Bypass GeneratedValue in Hibernate (merge data not in db?)

Question

My problem is the same as described in [1] or [2] . I need to manually set a by default auto-generated value ( why? importing old data ). As described in [1] using Hibernate's entity = em.merge(entity) will do the trick.

Unfortunately for me it does not. I neither get an error nor any other warning. The entity is just not going to appear in the database . I'm using Spring and Hibernate EntityManager 3.5.3-Final.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Another implementation, way simpler.

This one works with both annotation-based or xml-based configuration: it rely on hibernate meta-data to get the id value for the object. Replace SequenceGenerator by IdentityGenerator (or any other generator) depending on your configuration. (The creation of a decorator instead of subclassing, passing the decorated ID generator as a parameter to this generator, is left as an exercise to the reader).

public class UseExistingOrGenerateIdGenerator extends SequenceGenerator {
    @Override
    public Serializable generate(SessionImplementor session, Object object)
                        throws HibernateException {
        Serializable id = session.getEntityPersister(null, object)
                      .getClassMetadata().getIdentifier(object, session);
        return id != null ? id : super.generate(session, object);
    }
}

---

Answer to the exercise (using a decorator pattern, as requested), not really tested:

public class UseExistingOrGenerateIdGenerator implements IdentifierGenerator, Configurable {

    private IdentifierGenerator defaultGenerator;

    @Override
    public void configure(Type type, Properties params, Dialect d) 
                        throws MappingException;
        // For example: take a class name and create an instance
        this.defaultGenerator = buildGeneratorFromParams(
                params.getProperty("default"));
    }

    @Override
    public Serializable generate(SessionImplementor session, Object object)
                        throws HibernateException {
        Serializable id = session.getEntityPersister(null, object)
                      .getClassMetadata().getIdentifier(object, session);
        return id != null ? id : defaultGenerator.generate(session, object);
    }
}

Answer 2

it works on my project with the following code:

@XmlAttribute
@Id
@Basic(optional = false)
@GeneratedValue(strategy=GenerationType.IDENTITY, generator="IdOrGenerated")
@GenericGenerator(name="IdOrGenerated",
                  strategy="....UseIdOrGenerate"
)
@Column(name = "ID", nullable = false)
private Integer id;

and

import org.hibernate.id.IdentityGenerator;
...
public class UseIdOrGenerate extends IdentityGenerator {
private static final Logger log = Logger.getLogger(UseIdOrGenerate.class.getName());

@Override
public Serializable generate(SessionImplementor session, Object obj) throws HibernateException {
    if (obj == null) throw new HibernateException(new NullPointerException()) ;

    if ((((EntityWithId) obj).getId()) == null) {
        Serializable id = super.generate(session, obj) ;
        return id;
    } else {
        return ((EntityWithId) obj).getId();

    }
}

where you basically define your own ID generator (based on the Identity strategy), and if the ID is not set, you delegate the generation to the default generator.

The main drawback is that it bounds you to Hibernate as JPA provider ... but it works perfectly with my MySQL project

Answer 3

Updating Laurent Grégoire's answer for hibernate 5.2 because it seems to have changed a bit.

public class UseExistingIdOtherwiseGenerateUsingIdentity extends IdentityGenerator {

    @Override
    public Serializable generate(SharedSessionContractImplementor session, Object object) throws HibernateException {
        Serializable id = session.getEntityPersister(null, object).getClassMetadata().getIdentifier(object, session);
        return id != null ? id : super.generate(session, object);
    }
}

and use it like this: (replace the package name)

@Id
@GenericGenerator(name = "UseExistingIdOtherwiseGenerateUsingIdentity", strategy = "{package}.UseExistingIdOtherwiseGenerateUsingIdentity")
@GeneratedValue(generator = "UseExistingIdOtherwiseGenerateUsingIdentity")
@Column(unique = true, nullable = false)
protected Integer id;

Answer 4

I`m giving a solution here that worked for me:
create your own identifiergenerator/sequencegenerator

public class FilterIdentifierGenerator extends IdentityGenerator implements IdentifierGenerator{

@Override
public Serializable generate(SessionImplementor session, Object object)
        throws HibernateException {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    Serializable id = session.getEntityPersister(null, object)
            .getClassMetadata().getIdentifier(object, session);
    return id != null ? id : super.generate(session, object);
}

}

modify your entity as:

@Id
@GeneratedValue(generator="myGenerator")
@GenericGenerator(name="myGenerator", strategy="package.FilterIdentifierGenerator")
@Column(unique=true, nullable=false)
private int id;
...

and while saving instead of using persist() use merge() or update()

Answer 5

If you are using hibernate's org.hibernate.id.UUIDGenerator to generate a String id I suggest you use:

public class UseIdOrGenerate extends UUIDGenerator {


    @Override
    public Serializable generate(SharedSessionContractImplementor session, Object object) throws HibernateException {
        Serializable id = session.getEntityPersister(null, object).getClassMetadata().getIdentifier(object, session);
        return id != null ? id : super.generate(session, object);
    }
}

Answer 6

According to the Selectively disable generation of a new ID thread on the Hibernate forums, merge() might not be the solution (at least not alone) and you might have to use a custom generator (that's the second link you posted).

I didn't test this myself so I can't confirm but I recommend reading the thread of the Hibernate's forums.

Answer 7

For anyone else looking to do this, above does work nicely. Just a recommendation to getting the identifier from the object rather than having inheritance for each Entity class (Just for the Id), you could do something like:

import org.hibernate.id.IdentityGenerator;

public class UseIdOrGenerate extends IdentityGenerator {

    private static final Logger log = Logger.getLogger(UseIdOrGenerate.class
            .getName());

    @Override
    public Serializable generate(SessionImplementor session, Object object)
            throws HibernateException {
        if (object == null)
            throw new HibernateException(new NullPointerException());

        for (Field field : object.getClass().getDeclaredFields()) {
            if (field.isAnnotationPresent(Id.class)
                    && field.isAnnotationPresent(GeneratedValue.class)) {
                boolean isAccessible = field.isAccessible();
                try {
                    field.setAccessible(true);
                    Object obj = field.get(object);
                    field.setAccessible(isAccessible);
                    if (obj != null) {
                        if (Integer.class.isAssignableFrom(obj.getClass())) {
                            if (((Integer) obj) > 0) {
                                return (Serializable) obj;
                            }
                        }
                    }
                } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }

        return super.generate(session, object);
    }
}

Answer 8

You need a running transaction.

In case your transaction are manually-managed:

entityManager.getTransaction().begin();

(of course don't forget to commit)

If you are using declarative transactions, use the appropriate declaration (via annotations, most likely)

Also, set the hibernate logging level to debug ( log4j.logger.org.hibernate=debug ) in your log4j.properties in order to trace what is happening in more details.