: JPA Tutorial

Thursday, March 1, 2012

JPA Tutorial

Java persistent API is a specification and set of interfaces that helps with persistence of java objects into the database. It has been created after success of object relational mapping frameworks - the most popular is Hibernate.

JPA defines standard basic set of features that every object relational mapping framework should have. Almost all current O/R frameworks implement JPA specification. Of course, most of them have additional features to set them apart.

Saving/loading data with JPA is easier, faster and less error prone than writing SQL and mapping query results to objects. However, JPA does not free you from relational database understanding. And while you do not have to write SQL anymore, you have to learn JPQL which is very similar.

First three chapters of this post contain configuration and set up. Following three chapters explain what are entities and show how to create, save and load them. The rest of the post explains how to create and configure relationships between entities.

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Demo Project

All examples and test cases used in this tutorial are available in a project on Github. It is a plain Maven application, no configuration is necessary.

The project uses an in-memory Derby database which is created before each test case and destroyed after each test case. It is lightweight and leaves no traces behind it.

We used Liquibase to maintain the database structure, mostly because it is practical for project that has to drop and re-create the database often. It keeps both database description and initial data in a 'changelog' xml file.

Our changelog files are named db.*.changelog.xml and are always stored in the same directory as the test case that uses them.

Other set-up details are not necessary to understand. If you are interested in them anyway, we described them in an independent post.

JPA Implementation

There are plenty of JPA implementations and they should all work the same way. We used OpenJPA in our demo project, mostly because it is free, open source and easy to set up.

This chapter contains OpenJPA specific configuration. Everything else in article works the same way regardless of chosen JPA provider.

First, define OpenJPA version property in pom.xml:

<properties>
 <openjpa.version>2.1.1</openjpa.version>
</properties>

Dependency

Add OpenJPA dependency into pom.xml:

<dependency>
 <groupId>org.apache.openjpa</groupId>
 <artifactId>openjpa-all</artifactId>
 <version>${openjpa.version}</version>
</dependency>

Plugin

OpenJPA requires openjpa-maven-plugin maven plugin. It runs at compile time and modifies compiled java classes to work with OpenJPA. This process is called enhancement.

Openjpa-maven-plugin must know about all compiled entity classes. What entities are will be explained later in this article. For now, you can use a simple rule: if it has JPA annotation on it, openjpa-maven-plugin must know about it.

Add openjpa-maven-plugin into pom.xml and specify all entity classes inside the includes sub-tag. The tag supports *:

<plugin>
 <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
 <artifactId>openjpa-maven-plugin</artifactId>
 <version>1.2</version>
 <configuration>
  <!-- beginning of directories with compiled entity classes -->
  <includes>org/meri/jpa/*/entities/*/*.class</includes>
  <includes>org/meri/jpa/*/entities/*.class</includes>
  <!-- end of directories with compiled entity classes -->
  <addDefaultConstructor>true</addDefaultConstructor>
  <enforcePropertyRestrictions>true</enforcePropertyRestrictions>
 </configuration>
 <executions>
  <execution>
   <id>enhancer</id>
   <phase>process-classes</phase>
   <goals>
    <goal>test-enhance</goal>
    <goal>enhance</goal>
   </goals>
  </execution>
 </executions>
 <dependencies>
  <dependency>
   <groupId>org.apache.openjpa</groupId>
   <artifactId>openjpa</artifactId>
   <version>${openjpa.version}</version>
  </dependency>
 </dependencies>
</plugin>

Eclipse

If you use Eclipse with m2e plugin, you have to add also following huge thing into your pom.xml. It removes the 'Plugin execution not covered by lifecycle configuration' error:

<!--This plugin's configuration is used to store Eclipse m2e settings only. It has no influence on the Maven build itself.-->
<plugin>
 <groupId>org.eclipse.m2e</groupId>
 <artifactId>lifecycle-mapping</artifactId>
 <version>1.0.0</version>
 <configuration>
  <lifecycleMappingMetadata>
   <pluginExecutions>
    <pluginExecution>
     <pluginExecutionFilter>
      <groupId>
       org.codehaus.mojo
      </groupId>
      <artifactId>
       openjpa-maven-plugin
      </artifactId>
      <versionRange>
       [1.0,)
      </versionRange>
      <goals>
       <goal>test-enhance</goal>
       <goal>enhance</goal>
      </goals>
     </pluginExecutionFilter>
     <action>
      <execute><runOnIncremental>true</runOnIncremental></execute>
     </action>
    </pluginExecution>
   </pluginExecutions>
  </lifecycleMappingMetadata>
 </configuration>
</plugin>

Configuration

JPA configuration is kept in META-INF/persistence.xml file. If you are using Maven, the full path is src/main/resources/META-INF/persistence.xml .

Overview

The persistence.xml file contains description of one or more persistence units. For readability sake, we omitted schema location and version from the next example. Full version is available on Github:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<persistence xmlns:xsi="..." xsi:schemaLocation="..."version="2.0" xmlns="...">
    
    <persistence-unit name="Name1" transaction-type="RESOURCE_LOCAL">
        ... 
    </persistence-unit>

    <persistence-unit name="NameN" transaction-type="RESOURCE_LOCAL">
        ...
    </persistence-unit>
</persistence>

Persistence unit roughly corresponds to a database and most applications have only one persistence unit. Each persistence unit configuration specifies:

JPA persistence provider to be used,
database connection,
list of all entities,
other vendor specific configuration properties.

Each JPA implementation have different persistence provider. For example, OpenJPA uses org.apache.openjpa.persistence.PersistenceProviderImpl and Hibernate uses org.hibernate.ejb.HibernatePersistence.

Each entity must be listed separately, the * is not supported.

Example

Our example persistence unit is named 'Simplest'. It uses OpenJPA provider and connects to the database via data source stored in JNDI. The persistence unit contains two entities Person and AnotherEntity. It also logs all queries applied to the database:

<persistence-unit name="Simplest" transaction-type="RESOURCE_LOCAL">
    <!-- OpenJPA persistence provider -->
    <provider>org.apache.openjpa.persistence.PersistenceProviderImpl</provider>
    <!-- JNDI name of the datasource -->
    <jta-data-source>jdbc/jpaDemoDB</jta-data-source>

    <!-- JPA entities must be registered here -->
    <class>org.meri.jpa.simplest.entities.Person</class>
    <class>org.meri.jpa.simplest.entities.AnotherEntity</class>
        
    <!-- other properties -->
    <properties>
        <!-- Log all queries performed against the database. -->
        <!-- Do not use in production, this will generate a lot of output. -->
        <property name="openjpa.Log" value="SQL=TRACE"/>
    </properties>
</persistence-unit>

Entity

Entity is an ordinary java class with properties, getters and setters. It has to be marked as an entity with the @Entity annotation and must belong to some persistence unit. It must have a no arguments constructor.

A simplest possible entity has no relationships to other entities and corresponds to one database table. Each its property corresponds to a database column. Each entity must have unique id marked with the @Id annotation. Of course, unique id may be composed of multiple columns.

It is not possible to change the id once it was assigned. JPA behavior is undefined if this occurs.

JPA assumes that the table name is the same as entity class name. Use the @Table annotation to customize the table name. JPA also assumes that the column name is the same is the property name. Use the @Column annotation to customize it.

Following entity 'Person' corresponds to database table named 'person'. The @Table annotation is not necessary in this case, the names are the same. The entity has unique id 'id' which corresponds to the 'user_id' column. All remaining properties correspond to columns with the default name.

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

  @Id
  @Column(name = "user_id")
  private long id;

  private String userName;
  private String firstName;
  private String lastName;
  private String homePage;
  private String about;

  public long getId() {
    return id;
  }

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

  // all remaining getters and setters
}

Note: @Table annotation allows also customization of db schema and catalog.

Person registration in 'Simples' persistence unit in persistence.xml file:

<persistence-unit name="Simplest" transaction-type="RESOURCE_LOCAL">
  <provider>org.apache.openjpa.persistence.PersistenceProviderImpl</provider>
  <jta-data-source>jdbc/jpaDemoDB</jta-data-source>
  <!-- JPA entities must be registered here -->
  <class>org.meri.jpa.simplest.entity.Person</class>
</persistence-unit>

Corresponding database structure:

CREATE TABLE person (
    user_id INT NOT NULL, 
    username VARCHAR(1500) NOT NULL, 
    firstname VARCHAR(1500), 
    lastname VARCHAR(1500), 
    homepage VARCHAR(1500), 
    about VARCHAR(1500), 
    CONSTRAINT 
        PK_PERSON PRIMARY KEY (user_id), 
        UNIQUE (username)
);

Entity Manager Factory

Each application should have one entity manager factory per persistence unit. Entity manager factory is thread safe. It should open while application starts and close on application shutdown. As the name suggests, entity manager factory is able to create an entity manager.

Create entity manager factory corresponding to the 'Simplest' persistence unit:

private static final String PERSISTENCE_UNIT = "Simplest";

private EntityManagerFactory createFactory() {
  return Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory(PERSISTENCE_UNIT);
}

Entity Manager

Entity manager is responsible for loading, saving and otherwise managing entities. It keeps track of all loaded entities in so-called persistence context. Neither entity manager nor entities are thread safe.

This chapter shows most important entity manager features. First, we will show how to use it to load entities. Then, we will explain how to remove entities form the entity manager and how to add new entities into it. Finally, we will show how to modify the database and how to force reload of an entity.

All examples used in this chapter are available in LoadEntityTest class on Github.

Obtaining

Obtain the entity manager from the entity manager factory:

EntityManager em = getFactory().createEntityManager();

Loading

Entity manager generates SQL statements to load entities, creates entity objects and composes them into object trees. All loaded entities are cached in something called persistence context. In other words, loaded entities are attached to entity manager.

One benefit of caching in the persistence context is that entities with the same ids correspond to equal objects.

Next example uses the find method to load entities by their ids. Loaded entities are equal:

private static final BigDecimal SIMON_SLASH_ID = BigDecimal.valueOf(1);

@Test
public void entityEquality_same_EntityManager() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person1 = em.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  Person person2 = em.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em.close();
    
  //entities are equal
  assertEquals(person1, person2);
  //changes in one entity are visible in second entity
  person1.setFirstName("nobody");
  assertEquals("nobody", person2.getFirstName());
}

Different entity managers are completely independent of each other. If you use two different entity managers to load entities, they will result in two different independent objects.

Load two entities with two entity managers and compare them. They are not the same:

@Test
public void entityEquality_different_EntityManager() {
  EntityManager em1 = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person1 = em1.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em1.close();

  EntityManager em2 = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person2 = em2.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em2.close();

  //entities are different
  assertNotSame(person1, person2);
  //entities are independent
  person1.setFirstName("nobody");
  assertNotSame("nobody", person2.getFirstName());
}

Beware: Be careful about closing entity managers. It automatically detaches all entities. Detached entity looses access to all JPA features. For example, lazy loading on detached entities does not work.

Detaching Entities

Closing entity manager is not the only way how to detach all entities. Use the clear method on the entity manager to detach all entities without closing it.

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/**
 * Test the clear method of entity manager. Load an entity, 
 * clear the entity manager and load the same entity again. 
 * Loaded entities are different.
 */
@Test
public void entityEquality_cleared_EntityManager() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();

  Person person1 = em.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em.clear();
  Person person2 = em.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em.close();

  assertNotSame(person1, person2);
}

If you wish to detach only one entity, use the method detach:

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/**
 * Test the detach method of entity manager. Load an entity, 
 * detach it and load the same entity again. 
 * Loaded entities are different.
 */  
@Test
public void entityEquality_detach() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();

  Person person1 = em.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em.detach(person1);
  Person person2 = em.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em.close();

  assertNotSame(person1, person2);
}

Merge

It is not possible to re-attach detached entity. However, it is possible to merge its data back to the entity manager.

Merge will not attach the entity, it only copies all its data into entity manager. Changed data are not available in different entity manager:

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/**
 * The merge method should copy all entity data into 
 * entity manager. Entity itself in not attached nor
 * persisted.
 */
@Test
public void entityEquality_mergeInto_EntityManager() {
  //load and detach entity
  EntityManager em1 = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person1 = em1.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em1.close();

  //change its property
  person1.setFirstName("New Name");

  //merge it into some entity manager, data are copied
  EntityManager em2 = factory.createEntityManager();
  em2.merge(person1);

  //this change will be ignored
  person1.setFirstName("Ignored Change");

  //load another instance of the same person
  Person person2 = em2.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em2.close();

  //entity itself was not attached 
  assertNotSame(person1, person2);
  //before merge changes are available; after merge changes are ignored
  assertEquals("New Name", person2.getFirstName());

  // changed data are NOT available in different entity manager
  EntityManager em3 = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person3 = em3.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em3.close();

  assertNotSame("New Name", person3.getFirstName());
}

Updates, Inserts and Deletes

Modifying data stored in the database with JPA and SQL is similar. You have to open the transaction, perform updates, inserts and deletes and commit the transaction.

This chapter starts with an overview and short sections on commits, rollbacks and error handling. Each of following sections explains one persistence operation, e.g. update, insert and delete.

Overview

Entity manager monitors all changes done on attached entities. If you open and commit the transaction, entity manager will generate SQL queries corresponding to all changes and apply them to the database.

Of course, only changes done on attached entities are persisted. Detached entities are ignored.

Commit and Rollback

Just as with SQL, commit saves data into the database and rollback throws them away. However, rollback has one important side effect - it detaches all loaded entities.

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/**
 * Test the side effect of the rollback method. All 
 * loaded entities are detached.
 */
@Test
public void entityEquality_rollbacked_transaction() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
  //load entity and rollback the transaction
  em.getTransaction().begin();
  Person person1 = em.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em.getTransaction().rollback();

  //load the same entity again
  em.getTransaction().begin();
  Person person2 = em.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em.getTransaction().commit();

  em.close();
  //second entity is different from the first one
  assertNotSame(person1, person2);
}

Exceptions

If the SQL statement causes a database error, for example integrity constraint violation or unique constraint violation, JPA throws runtime exception either during the operation or during the commit.

You have to handle possible exception in both places.

Update

To update the database, change properties of an attached entity and commit a transaction.

EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
//open transaction
em.getTransaction().begin();
Person person1 = em.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
//change the entity
person.setFirstName("nobody");
//commit data
em.getTransaction().commit();

Next example updates a person and saves the change to the database. A different entity manager then loads the same person and checks the change:

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@Test 
public void updateEntity() {
  EntityManager em1 = factory.createEntityManager();
  //open transaction
  em1.getTransaction().begin();
  Person person1 = em1.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  //change the entity
  person1.setFirstName("nobody");
  //commit data
  em1.getTransaction().commit();
  em1.close();

  //load another entity
  EntityManager em2 = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person2 = em2.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em2.close();

  // entities are different
  assertNotSame(person1, person2);
  // second entity contains all commited changes
  assertEquals("nobody", person2.getFirstName());
}

Note: entity change does not have to happen in between transaction begin and commit. Following works too:

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@Test 
public void updateEntity_note() {
  EntityManager em1 = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person1 = em1.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  //change the entity
  person1.setFirstName("hello");
  //open transaction and commit data
  em1.getTransaction().begin();
  em1.getTransaction().commit();
  em1.close();

  // ... load and check ...
}

Changes on detached entities are ignored. The next test detaches an entity and commits a transaction. Changes are not saved into the database:

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@Test 
public void detachedEntity() {
  EntityManager em1 = factory.createEntityManager();
  //open transaction
  em1.getTransaction().begin();
  Person person1 = em1.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  //change and detach the entity
  person1.setFirstName("detacheEntity");
  em1.detach(person1);
  //commit data
  em1.getTransaction().commit();
  em1.close();

  //load another entity
  EntityManager em2 = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person2 = em2.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em2.close();

  // entities are different
  assertNotSame(person1, person2);
  // the change was not saved
  assertNotSame("detacheEntity", person2.getFirstName());
}

Insert

To insert a new row into the database, a corresponding entity must be introduced to the persistence context. There are two ways how to do it:

persist attaches new entity to the entity manager. This method works only if an entity with the same id does not exists,
merge adds entity data into the entity manager. The entity is not attached to the entity manager.

Use the persist method:

Person newPerson = new Person(3, "BB", "Bob", "Brandert");

EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
em.getTransaction().begin();
//persist the entity 
em.persist(newPerson);
em.getTransaction().commit();

Next test creates a new person, persists it and commits changes. Saved person is loaded with different entity manager and checked:

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@Test 
public void insertEntityPersist() {
  Person newPerson = new Person(3, "BB", "Bob", "Brandert");

  EntityManager em1 = factory.createEntityManager();
  em1.getTransaction().begin();
  //persist the entity 
  em1.persist(newPerson);
  em1.getTransaction().commit();
  //the entity was attached 
  assertTrue(em1.contains(newPerson));
  em1.close();
    
  //new entity was saved and is available to different entity manager
  EntityManager em2 = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person2 = em2.find(Person.class, 3);
  em2.close();

  // check loaded entity
  assertEquals("BB", person2.getUserName());
}

If an entity with the same id already exists, either persist or a commit method throws an exception:

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@Test 
public void insertEntityPersist_Note() {
  Person newPerson = new Person(4, "CC", "Cyntia", "Crowd");

  EntityManager em1 = factory.createEntityManager();
  em1.getTransaction().begin();
  //persist the entity 
  em1.persist(newPerson);
  em1.getTransaction().commit();
  em1.close();

  Person otherPerson = new Person(4, "CC", "Cyntia", "Crowd");
  EntityManager em2 = factory.createEntityManager();
  em2.getTransaction().begin();
  //persist the entity 
  try {
    em2.persist(otherPerson);
    em2.getTransaction().commit();
  } catch (PersistenceException ex) {
    // from the API: The EntityExistsException may be thrown 
    // when the persist operation is invoked, or the 
    // EntityExistsException or another PersistenceException 
    // may be thrown at flush or commit time.
    em2.close();
    return ;
  }
    
  fail("Either persist or commit should throw an exception.");
}

Use the merge method:

Person newPerson = new Person(2, "MM", "Martin", "Martinez");

EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
em.getTransaction().begin();
//merge entity properties into persistence context 
em.merge(newPerson);
em.getTransaction().commit();

Create a new person, merge it into the persistence context and commit changes. Merged person is loaded with different entity manager and checked:

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@Test 
public void insertEntityMerge() {
  Person newPerson = new Person(2, "MM", "Martin", "Martinez");

  EntityManager em1 = factory.createEntityManager();
  em1.getTransaction().begin();
  //merge entity properties into persistence context 
  em1.merge(newPerson);
  em1.getTransaction().commit();
  em1.close();

  //new entity was saved and is available to different entity manager
  EntityManager em2 = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person2 = em2.find(Person.class, 2);
  em2.close();

  // check loaded entity
  assertEquals("MM", person2.getUserName());
}

Delete

Use the remove method to delete an entity:

EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
    
//delete an entity
em.getTransaction().begin();
Person person1 = em1.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
em.remove(person1);
em.getTransaction().commit();

Delete the entity and check whether it was deleted:

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@Test
public void deleteEntity() {
  EntityManager em1 = factory.createEntityManager();
    
  //delete an entity
  em1.getTransaction().begin();
  Person person1 = em1.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em1.remove(person1);
  em1.getTransaction().commit();
  em1.close();

  //try to load deleted entity
  EntityManager em2 = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person2 = em2.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em2.close();

  //entity does not exist anymore
  assertNull(person2);
}

Refresh

Typically, a thread loads an entity and uses it for a while. If another thread updated the database in between, loaded data are no longer accurate.

Use the method refresh to update the entity with all changes from the database. Refreshed entity contains only freshly loaded data, e.g. any changes made to the entity are lost. The refresh method can not be used on detached entities.

EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
Person person1 = em.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
//  ...
em.refresh(person1);

Refresh test loads an entity with two different entity managers. One updates the entity and another refreshes it. The test checks whether refreshed entity contains changes:

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@Test
public void entityEquality_refresh_EntityManager() {
  // load an entity
  EntityManager em1 = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person1 = em1.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);

  // load the same entity by different entity manager
  EntityManager em2 = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person2 = em2.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);

  //change the first entity - second entity remains the same
  em1.getTransaction().begin();
  person1.setFirstName("refreshDemo");
  assertNotSame("refreshDemo", person2.getFirstName());
    
  //commit the transaction - second entity still remains the same
  em1.getTransaction().commit();
  assertNotSame("refreshDemo", person2.getFirstName());

  //refresh second entity - it changes
  em2.refresh(person2);
  assertEquals("refreshDemo", person2.getFirstName());

  em1.close();
  em2.close();
}

If the other thread deleted the entity, the refresh method throws an EntityNotFoundException exception:

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@Test
public void refreshDeletedEntity() {
  EntityManager em1 = factory.createEntityManager();
    
  //load the entity
  EntityManager em2 = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person2 = em2.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);

  //delete it
  em1.getTransaction().begin();
  Person person1 = em1.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em1.remove(person1);
  em1.getTransaction().commit();
  em1.close();

  //refresh loaded entity
  try {
    em2.refresh(person2);
  } catch(EntityNotFoundException ex) {
    return ;
  } finally {
    em2.close();
  }
    
  fail("An exception was expected.");
}

The refresh on detached entity throws an exception:

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@Test
public void refreshDetachedEntity() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person person1 = em.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);

  em.detach(person1);
  try {
    em.refresh(person1);
  } catch (IllegalArgumentException ex) {
    em.close();
    return ;
  }

 fail("An exception was expected.");
}

Relationships

JPA relationship is a reference going from one entity to another entity. In java, relationship is a property that contains entity or collection of entities. In database, relationship corresponds to foreign key between entity tables.

A Java code with relationship between person and twitter account entities. JPA annotations will be explained later:

@Entity
public class TwitterAccount {
  @ManyToOne
  private Person owner;
}

@Entity
public class Person {
  @OneToMany(mappedBy="owner")
  private Collection<TwitterAccount> twitterAccounts;
}

Before we explain which relationship types exist and how to configure them, we have to explain few terms and concepts. Some of them are frequently used in JPA documentation and needed to describe how to configure entity relationships. Others hide little traps for users, so it is better to know about them before you start to code.

Lazy Loading

Most relationships are by default lazy loaded. That means, that data are read from database only if they are needed.

@Test
public void lazyLoading() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
    
  // load the person, twitter accounts are not loaded yet
  Person simon = em.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
    
  // load twitter accounts from the database
  Collection<TwitterAccount> accounts = simon.getTwitterAccounts();
  assertEquals(2, accounts.size());

  // closing entity manager, lazy loading will not be possible anymore
  em.close();
}

This has an important consequence: if you close entity manager or detach the entity, the relationship information will not be available.

If your relationship returns null (OpenJPA) or throws an exception (Hibernate), check whether entity is still attached to the entity manager and whether entity manager was not closed by mistake. This type of error is pretty common, especially as all examples, including ours, always dutifully close used entity managers.

Closed entity manager is not able to lazy load data:

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@Test
public void lazyLoadingCloseWarning() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
  Person simon = em.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em.close();
    
  assertNull(simon.getTwitterAccounts());
}

Detached entity is not able to lazy load data:

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@Test
public void lazyLoadingDetachWarning() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();

  Person simon = em.find(Person.class, SIMON_SLASH_ID);
  em.detach(simon);
  assertNull(simon.getTwitterAccounts());
    
  em.close();
}

Bidirectional vs Unidirectional

Any relationship is either 'bidirectional' or 'unidirectional'.

Lets say the entity A references another entity B. On the java side, the reference B may or may not keep reference back to the entity A. If the entity B references the entity A, the relationship is called 'bidirectional'. If the entity B does not know about the entity A, the relationship is 'unidirectional'.

Warning: If you use bidirectional relationships, you have to ensure their consistency. If the entity A references the entity B, the entity B must reference back to A. Inconsistent bidirectional relationship may cause unpredictable JPA behavior.

Self-Consistent Entities

The safest way to achieve the consistency is to create 'smart' setters that always maintain relationship consistency.

For example, the setOwner method of the TwitterAccount class may automatically remove the twitter account from the old owner and add it to the new owner:

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/**
 * Set new twitter account owner. The method keeps 
 * relationships consistency:
 * * this account is removed from the previous owner
 * * this account is added to next owner
 * 
 * @param owner
 */
public void setOwner(Person owner) {
  //prevent endless loop
  if (sameAsFormer(owner))
    return ;
  //set new owner
  Person oldOwner = this.owner;
  this.owner = owner;
  //remove from the old owner
  if (oldOwner!=null)
    oldOwner.removeTwitterAccount(this);
  //set myself to new owner
  if (owner!=null)
    owner.addTwitterAccount(this);
}

private boolean sameAsFormer(Person newOwner) {
  return owner==null? newOwner == null : owner.equals(newOwner);
}

'Safe' person class on the other side of the relationship would not expose the twitterAccounts collection directly. Instead, it would have specialized addTwitterAccount and removeTwitterAccount methods:

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/**
 * Returns a collection with owned twitter accounts. The 
 * returned collection is a defensive copy.
 *  
 * @return a collection with owned twitter accounts
 */
public Collection<TwitterAccount> getTwitterAccounts() {
  //defensive copy, nobody will be able to change the 
  //list from the outside
  return new ArrayList<TwitterAccountBetter>(twitterAccounts);
}

/**
 * Add new account to the person. The method keeps 
 * relationships consistency:
 * * this person is set as the account owner
 */
public void addTwitterAccount(TwitterAccount account) {
  //prevent endless loop
  if (twitterAccounts.contains(account))
    return ;
  //add new account
  twitterAccounts.add(account);
  //set myself into the twitter account
  account.setOwner(this);
}

/**
 * Removes the account from the person. The method keeps 
 * relationships consistency:
 * * the account will no longer reference this person 
 *   as its owner
 */
public void removeTwitterAccount(TwitterAccount account) {
  //prevent endless loop
  if (!twitterAccounts.contains(account))
    return ;
  //remove the account
  twitterAccounts.remove(account);
  //remove myself from the twitter account
  account.setOwner(null);
}

Note: most our examples and test cases do not use the safer form. It is mostly because we wanted to keep them as simple as possible. The production code should use the safer version whenever possible.

Owning Side vs Inverse Side

The terms 'owner side' and 'inverse side' are frequently used in JPA documentation and API. They are important because it is impossible to describe how to configure entity relationships without them.

Entities correspond to database tables and their relationships should correspond to foreign keys between those tables.

If the tables are joined directly, one of them have column with foreign key pointing to the other entity. The entity stored in the table with the foreign key is called the 'owning side'. The entity referenced by the foreign key is called the 'inverse side'. Unidirectional relationship has only owning side.

If the tables are joined indirectly through some joining table, any side can be designed as the owning side. It does not matter.

Persisting Relationships

JPA assumes that the model is consistent. E.g. entities in bidirectional relationships references each other and deleted entities have been removed from all their relationships.

If you keep the model consistent, JPA will generally work as intuitively expected. Few less intuitive features are described in following sub-chapters.

Relationship Changes

The relationship between two entities is saved whenever the owner is saved. Saving the inverse does nothing to the relationship, it is only the owner who counts.

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Saving the owner is enough to save the relationship:

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@Test
public void relationshipSaveOnlyOwner_oto() {
  EntityManager em = getFactory().createEntityManager();
  // load two entities
  OneToOneOwner owner = em.find(OneToOneOwner.class, 6);
  OneToOneInverse inverse = em.find(OneToOneInverse.class, 6);
  // create a relationship between entities
  owner.setInverse(inverse);
  inverse.setOwner(owner);
  // detached inverse will be ignored by commit
  em.detach(inverse);
  em.getTransaction().begin();
  // persist only the owner - it is the only loaded entity
  em.getTransaction().commit();
  em.close();

  // relationship was saved
  EntityManager em1 = getFactory().createEntityManager();
  OneToOneInverse inverseCheck = em1.find(OneToOneInverse.class, 6);
  assertNotNull(inverseCheck.getOwner());
  em1.close();
}

Saving only the inverse does not save the relationship:

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@Test
public void relationshipSaveOnlyInverse_oto() {
  EntityManager em = getFactory().createEntityManager();
  // load two entities
  OneToOneOwner owner = em.find(OneToOneOwner.class, 7);
  OneToOneInverse inverse = em.find(OneToOneInverse.class, 7);
  // create a relationship between entities
  owner.setInverse(inverse);
  inverse.setOwner(owner);
  // detached owner will be ignored by commit
  em.detach(owner);
  em.getTransaction().begin();
  // persist only the inverse - it is the only loaded entity
  em.getTransaction().commit();
  em.close();

  // relationship was not saved
  EntityManager em1 = getFactory().createEntityManager();
  OneToOneOwner ownerCheck = em1.find(OneToOneOwner.class, 7);
  assertNull(ownerCheck.getInverse());
  em1.close();
}

Entity Dependencies

As the owners table keeps reference to the inverse table, what happen when you persist the owner before the inverse? Will it blindly follow the order in which you wrote those commands and throw an exception on foreign key violation? Will it reorder the statements so that everything works?

JPA specification does not say how smart an implementation should be. It may do either of these things. That being said, any decent JPA provider is able to automatically resolve entity dependencies. You do not have to persist or delete entities in some special order, JPA will reorder generated SQL statements so that everything works.

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/**
 * Any decent JPA provider can be configured to automatically
 * resolve relationship dependencies. However, it is not 
 * required by the specification.
 * 
 * It will reorder those inserts so that no exception is thrown.
 */
@Test
public void wrongOrder_oto() {
  // create a relationship between entities
  OneToOneOwner owner = new OneToOneOwner(888);
  OneToOneInverse inverse = new OneToOneInverse(888);
  owner.setInverse(inverse);
  inverse.setOwner(owner);

  // persist the owner first - JPA is configured to solve dependencies
  EntityManager em = getFactory().createEntityManager();
  em.getTransaction().begin();
  em.persist(owner);
  em.persist(inverse);

  em.getTransaction().commit();
  
  //check saved data
  EntityManager em1 = getFactory().createEntityManager();
  OneToOneInverse inverseCheck = em1.find(OneToOneInverse.class, 888);
  assertNotNull(inverseCheck.getOwner());
  em1.close();
}

Hibernate does that automatically, but if you use OpenJPA you have to do a little configuration.

[+] Click to Expand

OpenJPA does not correctly resolve SQL statements dependencies because it has a bug. OpenJPA by default ignores foreign keys between entity tables. You have two options to make it run.

First, you can use non-standard annotation ForeignKey. This would make the application non-portable.

Second, you can configure OpenJPA to read all foreign keys from the database. Place the openjpa.jdbc.SchemaFactory property with native(ForeignKeys=true) value into your persistence.xml:

<persistence-unit name="Cascading" transaction-type="RESOURCE_LOCAL">
 ...
 <properties>
  <!-- load foreign key information from the database -->
  <property name="openjpa.jdbc.SchemaFactory" value="native(ForeignKeys=true)"/> 
 </properties>
</persistence-unit>

Deleted Entities

If you delete an entity, you have to delete it from all relationships. JPA specification says little about what should happen if you forget to remove it from some of them.

Of course, if the owner is deleted, its relationship is deleted too. However, if the inverse is deleted, JPA behavior is undefined. Depending on the relationship configuration, the operation either throws an exception or correctly removes both entity and its relationships. What is even worst, if you use legacy database with missing foreign keys, you may end up with an inconsistent database.

The best is to keep relationships consistent. If you remove an entity, remove it also from all its relationships.

Merging New Entities

As we wrote before, you can use merge instead of persist to insert a new entity. This method has one caveat: the merge does not know what to do with a reference to a not-yet-merged entity. Instead of merging it, an exception is thrown:

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@Test
public void impossibleMergeNoCascade() {
  // create a relationship between entities
  OneToOneOwner owner = new OneToOneOwner(11);
  OneToOneInverse inverse = new OneToOneInverse(11);
  owner.setInverse(inverse);
  inverse.setOwner(owner);

  // persist only the owner
  EntityManager em = getFactory().createEntityManager();
  em.getTransaction().begin();

  try {
    em.merge(owner);
  } catch (RuntimeException ex) {
    em.getTransaction().rollback();
  }

  // check whether previous catch closed the transaction
  assertFalse(em.getTransaction().isActive());

  em.getTransaction().begin();

  try {
    em.merge(inverse);
  } catch (RuntimeException ex) {
    em.getTransaction().rollback();
    em.close();
    return;
  }

  fail("It was supposed to throw an exception (twice).");
}

Fortunately, there is a simple workaround. It requires the cascading feature which will be described in the following chapter. In short, if you configure the cascade attribute of the relationship to CascadeType.MERGE, the merge operation will merge both entities at the same time.

Cascading

Unless configured otherwise, whatever you do to an entity happens only to that entity. If you delete an entity, only that entity is deleted. Both entities referenced by it and referencing it remain in database. The same applies for merge, persist, refresh or detach.

Each relationship can be configured to cascade a selection of these five operations. A cascading operation is applied first to the specified entity. Then it is applied to all referenced entities. If their relationships cascade too, the operation is applied to all entities referenced by them, and so on.

Cascading helps to solve a lot of relationship dependencies problems. Unfortunately, it is not able to solve all of them and may have some unintended consequences.

Configuration

Each relationship annotation has the cascade attribute. Use it to set a list of cascading operations. Allowed cascading operations are listed in the CascadeType enumeration. It has six members: PERSIST, MERGE, REMOVE, REFRESH, DETACH and ALL.

For example, following relationship cascades merge and persist operations on one side and all operations on the other side:

@Entity
public class CascadeOneToOneOwner {
  @OneToOne(cascade=CascadeType.ALL)
  private CascadeOneToOneInverse inverse;
}

@Entity
public class CascadeOneToOneInverse {
 @OneToOne(mappedBy="inverse", cascade={CascadeType.MERGE, CascadeType.PERSIST})
  private CascadeOneToOneOwner owner;
}

Limitation

Any cascade type can be used in combination with any relationship with one exception: the REMOVE can be used only with OneToOne and OneToMany relationships.

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Quote from the specification, page 41: The relationship modeling annotation constrains the use of the cascade=REMOVE specification. The cascade=REMOVE specification should only be applied to associations that are specified as OneToOne or OneToMany. Applications that apply cascade=REMOVE to other associations are not portable.

Merge Problem

Cascading can nicely solve the 'merge of new entities with relationship' problem. Recall the problem: if the merged entity references another not-yet-merged entity, the merge operation throws an exception.

However, the merge works if it cascades through the relationship. JPA implementation will merge both entities within one operation. It will also create a relationship between them.

Configure the cascade attribute of the relationship to CascadeType.MERGE and the merge will work:

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@Test
public void mergeInverse() {
  // create a relationship between entities
  CascadeOneToOneOwner owner = new CascadeOneToOneOwner(10);
  CascadeOneToOneInverse inverse = new CascadeOneToOneInverse(10);
  owner.setInverse(inverse);
  inverse.setOwner(owner);

  // persist only the inverse
  EntityManager em = getFactory().createEntityManager();
  em.getTransaction().begin();
  em.merge(inverse);
  em.getTransaction().commit();
  em.close();

  // the merge operation was cascaded to the owner too
  // the owner was saved to the database
  assertEntityExists(CascadeOneToOneOwner.class, 10);
}

@Test
public void mergeOwner() {
  // create a relationship between entities
  CascadeOneToOneOwner owner = new CascadeOneToOneOwner(12);
  CascadeOneToOneInverse inverse = new CascadeOneToOneInverse(12);
  owner.setInverse(inverse);
  inverse.setOwner(owner);

  // persist only the owner
  EntityManager em = getFactory().createEntityManager();
  em.getTransaction().begin();
  em.merge(owner);
  em.getTransaction().commit();

  // the merge operation was cascaded to the inverse too
  // the inverse was saved to the database
  assertEntityExists(CascadeOneToOneInverse.class, 12);
}

Caution

It might be tempting to cascade all operations on all relationships. However, that is a bad idea for two reasons. First, that would badly affect the performance. Each operation would have potential to cascade to very large number of objects, potentially whole object graph.

The cascading of remove and persist operations applies also on those entities that have not been loaded yet. It even passes through them to other entities, potentially traversing through whole object graph.

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The class CascadingTestCase located on Github contains two tests proving this claim.

Both tests assume that database contains a three etities: first, second and third. They reference each other via cascading relationships and all three have the same id.

Proof that delete cascades through unloaded entities:

@Test
public void cascadeDeleteThroughUnloaded() {
  // check the data: first, second and third entities are 
  // chained and have the same id
  checkRemoveChain(1);

  // remove first entity
  EntityManager em = getFactory().createEntityManager();
  em.getTransaction().begin();
  CascadeRemoveFirst first = em.find(CascadeRemoveFirst.class, 1);
  em.remove(first);
  em.getTransaction().commit();
  em.close();

  // both second and third entities have been removed
  // Note: neither one was loaded by the original entity manager
  assertEntityNOTExists(CascadeRemoveSecond.class, 1);
  assertEntityNOTExists(CascadeRemoveThird.class, 1);
}

A test proving that persist cascades through unloaded entities is named cascadePersistThroughUnloaded. It is available in the same class.

The cascading of refresh, merge and detach passes only through entities that are already loaded.

[+] Click to Expand

The class CascadingTestCase located on Github contains three tests proving this claim.

All three tests assume that database contains a three etities: first, second and third. They reference each other via cascading relationships and all three have the same id.

Proof that detach does not cascade through unloaded entities:

@Test
public void cascadeDetachThroughUnloaded() {
  // check the data: first, second and third entities are 
  // chained and have the same id
  checkChain(2);

  EntityManager em = getFactory().createEntityManager();
  // load both first and third element of chain
  CascadeFirst first = em.find(CascadeFirst.class, 2);
  CascadeThird third = em.find(CascadeThird.class, 2);
  // detach first element
  em.detach(first);
  // only first element was detached
  // detach operation does not cascade through unloaded elements
  assertFalse(em.contains(first));
  assertTrue(em.contains(third));
  em.close();
}

A tests proving that merge and refrest do not cascade through unloaded entities are named cascadeMergeThroughUnloaded and cascadeRefreshThroughUnloaded. Both are available in the same class.

Second, the operation might cascade to unintended entities. For example, you might remove one entity and persist another. If the persist operation cascades too far, it will resurrect removed entity back to life.

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Resurrect removed entity test:

@Test
public void ressurectDeletedEntity() {
  EntityManager em = getFactory().createEntityManager();
  em.getTransaction().begin();
  // load two related entities
  CascadeOneToOneOwner owner = em.find(CascadeOneToOneOwner.class, 2);
  CascadeOneToOneInverse inverse = owner.getInverse();
  //delete one of them
  em.remove(owner);
  //new entity demo references second one
  CascadePersistDemo demo = new CascadePersistDemo(2);
  demo.setInverse(inverse);
  //persist the demo
  em.persist(demo);
  em.getTransaction().commit();
  em.close();
    
  //the persist operation cascaded through the 'inverse'
  //to the removed 'owner'. The owner was not deleted.
  assertEntityExists(CascadeOneToOneOwner.class, 2);
}

Configuration Overview

Each relationship property must be marked by one of @OneToOne, @OneToMany, @ManyToOne and @ManyToMany annotations. Each of these four annotations define defaults for underlying database structure, so theoretically no other configuration is needed.

Of course, database columns, tables and foreign keys are configurable. If you are not satisfied with defaults, use one of @JoinColumn, @JoinColumns, @JoinTable, @PrimaryKeyJoinColumn and @PrimaryKeyJoinColumns annotations to customize. These configuration annotations are allowed only on the 'owning side'. If you try to use them on the 'inverse side', JPA will throw an exception.

Each sub-chapter of this chapter contain short overview on one of relationship annotations. The overview always describes the relationship type and contains an example. All other details are explained in following chapters.

OneToOne

Each annotated entity references only one entity. Each opposite side entity is referenced by one owning entity.

Example: A person may have only one Facebook account and each Facebook account is owned by one person.

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@Entity
public class FacebookAccount {
  @OneToOne
  private Person owner;
}

@Entity
public class Person {
  @OneToOne(mappedBy="owner")
  private FacebookAccount facebookAccount;
}

OneToMany

Each annotated entity can reference multiple entities. However, the opposite side entity may NOT be referenced by multiple entities.

Example: A person may have any number of Twitter accounts. However, each Twitter account is owned by one person.

[+] Click to Expand

@Entity
public class TwitterAccount {
  @ManyToOne
  private Person owner;
}

@Entity
public class Person {
  @OneToMany(mappedBy="owner")
  private Collection<TwitterAccount> twitterAccounts;
}

ManyToOne

The opposite of one-to-many relationship. The annotated entity can reference only one entity. However, any opposite side entity may be referenced by multiple entities.

Example: Each Twitter account is owned by one person. However, a person may have any number of Twitter accounts.

[+] Click to Expand

@Entity
public class TwitterAccount {
  @ManyToOne
  private Person owner;
}

@Entity
public class Person {
  @OneToMany(mappedBy="owner")
  private Collection<TwitterAccount> twitterAccounts;
}

ManyToMany

Each annotated entity references multiple entities. Each opposite side entity can be referenced by any number of annotated entities.

Example: Each person may follow any number of twitter accounts. Each twitter account may be followed by any number of people.

[+] Click to Expand

@Entity
public class TwitterAccount {
  @ManyToMany
  private Set<Person> followers;
}

@Entity
public class Person {
  @ManyToMany(mappedBy="followers")
  @MapKey(name="accountName")
  private Map<String, TwitterAccount> twitterFollowing;
}

One-To-One

Two entity classes have one-to-one relationship if each entity on one side corresponds to one entity on the other side.

For example, a person and its Facebook account have one-to-one relationship. The person may have only one Facebook account and each Facebook account is owned by one person.

Basic Configuration

To create bidirectional relationship, place the @OneToOne annotation on both sides of the relationship. Decide where you want to keep the joining column. That side is going to be the owner.

The inverse side must specify the mappedBy annotation attribute. If it is missing, JPA treats the relationship as two separate unidirectional relationships. The attribute contains the name of the owners property that keeps the relationship.

The owner side can not have the mappedBy attribute specified.

@Entity
public class OneToOneOwner {
  @OneToOne
  private OneToOneInverse inverse;
}

@Entity
public class OneToOneInverse {
  @OneToOne(mappedBy="inverse")
  private OneToOneOwner owner;
}

To create unidirectional relationship, place the @OneToOne annotation on the only side of the relationship. This side is going to be the owner.

Default Database Structure

Unless configured otherwise, JPA assumes that the owner table contains a column named PROPERTYNAME_ID. This column should contain references to the inverse side entity.

The previous relationship corresponds to following db structure:

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CREATE TABLE onetooneowner (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  inverse_id INT, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_ONETOONEOWNER PRIMARY KEY (id), UNIQUE (inverse_id)
);

CREATE TABLE onetooneinverse (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_ONETOONEINVERSE PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

ALTER TABLE onetooneowner 
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_onetooneownerinverse FOREIGN KEY (inverse_id) 
REFERENCES onetooneinverse (id);

Optional

If the annotation attribute optional is set to false, the relationship is mandatory. The entity must reference another entity. Relationship property can not be null.

If you try to persist an entity with empty mandatory property, JPA will throw an undocumented runtime exception.

[+] Click to Expand

@Test
public void mandatoryOneToOne_inverse() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
  em.getTransaction().begin();
    
  LazyOneToOneInverse inverse = new LazyOneToOneInverse(10);
  try {
    em.persist(inverse);
    em.getTransaction().commit();
  } catch (RuntimeException ex) {
    em.close();
    return ;
  }
    
  fail("The transaction was supposed to fail.");
}

Owner with mandatory relationship is tested in similar test named mandatoryOneToOne_owner. It is defined in OneToOneTestCase test case available on Github.

Loading

One-to-one relationship is eagerly loaded. Lazy loading is possible only on the owner side and only if the relationship is not optional, e.g. the optional annotation attribute is set to false.

Lazily loading owner:

@Entity
public class LazyOneToOneOwner {
  @OneToOne(optional=false,fetch=FetchType.LAZY)
  private LazyOneToOneInverse inverse;
}

Test verifying the owner:

[+] Click to Expand

@Test
public void lazyOneToOne_owner() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
    
  LazyOneToOneOwner owner = em.find(LazyOneToOneOwner.class, 1);
  em.close();
    
  //The relation ship is lazily loaded and the manager is already closed
  assertNull(owner.getInverse());
}

The inverse side was set to lazy too:

public class LazyOneToOneInverse {
  //lazy loading on the inverse side DOES NOT WORK
  //the parameter fetch=FetchType.LAZY is useless here
  @OneToOne(mappedBy="inverse",optional=false,fetch=FetchType.LAZY)
  private LazyOneToOneOwner owner;
}

This side of the relationship is still eagerly loaded:

[+] Click to Expand

@Test
  public void lazyOneToOne_inverse() {
    EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
    
    OneToOneInverse owner = em.find(OneToOneInverse.class, 5);
    em.close();
    
    //lazy loading is possible only on the owner side
    assertEquals(1, owner.getOwner().getId());
  }

Cascading

All cascading types are compatible with one-to-one relationship.

Consistency

If the relationship is bidirectional, you are responsible for keeping it consistent. The safe way how to do it, is to let setters keep their own consistency.

[+] Click to Expand

One possible way how to write safe setters is available in org.meri.jpa.relationships.entities.bestpractice package in our demo project. Related test case is in class SafeRelationshipsTestCase.

@Entity
public class Person {

  @OneToOne(mappedBy = "owner")
  private FacebookAccount facebookAccount;

  public void setFacebookAccount(FacebookAccount facebookAccount) {
    //prevent endless loop
    if (sameAsFormer(facebookAccount))
      return;
    //set new facebook account
    FacebookAccount oldAccount = this.facebookAccount;
    this.facebookAccount = facebookAccount;
    //remove from the old facebook account
    if (oldAccount!=null)
      oldAccount.setOwner(null);
    //set myself into new facebook account
    if (facebookAccount!=null)
      facebookAccount.setOwner(this);
  }

  private boolean sameAsFormer(SafeFacebookAccount newAccount) {
    return facebookAccount == null ? 
      newAccount == null : facebookAccount.equals(newAccount);
  }

}

@Entity
public class FacebookAccount {
  // ... analogique to the person ...
}

Custom Join Column

Use the annotation @JoinColumn if you wish to customize database column name. This annotation must be used on the owner side.

The following example uses a customcolumn database column instead of the default one:

@Entity
public class ColumnOneToOneOwner {
  @OneToOne
  @JoinColumn(name="customcolumn")
  private ColumnOneToOneInverse inverse;
}

@Entity
public class ColumnOneToOneInverse {
  @Id
  @Column(name="inverse_id")
  private long id;

  @OneToOne(mappedBy="inverse")
  private ColumnOneToOneOwner owner;
}

Note: the @JoinColumn annotation has referencedColumnName attribute. It is not needed in this context. JPA will use id column of the inverse entity, even if it was renamed.

Coresponding database structure:

[+] Click to Expand

CREATE TABLE onetooneowner (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  customcolumn INT, 
  CONSTRAINT 
    PK_ONETOONEOWNER PRIMARY KEY (id), 
    UNIQUE (customcolumn)
);

CREATE TABLE onetooneinverse (
  inverse_id INT NOT NULL, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_ONETOONEINVERSE PRIMARY KEY (inverse_id)
);

ALTER TABLE onetooneowner 
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_onetooneownerinverse FOREIGN KEY (customcolumn) 
REFERENCES onetooneinverse (inverse_id);

Warning: the annotation @JoinColumn has also a table attribute. This attribute is incompatible with one-to-one relationship. Theoretically, it should contain the name of the table that contains the column. We tried it twice and each attempt resulted in a weird SQL when we tried to load an entity.

[+] Click to Expand

First attempt switched owner and inverse tables:

@JoinColumn(name="customcolumn", table="ColumnOneToOneInverse")

Resulting load owner SQL ignored the customcolumn column:

SELECT t1.id, t2.id 
FROM ColumnOneToOneOwner t0 
INNER JOIN ColumnOneToOneInverse t1 ON t0.INVERSE_ID = t1.id 
LEFT OUTER JOIN ColumnOneToOneOwner t2 ON t1.id = t2.INVERSE_ID

Second attempt introduced a new table 'bumbum':

@JoinColumn(name="customcolumn", table="bumbum")

JPA produced SQL that does full join on the owner table:

SELECT t1.id, t3.id 
FROM bumbum t0 
INNER JOIN ColumnOneToOneInverse t1 ON t0.INVERSE_ID = t1.id 
LEFT OUTER JOIN bumbum t2 ON t1.id = t2.INVERSE_ID
, ColumnOneToOneOwner t3 
WHERE t0.OWNER_ID = ?

Custom Join Table

It is not possible to implement one-to-one relationship between two entities with a joining table. First of all, it is neither a good design nor a good idea. If you have a legacy database or have no say over database structure, you will have to use other then one-to-one relationship type in your model.

It might be tempting to use either @JoinTable annotation or the table attribute of the @JoinColumn annotation. Neither one works.

[+] Click to Expand

According to JPA API, the @JoinTable annotation should be placed on the owning side of a many-to-many association, or in an unidirectional one-to-many association. One-to-one relationship is not listed. We tried it anyway, just to see whether the thing works.

The test method insertUpdateLoadTableOneToOne is available in the OneToOneTestCase class on Github.

Insert, update and load of the owner entity work correctly. However, load of the inverse entity does not work. It generates three selects and two of them perform full join of two tables:

// this is OK
SELECT t0.inverse_id FROM TableOneToOneInverse t0 WHERE t0.inverse_id = ?

//full join!!
SELECT t1.owner_id FROM TableOneToOneJoin t0, TableOneToOneOwner t1 
WHERE t0.join_inverse_id = ?

// another full join
SELECT t1.inverse_id, t3.owner_id 
FROM TableOneToOneJoin t0 
INNER JOIN TableOneToOneInverse t1 ON t0.join_inverse_id = t1.inverse_id 
LEFT OUTER JOIN TableOneToOneJoin t2 ON t1.inverse_id = t2.join_inverse_id, TableOneToOneOwner t3 
WHERE t0.join_owner_id = ?

Join Trough Primary Key

Finally, it is possible to join entities through their primary keys. There is no special join column, entities are in relationship if their primary keys are equal. Place @PrimaryKeyJoinColumn annotation on the owner side:

@Entity
public class PrimaryOneToOneOwner {
  @OneToOne
  @PrimaryKeyJoinColumn
  private PrimaryOneToOneInverse inverse;
}

@Entity
public class PrimaryOneToOneInverse {
  @OneToOne(mappedBy="inverse")
  private PrimaryOneToOneOwner owner;
}

Corresponding database structure:

[+] Click to Expand

CREATE TABLE primaryonetooneowner (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_PRIMARYONETOONEOWNER PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

CREATE TABLE primaryonetooneinverse (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_PRIMARYONETOONEINVERSE PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

ALTER TABLE primaryonetooneowner 
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_primaryonetooneownerinverse FOREIGN KEY (id) 
REFERENCES primaryonetooneinverse (id);

Bidirectional One-To-Many / Many-To-One

One-to-many and many-to-one relationships are opposites of each other. If one side of the relationship is one-to-many, the other side must be many-to-one. Of course, the same goes the other way round. The opposite of many-to-one must be one-to-many.

The one-to-many side is able to reference any number of entities and keeps them in collection or in map. However, each instance in the many-to-one side can reference only one entity.

For example, a person and its Twitter accounts have this type of relationship. The person may have any number of Twitter accounts. Each Twitter account is owned by one person.

Basic Configuration

The property referencing multiple entities must be a Collection, a List, a Set or a Map. No other type is allowed. Mark it with @OneToMany annotation. This is the inverse side and must specify the mappedBy annotation attribute.

The side referencing only one entity is the owner and must be annotated with the @ManyToOne annotation.

If the inverse side property is either a List, a Set or a Collection, nothing else is needed.

@Entity
public class CollectionOwner {
  @ManyToOne
  private CollectionInverse inverse;
}

@Entity
public class CollectionInverse {
  @OneToMany(mappedBy="inverse")
  private Collection<CollectionOwner> owners;
}

If the inverse side property is a Map, the owner must have a property which contains a map key. Place also @MapKey annotation on the map. Annotation attribute name must contain the name of the property with a key:

@Entity
public class MapOwner {
  @Id
  private long id;
  private String mapKey;
  @ManyToOne
  private MapInverse inverse;
}

@Entity
public class MapInverse {
  @OneToMany(mappedBy="inverse")
  @MapKey(name="mapKey")
  private Map<String, MapOwner> owners;
}

The property specified in @MapKey will be used as a key to the map:

[+] Click to Expand

@Test
public void basicMap() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
    
  MapOwner owner = em.find(MapOwner.class, 1);
  MapInverse inverse = owner.getInverse();

  // mapKey property is a key to the map
  Map<String, MapOwner> owners = inverse.getOwners();
  assertEquals(owner, owners.get(owner.getMapKey()));
    
  em.close();
}

Default Database Structure

Unless configured otherwise, JPA assumes that the owners table, e.g. the one with entities on ManyToOne side, contains a column named PROPERTYNAME_ID. This column should contain references to the inverse side entity.

If a Map is used, the owner table must contain also a column corresponding to the map key property. The map key property should be unique.

Db structure for a version with a collection:

[+] Click to Expand

CREATE TABLE collectionowner (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  inverse_id INT, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_COLLECTIONOWNER PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

CREATE TABLE collectioninverse (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_COLLECTIONINVERSE PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

ALTER TABLE collectionowner 
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_collectionownerinverse FOREIGN KEY (inverse_id) 
REFERENCES collectioninverse (id);

Db structure for a version with a map:

[+] Click to Expand

CREATE TABLE mapowner (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  mapkey VARCHAR(1500) NOT NULL,
  inverse_id INT, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_MAPOWNER PRIMARY KEY (id), 
  UNIQUE (mapkey)
);

CREATE TABLE mapinverse (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_MAPINVERSE PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

ALTER TABLE mapowner 
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_mapownerinverse FOREIGN KEY (inverse_id) 
REFERENCES mapinverse (id);

Loading

The owner, e.g. @ManyToOne side of the relationship, is eagerly loading by default.

[+] Click to Expand

@Test
public void eagerLoadingCollection() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
    
  CollectionOwner owner = em.find(CollectionOwner.class, 1);
  em.close();

  //this side is eagerly loaded by default
  CollectionInverse inverse = owner.getInverse();
  assertEquals(5, inverse.getId());
}

Unlike in one-to-one relationship, it is possible to configure it to be lazy:

@ManyToOne(fetch=FetchType.LAZY)
private LazyInverse inverse;

[+] Click to Expand

@Test
public void lazyLoadingCollection() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
    
  LazyOwner owner = em.find(LazyOwner.class, 1);
  em.close();

  // it is possible to configure it to be lazy
  assertNull(owner.getInverse());
}

Cascading

All cascading types are compatible with one-to-many side of the relationship. The opposite many-to-one side does not support the REMOVE cascade type. It supports only PERSIST, MERGE, REFRESH and DETACH.

Consistency

You are responsible for keeping the relationship consistent. The safe way how to do it, is to hide the collection or map and expose only safe consistency keeping methods.

[+] Click to Expand

One possible way how to write safe accessor methods is available in org.meri.jpa.relationships.entities.bestpractice package in our demo project. Related test case is named SafeRelationshipsTestCase.

The example with a collection:

@Entity
public class Person {

  @OneToMany(mappedBy = "owner")
  private Collection<TwitterAccount> twitterAccounts = 
    new ArrayList<SafeTwitterAccount>();

  /**
   * Returns a collection with owned twitter accounts. The 
   * returned collection is a defensive copy.
   *  
   * @return a collection with owned twitter accounts
   */
  public Collection<TwitterAccount> getTwitterAccounts() {
    //defensive copy, nobody will be able to change 
    //the list from the outside
    return new ArrayList<TwitterAccount>(twitterAccounts);
  }

  /**
   * Add new account to the person. The method keeps 
   * relationships consistency:
   * * this person is set as the account owner
   */
  public void addTwitterAccount(TwitterAccount account) {
    //prevent endless loop
    if (twitterAccounts.contains(account))
      return ;
    //add new account
    twitterAccounts.add(account);
    //set myself into the twitter account
    account.setOwner(this);
  }
  
  /**
   * Removes the account from the person. The method keeps 
   * relationships consistency:
   * * the account will no longer reference this person as its owner
   */
  public void removeTwitterAccount(TwitterAccount account) {
    //prevent endless loop
    if (!twitterAccounts.contains(account))
      return ;
    //remove the account
    twitterAccounts.remove(account);
    //remove myself from the twitter account
    account.setOwner(null);
  }

}

@Entity 
public class FacebookAccount {
  /**
   * Set new twitter account owner. The method keeps 
   * relationships consistency:
   * * this account is removed from the previous owner
   * * this account is added to next owner
   * 
   * @param owner
   */
  public void setOwner(SafePerson owner) {
    //prevent endless loop
    if (sameAsFormer(owner))
      return ;
    //set new owner
    SafePerson oldOwner = this.owner;
    this.owner = owner;
    //remove from the old owner
    if (oldOwner!=null)
      oldOwner.removeTwitterAccount(this);
    //set myself to new owner
    if (owner!=null)
      owner.addTwitterAccount(this);
  }

  private boolean sameAsFormer(SafePerson newOwner) {
    return owner==null? newOwner == null : owner.equals(newOwner);
  }

}

Additionally, if you used a map, be careful about changing the value of the map key property.

[+] Click to Expand

The next example shows one possible way how to write safe map key setter. It assumes that the opposite entity keeps twitter accounts in a map instead of collection. The accountName is the key to the map.

public void setAccountName(String accountName) {
  SafePerson myOwner = owner;
  myOwner.removeTwitterAccount(this);
  this.accountName = accountName;
  myOwner.addTwitterAccount(this);
}

This method has one drawback: depending on the JPA implementation, it may cause unnecessary database calls.

Optional

The @ManyToOne annotation has the attribute optional. If it is set to false, the relationship is mandatory. The entity must reference another entity. Relationship property can not be null.

If you try to persist an entity with empty mandatory property, JPA will throw an undocumented runtime exception.

The opposite @OneToMany annotation does not have such attribute.

Orphan Removal

An orphan in a bidirectional one-to-many many-to-one relationship is an owner entity that does not belong to the collection or map on the inverse side. In other words, an orphan is entity on the many-to-one side that does not reference an entity on the one-to-many side.

If the orphanRemoval attribute of @OneToMany annotation is set to true, JPA will automatically delete orphans. If you remove an entity from the annotated collection or map, JPA will delete it from the database.

Set orphan removal:

@OneToMany(mappedBy="inverse", orphanRemoval=true)
@MapKey(name="mapKey")
private Map<String, OrphanOwner> owners;

Delete the 'first' entity:

// load the inverse
OrphanInverse inverse = em.find(OrphanInverse.class, 5);
// remove the 'first' owner
inverse.getOwners().remove("first");
// commit the transaction and close manager
em.getTransaction().commit();

Expand to see full orphan removal test:

[+] Click to Expand

@Test
public void orphanRemoval() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
  em.getTransaction().begin();
  // load the inverse
  OrphanInverse inverse = em.find(OrphanInverse.class, 5);
  // check whether the owner exists
  assertEquals(1, inverse.getOwners().get("first").getId());
  // remove the owner
  inverse.getOwners().remove("first");
  // commit the transaction and close manager
  em.getTransaction().commit();
  em.close();
  
  // owner without inverse has been removed
  assertEntityNOTExists(OrphanOwner.class, 1);
}

Ordering

If the one-to-many side of the relationship is a list, it may be sorted with the @OrderBy annotation. If you put property name followed by ASC or DESC into its value, JPA will use it to sort loaded entities. If you need multiple sorting properties, separate them with comma ','.

Sort by the ordering property. Entities with equal ordering property are sorted by id:

@Entity
public class OrderedInverse {
  @Id
  private long id;

  @OneToMany(mappedBy="inverse")
  @OrderBy("ordering ASC, id DESC")
  private List<OrderedOwner> owners;
}

@Entity
public class OrderedOwner {
  @Id
  private long id;
  @Column(name="orderby")
  private long ordering;

  @ManyToOne
  private OrderedInverse inverse;
}

The test of ordering is available in OneToMany_ManyToOneTestCase test case.

Custom Columns

Use the annotation @JoinColumn if you wish to customize the join column name. Map key column name is customized using the @Column annotations.

Following example uses a customcolumn database column instead of the default one:

@Entity
public class CustomColumnCollectionOwner {
  private String mapKey;
  @ManyToOne
  @JoinColumn(name="customcolumn")
  private CustomColumnCollectionInverse inverse;
}

@Entity
public class CustomColumnCollectionInverse {
  @OneToMany(mappedBy="inverse")
  private Collection<CustomColumnCollectionOwner> owners;
}

Coresponding database structure:

[+] Click to Expand

CREATE TABLE customcolumncollectionowner (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  customcolumn INT, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_CUSTOMCOLUMNCOLLECTIONOWNER PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

CREATE TABLE customcolumncollectioninverse (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_CUSTOMCOLUMNCOLLECTIONINVERSE PRIMARY KEY (id));

ALTER TABLE customcolumncollectionowner 
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_customcolumncollectionownerinverse FOREIGN KEY (customcolumn) 
REFERENCES customcolumncollectioninverse (id);

Next example uses a customcolumn and customMapKey database columns instead of default ones:

@Entity
public class CustomColumnMapOwner {
  @Column(name="customMapKey")
  private String mapKey;

  @ManyToOne
  @JoinColumn(name="customcolumn")
  private CustomColumnMapInverse inverse;
}

@Entity
public class CustomColumnMapInverse {
  @OneToMany(mappedBy="inverse")
  @MapKey(name="mapKey")
  private Map<String, CustomColumnMapOwner> owners;
}

Coresponding database structure:

[+] Click to Expand

CREATE TABLE customcolumnmapowner (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  custommapkey VARCHAR(1500) NOT NULL, 
  customcolumn INT, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_CUSTOMCOLUMNMAPOWNER PRIMARY KEY (id), 
  UNIQUE (custommapkey)
);

CREATE TABLE customcolumnmapinverse (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_CUSTOMCOLUMNMAPINVERSE PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

ALTER TABLE customcolumnmapowner 
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_customcolumnmapownerinverse FOREIGN KEY (customcolumn) 
REFERENCES customcolumnmapinverse (id);

Note: the @JoinColumn annotation has referencedColumnName attribute. It is not needed in this context. JPA will use id column of the inverse entity.

Warning: the annotation @JoinColumn has also a table attribute. This attribute is incompatible with many-to-one relationship. Do not use it.

Custom Join Table

It is not possible to implement bidirectional one-to-many many-to-one relationship between two entities with a joining table. First of all, it is neither a good design nor a good idea. If you have a legacy database or have no say over database structure, you will have to use other relationship type in your model.

It might be tempting to use either @JoinTable annotation or the table attribute of the @JoinColumn annotation. Neither one works.

Unidirectional Many-To-One

Unidirectional many-to-one relationship is exactly the same as the bidirectional version. The only difference is, that the inverse side does not have references to its owners.

Unidirectional relationship:

@Entity
public class UnidirectionalManyToOneOwner {
  @ManyToOne
  private UnidirectionalManyToOneInverse inverse;
}

@Entity
public class UnidirectionalManyToOneInverse {
  // nothing special in here
}

Unidirectional One-To-Many

Annotated property in an unidirectional one-to-many relationship can reference any number of entities. It is the owner and may keep them either in a collection or in a map. Even through there is no reference back, each entity on the other side can be owned by only one entity.

Basic Configuration

The annotated property must be a Collection, a List, a Set or a Map. No other type is allowed. Mark it with @OneToMany annotation.

If a List, a Set or a Collection is used, nothing else is needed:

@Entity
public class OneToManyOwner {
  @OneToMany
  private Collection<onetomanyinverse> inverses;
}

@Entity
public class OneToManyInverse {
  // nothing special in here
}

If a Map is used, the other side must have a property which contains a map key. Place also @MapKey annotation on the map. Annotation attribute name must contain the name of the property with a key:

@Entity
public class MapOneToManyOwner {
  @OneToMany
  @MapKey(name="mapKey")
  private Map<String, MapOneToManyInverse> owners;
}

@Entity
public class MapOneToManyInverse {
  private String mapKey;
}

The property specified in @MapKey will be used as a key to the map, the same way as in bidirectional version:

[+] Click to Expand

@Test
public void basicMap() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
    
  MapOneToManyOwner owner = em.find(MapOneToManyOwner.class, 1);
  MapOneToManyInverse inverse = em.find(MapOneToManyInverse.class, 5);
    
  // mapKey property is a key to the map
  Map<String, MapOneToManyInverse> inverses = owner.getInverses();
  assertEquals(inverse, inverses.get(inverse.getMapKey()));
    
  em.close();
}

Default Database Structure

Unless configured otherwise, JPA assumes that the relationship is kept in a table named OwnerTableName_InverseTableName.

The table should have two foreign key columns:

The column OwnerPropertyName_inversePrimaryKeyColumnName contains ids of inverse entities. It should have foreign key to the inverse table and have UNIQUE constraint on it.
The column OwnerClassName_ownerPrimaryKeyColumnName contains owner id and should have foreign key to the owners table.

If a Map is used, the inverse table must contain also a column corresponding to the map key property. The map key property should be unique.

Db structure for a version with a collection:

[+] Click to Expand

OneToManyOwner (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_ONETOMANYOWNER PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

CREATE TABLE OneToManyInverse (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_ONETOMANYINVERSE PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

CREATE TABLE OneToManyOwner_OneToManyInverse (
  inverses_id INT NOT NULL, 
  OneToManyOwner_id INT NOT NULL, 
  UNIQUE (inverses_id)
);

ALTER TABLE OneToManyOwner_OneToManyInverse 
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_OneToManyInverse 
FOREIGN KEY (inverses_id) REFERENCES OneToManyInverse (id);

ALTER TABLE OneToManyOwner_OneToManyInverse 
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_OneToManyOwner
FOREIGN KEY (OneToManyOwner_id) REFERENCES OneToManyOwner (id);

Db structure for a version with a map:

[+] Click to Expand

CREATE TABLE MapOneToManyOwner (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_MAPONETOMANYOWNER PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

CREATE TABLE MapOneToManyInverse (
  id INT NOT NULL, 
  mapkey VARCHAR(1500) NOT NULL, 
  CONSTRAINT PK_MAPONETOMANYINVERSE PRIMARY KEY (id),
  UNIQUE (mapkey)
);

CREATE TABLE MapOneToManyOwner_MapOneToManyInverse (
  MapOneToManyOwner_id INT NOT NULL, 
  inverses_id INT NOT NULL, 
  UNIQUE (inverses_id)
);

ALTER TABLE MapOneToManyOwner_MapOneToManyInverse 
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_MapOneToManyInverse 
FOREIGN KEY (inverses_id) REFERENCES MapOneToManyInverse (id);

ALTER TABLE MapOneToManyOwner_MapOneToManyInverse 
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_MapOneToManyOwner 
FOREIGN KEY (MapOneToManyOwner_id) REFERENCES MapOneToManyOwner (id);

Note: latest OpenJPA implementation (2.1.1) has a bug:

[+] Click to Expand

The name of the column referencing the inverse is wrong. OpenJPA uses element_id as a default column name for the this column.

Loading

Unidirectional one-to-many relationship is lazy loading by default.

Cascading

All cascading types are compatible with unidirectional one-to-many relationship.

Consistency

Each inverse can be referenced by only one owner entity. You are responsible for keeping it this way. The safe way how to do it, is to set the inverse column in the joining table as UNIQUE. JPA will throw an exception if somebody tries to save incorrect data.

Additionally, if you used a map, be careful about changing the value of the map key property. As the inverse has no reference to the owner, it is not possible to write safe setter. Be aware of the issue.

Orphan Removal

An orphan in an unidirectional one-to-many relationship is an inverse entity that has no owner. It is the same thing as the orphan in the bidirectional version, only the sides changed.

If the orphanRemoval attribute of @OneToMany annotation is set to true, JPA will automatically delete orphans. In other words, if you remove the entity from the annotated collection or map, JPA will delete it from the database.

Set orphan removal:

@OneToMany(orphanRemoval=true)
private Collection<OrphanOneToManyInverse> inverses;

Delete all inverses referenced by the owner:

// load the owner and create orphan
OrphanOneToManyOwner owner = em.find(OrphanOneToManyOwner.class, 1);
owner.getInverses().clear();
// commit the transaction - referenced entities are removed
em.getTransaction().commit();

Expand to see full orphan removal test:

[+] Click to Expand

@Test
public void orphanRemovalOneToMany() {
  // check initial data - inverse is available
  assertEntityExists(OrphanOneToManyInverse.class, 5);

  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
  // load the owner and inverse
  OrphanOneToManyOwner owner;
  owner = em.find(OrphanOneToManyOwner.class, 1);
  OrphanOneToManyInverse inverse;
  inverse = em.find(OrphanOneToManyInverse.class, 5);

  // remove orphan
  em.getTransaction().begin();
  owner.getInverses().remove(inverse);
  // commit the transaction and close manager
  em.getTransaction().commit();
  em.close();
  
  // inverse without owner has been removed
  assertEntityNOTExists(OrphanOneToManyInverse.class, 5);
}

Custom Join Column

The @JoinColumn annotation is not compatible with the unidirectional one-to-many relationship. It may seem to work in some contexts, but it fails in others.

[+] Click to Expand

We used the @JoinColumn annotation to annotate the relationship between the ColumnOneToManyOwner and the ColumnOneToManyInverse tables. Following test shows situation, where such configuration does not work. The test is available in the OneToMany_ManyToOneTestCase test case:

@Test
public void insertUpdateLoadColumnOneToManyOwner() {
  //WARNING: this test may behave unpredictably
  ColumnOneToManyOwner owner = new ColumnOneToManyOwner(10);
  insert(owner);

  ColumnOneToManyInverse inverse = new ColumnOneToManyInverse(9);
  insert(inverse);

  //reload owner and inverse with another entity manager
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
  inverse = em.find(ColumnOneToManyInverse.class, 9);
  owner = em.find(ColumnOneToManyOwner.class, 10);
  em.close();

  //create reference between owner and inverse and save them
  owner.setInverses(Arrays.asList(inverse));
  mergeAndCommit(inverse);
  mergeAndCommit(owner);

  //load the owner again 
  em = factory.createEntityManager();
  owner = em.find(ColumnOneToManyOwner.class, 10);
    
  //if the reference would be saved, the owner would have 1 inverse
  assertEquals(0, owner.getInverses().size());
  em.close();
}

If you wish to customize joining table columns, use the @JoinTable annotation.

Custom Join Table

The joining table can be customized with @JoinTable annotation. You can customize three attributes:

name - table name,
joinColumns - column containing owner id,
inverseJoinColumns - column containing inverse id.

If you leave some attribute unspecified, JPA will assume the default name.

Example configuration:

@Entity
public class TableMtmOwner {
  private String name;
  @ManyToMany
  @JoinTable(name="TableMtmJoin", 
    joinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="owner"), 
    inverseJoinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="inverse")
  )
  private Collection<TableMtmInverse> inverses;
}

@Entity
public class TableMtmInverse {
  @ManyToMany(mappedBy="inverses")
  @MapKey(name="name")
  private Map<String, TableMtmOwner> owners;
}

This works even if you have customized entity id columns or entity table names. The referencedColumnName and table attributes are not necessary:

[+] Click to Expand

@Entity
public class TableOneToManyOwner {
  @Id
  @Column(name="owner_id")
  private long id;

  @OneToMany
  @JoinTable(name="OneToManyJoinTable",
    joinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="owner"),
    inverseJoinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="inverse")
  )
  private Collection<TableOneToManyInverse> inverses;
}

@Entity
public class TableOneToManyInverse {
  @Id
  @Column(name="inverse_id")
  private long id;
}

Many-To-Many

Two entity classes have many-to-many relationship if each side is able to reference any number of entities and keeps them in a collection or in a map.

For example, twitter accounts and their followers have many-to-many relationship. Each account can be followed by any number of people and each person can follow any number of twitter accounts.

Basic Configuration

Place the @ManyToMany annotation on both sides of the relationship. The annotated property must be a Collection, a List, a Set or a Map. No other type is allowed.

Decide which side is going to be the owner and which side will be the inverse. You may pick sides at random, many-to-many relationship is symmetric.

The inverse side must specify the mappedBy annotation attribute. If it is missing, JPA treats the relationship as two separate unidirectional relationships. The attribute contains the name of the owners property that keeps the relationship. The owner side can not have the mappedBy attribute specified.

If the property is either a List, a Set or a Collection, nothing else is needed. If the property is a Map, you have to use the @MapKey annotation to specify the map key property:

@Entity
public class MtmOwner{
  private String name;
  @ManyToMany
  private Collection<MtmInverse> inverses = new ArrayList<MtmInverse>();
}

@Entity
public class MtmInverse{
  @ManyToMany(mappedBy="inverses")
  @MapKey(name="name")
  private Map<String, MtmOwner> owners = new HashMap<String, MtmOwner>();
}

The property specified in @MapKey will be used as a key to the map, the same way as in bidirectional one-to-many version:

[+] Click to Expand

@Test
public void basicMap() {
  EntityManager em = factory.createEntityManager();
  
  MtmOwner owner = em.find(MtmOwner.class, 1);
  MtmInverse inverse = em.find(MtmInverse.class, 5);
    
  // mapKey property is a key to the map
  Map<String, MtmOwner> owners = inverse.getOwners();
  assertEquals(owner, owners.get(owner.getName()));
   
  em.close();
}

Default Database Structure

Unless configured otherwise, JPA assumes that the relationship is kept in a table named OwnerTableName_InverseTableName.

The table should have two foreign key columns:

the column OwnerPropertyName_inversePrimaryKeyColumnName contains ids of inverse entities and should have foreign key to the inverse table,
the column InversePropertyName_ownerPrimaryKeyColumnName contains owner id and should have foreign key to the owners table.

If a Map is used, the owner the corresponding map key property should be unique.

The previous relationship corresponds to following db structure:

[+] Click to Expand

CREATE TABLE MtmOwner (
    id INT NOT NULL, name VARCHAR(1500), 
    name VARCHAR(1500) NOT NULL,
    CONSTRAINT PK_MTMOWNER PRIMARY KEY (id),
    UNIQUE (name)
);

CREATE TABLE MtmInverse (
    id INT NOT NULL, 
    CONSTRAINT PK_MTMINVERSE PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

CREATE TABLE MtmOwner_MtmInverse (
    inverses_id INT NOT NULL, 
    owners_id INT NOT NULL
);

ALTER TABLE MtmOwner_MtmInverse
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_MtmInverse 
FOREIGN KEY (inverses_id) REFERENCES MtmInverse (id);

ALTER TABLE MtmOwner_MtmInverse 
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_MtmOwner
FOREIGN KEY (owners_id) REFERENCES MtmOwner (id);

Note: latest OpenJPA implementation (2.1.1) has a bug:

[+] Click to Expand

The name of the column referencing the owner is wrong. OpenJPA uses OwnerEntityName_ownerPrimaryKeyColumnName as a default column name for the this column.

Cascading

The REMOVE cascading type is not compatible with many-to-many relationship. It supports only PERSIST, MERGE, REFRESH and DETACH.

Loading

Many-to-many relationship is lazy loading by default.

Consistency

If the relationship is bidirectional, you are responsible for keeping it consistent. The safe way how to do it, is to hide the collection or map and expose only safe consistency keeping 'add', 'remove', ... methods.

[+] Click to Expand

/**
 * Returns a collection with followed twitter accounts. The 
 * returned collection is a defensive copy.
 *  
 * @return a collection with followed twitter accounts
 */
public Map<String, SafeTwitterAccount> getTwitterFollowing() {
  //defensive copy, nobody will be able to change the 
  //list from the outside
  return new HashMap<String, SafeTwitterAccount>(twitterFollowing);
}

/**
 * Add new account to the list of followed twitter accounts. 
 * The method keeps relationships consistency:
 * * this person is set as the account follower also at the twitter side
 */
public void startFollowingTwitter(SafeTwitterAccount account) {
  //prevent endless loop
  if (twitterFollowing.containsValue(account))
    return ;
  //add new account
  twitterFollowing.put(account.getAccountName(), account);
  //set myself into the twitter account
  account.addFollower(this);
}

/**
 * Removes the account from the list of followed twitter 
 * accounts. The method keeps relationships consistency:
 * * this person is removed from the account followers 
 *   also at the twitter side
 */
public void stopFollowingTwitter(SafeTwitterAccount account) {
  //prevent endless loop
  if (!twitterFollowing.containsValue(account))
    return ;
  //remove the account
  twitterFollowing.remove(account.getAccountName());
  //remove myself from the twitter account
  account.removeFollower(this);
}

Additionally, if you used a map, be careful about changing the value of the map key property.

[+] Click to Expand

One possible way how to write safe accessor methods is available in org.meri.jpa.relationships.entities.bestpractice package on Github. Related test case is named SafeRelationshipsTestCase.

public void setAccountName(String accountName) {
    Set<SafePerson> allFollowers = 
      new HashSet<SafePerson>(followers);

    for (SafePerson follower : allFollowers) {
      follower.stopFollowingTwitter(this);
    }
    
    this.accountName = accountName;

    for (SafePerson follower : allFollowers) {
      follower.startFollowingTwitter(this);
    }
  }

This method has one drawback: depending on the JPA implementation, it may cause unnecessary database calls.

Ordering

The ordering works exactly the same way as in one-to-many relationship.

If the relationship uses a list, it may be sorted with the @OrderBy annotation. Put property name followed by ASC or DESC into its value and JPA will use it to sort loaded entities. If you need multiple sorting properties, separate them with comma ','.

Sort by the ordering property. Entities with equal ordering property are sorted by id:

@Entity
public class OrderedMtmOwner {
  @ManyToMany
  @OrderBy("ordering ASC, id DESC")
  private List<OrderedMtmInverse> inverses = 
    new ArrayList<OrderedMtmInverse>();
}

@Entity
public class OrderedMtmInverse {
  @Id
  private long id;
  private String ordering;

  @ManyToMany(mappedBy="inverses")
  @MapKey(name="name")
  private Mapt<String, OrderedMtmOwnert> owners = 
    new HashMapt<String, OrderedMtmOwner>();
}

Custom Join Column

The @JoinColumn annotation is not compatible with the many-to-many relationship. If you wish to customize joining table columns, use the @JoinTable annotation.

Custom Join Table

The joining table can be customized with @JoinTable annotation, exactly the same way as in unidirectional one-to-many relationship. You can customize three attributes:

name - table name,
joinColumns - column containing owner id,
inverseJoinColumns - column containing inverse id.

If you specify only the name attribute, JPA will assume that joining columns have default names.

Example configuration:

@Entity
public class TableOneToManyOwner {
  @OneToMany
  @JoinTable(name="OneToManyJoinTable",
    joinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="owner"),
    inverseJoinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="inverse")
  )
  private Collection<TableOneToManyInverse> inverses;
}

@Entity
public class TableOneToManyInverse {
  // nothing special here
}

This works even if you have customized entity id columns or entity table names. The referencedColumnName and table attributes are not necessary.

End

This post covered only the most basic JPA features. Of course, JPA has much more worth learning about.

The list of features missing from this post includes:

JPQL Query Language,
class inheritance,
automatic entity id generation,
custom data types,
entities composed of multiple tables,
metadata,
configuration via xml instead of annotations,
entity lifecycle callbacks.

Some of them are more useful than others. While JPQL and class inheritance are a must, metadata and entity lifecycle callbacks are useful only for some projects. The rest is somewhere in between.

138 comments:

Javin said...: Nice and quite Comprehensive post. Thanks for putting effort and sharing information.

Javin
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Meri said...: Hi Javin,

thank you. I'm glad to hear that someone liked it.

Meri; Mar 3, 2012, 11:29:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Your post is very good. Previously I have been working with XML, but now it's time to move to Database.; Mar 4, 2012, 4:12:00 PM
Ilias Tsagklis said...: Hi Maria,

Nice blog! Is there an email address I can contact you in private?; Mar 26, 2012, 11:52:00 AM
Maruf Hassan said...: very very nice post and thank you very much for your easy explanations...; Apr 15, 2012, 11:55:00 PM
mi said...: Thanks, nice and short to the point.

A couple of things worth pointing out:
1) JPA spec recommends @OneToMany together with @JoinTable as opposed to @JoinColumn (so that the child table does not end up with a foreign key, lending itself to different types of parents), and
2) Hibernate has a bug that is worth noting if you model it like in 1) above. See Hibernate Jira https://hibernate.onjira.com/browse/HHH-1268; May 6, 2012, 11:51:00 PM
Anonymous said...: This is great stuff, thanks so much!; Jun 26, 2012, 9:40:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Are the Relationship examples all correct?; Jul 8, 2012, 6:51:00 PM
Meri said...: @Anonymous As far as I know, they are all correct. Of course, if you found a bug, let me know and I will fix that.; Jul 10, 2012, 1:34:00 AM
g1 said...: can u enhance this article to include 'validation'?
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!; Sep 28, 2012, 6:56:00 AM
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