338 lines
13 KiB
XML
338 lines
13 KiB
XML
<chapter id="inheritance">
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<title>Inheritance Mapping</title>
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<sect1 id="inheritance-strategies" revision="2">
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<title>The Three Strategies</title>
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<para>
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TODO: While this is all still supported, many new features would require
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a rewrite of this whole chapter
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</para>
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<para>
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Hibernate supports the three basic inheritance mapping strategies.
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</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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table per class hierarchy
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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table per subclass
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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table per concrete class (some limitations)
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</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>
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It is even possible to use different mapping strategies for different
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branches of the same inheritance hierarchy, but the same limitations
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apply as apply to table-per-concrete class mappings. Hibernate does
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not support mixing <literal><subclass></literal> mappings and
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<literal><joined-subclass></literal> mappings inside the same
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<literal><class></literal> element. However, it is possible to
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use a <literal><join></literal> element to map this.
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</para>
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<para>
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Suppose we have an interface <literal>Payment</literal>, with implementors
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<literal>CreditCardPayment</literal>, <literal>CashPayment</literal>,
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<literal>ChequePayment</literal>. The table-per-hierarchy mapping would
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look like:
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</para>
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<programlisting><![CDATA[<class name="Payment" table="PAYMENT">
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<id name="id" type="long" column="PAYMENT_ID">
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<generator class="native"/>
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</id>
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<discriminator column="PAYMENT_TYPE" type="string"/>
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<property name="amount" column="AMOUNT"/>
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...
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<subclass name="CreditCardPayment" discriminator-value="CREDIT">
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...
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</subclass>
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<subclass name="CashPayment" discriminator-value="CASH">
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...
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</subclass>
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<subclass name="ChequePayment" discriminator-value="CHEQUE">
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...
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</subclass>
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</class>]]></programlisting>
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<para>
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Exactly one table is required. There is one big limitation of this
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mapping strategy: columns declared by the subclasses may not have
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<literal>NOT NULL</literal> constraints.
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</para>
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<para>
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A table-per-subclass mapping would look like:
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</para>
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<programlisting><![CDATA[<class name="Payment" table="PAYMENT">
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<id name="id" type="long" column="PAYMENT_ID">
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<generator class="native"/>
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</id>
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<property name="amount" column="AMOUNT"/>
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...
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<joined-subclass name="CreditCardPayment" table="CREDIT_PAYMENT">
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<key column="PAYMENT_ID"/>
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...
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</joined-subclass>
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<joined-subclass name="CashPayment" table="CASH_PAYMENT">
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<key column="PAYMENT_ID"/>
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...
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</joined-subclass>
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<joined-subclass name="ChequePayment" table="CHEQUE_PAYMENT">
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<key column="PAYMENT_ID"/>
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...
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</joined-subclass>
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</class>]]></programlisting>
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<para>
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Four tables are required. The three subclass tables have primary
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key associations to the superclass table (so the relational model
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is actually a one-to-one association).
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</para>
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<para>
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Note that Hibernate's implementation of table-per-subclass requires
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no discriminator column. Other object/relational mappers use a
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different implementation of table-per-subclass which requires a type
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discriminator column in the superclass table. The approach taken by
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Hibernate is much more difficult to implement but arguably more
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correct from a relational point of view.
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</para>
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<para>
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TODO: document usage of join for discriminators in table-per-subclass
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</para>
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<para>
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TODO: document usage of join for mixing inheritance mapping strategies
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</para>
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<para>
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For either of these two mapping strategies, a polymorphic
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association to <literal>Payment</literal> is mapped using
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<literal><many-to-one></literal>.
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</para>
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<programlisting><![CDATA[<many-to-one name="payment"
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column="PAYMENT"
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class="Payment"/>]]></programlisting>
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<para>The table-per-concrete-class strategy is very different.</para>
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<programlisting><![CDATA[<class name="CreditCardPayment" table="CREDIT_PAYMENT">
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<id name="id" type="long" column="CREDIT_PAYMENT_ID">
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<generator class="native"/>
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</id>
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<property name="amount" column="CREDIT_AMOUNT"/>
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...
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</class>
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<class name="CashPayment" table="CASH_PAYMENT">
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<id name="id" type="long" column="CASH_PAYMENT_ID">
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<generator class="native"/>
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</id>
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<property name="amount" column="CASH_AMOUNT"/>
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...
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</class>
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<class name="ChequePayment" table="CHEQUE_PAYMENT">
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<id name="id" type="long" column="CHEQUE_PAYMENT_ID">
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<generator class="native"/>
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</id>
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<property name="amount" column="CHEQUE_AMOUNT"/>
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...
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</class>]]></programlisting>
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<para>
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Three tables were required. Notice that nowhere do we
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mention the <literal>Payment</literal> interface explicitly.
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Instead, we make use of Hibernate's <emphasis>implicit
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polymorphism</emphasis>. Also notice that properties of
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<literal>Payment</literal> are mapped in each of the
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subclasses.
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</para>
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<para>
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In this case, a polymorphic association to <literal>Payment</literal>
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is mapped using <literal><any></literal>.
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</para>
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<programlisting><![CDATA[<any name="payment"
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meta-type="class"
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id-type="long">
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<column name="PAYMENT_CLASS"/>
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<column name="PAYMENT_ID"/>
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</any>]]></programlisting>
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<para>
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It would be better if we defined a <literal>UserType</literal>
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as the <literal>meta-type</literal>, to handle the mapping from
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type discriminator strings to <literal>Payment</literal> subclass.
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</para>
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<programlisting><![CDATA[<any name="payment"
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meta-type="PaymentMetaType"
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id-type="long">
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<column name="PAYMENT_TYPE"/> <!-- CREDIT, CASH or CHEQUE -->
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<column name="PAYMENT_ID"/>
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</any>]]></programlisting>
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<para>
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There is one further thing to notice about this mapping.
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Since the subclasses are each mapped in their own
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<literal><class></literal> element (and since
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<literal>Payment</literal> is just an interface), each of
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the subclasses could easily be part of another table-per-class
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or table-per-subclass inheritance hierarchy! (And you can
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still use polymorphic queries against the
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<literal>Payment</literal> interface.)
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</para>
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<programlisting><![CDATA[<class name="CreditCardPayment" table="CREDIT_PAYMENT">
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<id name="id" type="long" column="CREDIT_PAYMENT_ID">
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<generator class="native"/>
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</id>
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<discriminator column="CREDIT_CARD" type="string"/>
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<property name="amount" column="CREDIT_AMOUNT"/>
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...
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<subclass name="MasterCardPayment" discriminator-value="MDC"/>
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<subclass name="VisaPayment" discriminator-value="VISA"/>
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</class>
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<class name="NonelectronicTransaction" table="NONELECTRONIC_TXN">
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<id name="id" type="long" column="TXN_ID">
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<generator class="native"/>
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</id>
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...
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<joined-subclass name="CashPayment" table="CASH_PAYMENT">
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<key column="PAYMENT_ID"/>
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<property name="amount" column="CASH_AMOUNT"/>
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...
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</joined-subclass>
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<joined-subclass name="ChequePayment" table="CHEQUE_PAYMENT">
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<key column="PAYMENT_ID"/>
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<property name="amount" column="CHEQUE_AMOUNT"/>
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...
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</joined-subclass>
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</class>]]></programlisting>
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<para>
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Once again, we don't mention <literal>Payment</literal> explicitly. If we
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execute a query against the <literal>Payment</literal> interface - for
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example, <literal>from Payment</literal> - Hibernate
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automatically returns instances of <literal>CreditCardPayment</literal>
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(and its subclasses, since they also implement <literal>Payment</literal>),
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<literal>CashPayment</literal> and <literal>ChequePayment</literal> but
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not instances of <literal>NonelectronicTransaction</literal>.
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</para>
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<para>
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TODO: Document union-subclass for polymorphic-table-per-concrete-class mappings
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</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="inheritance-limitations">
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<title>Limitations</title>
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<para>
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There are certain limitations to the "implicit polymorphism" approach to
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the table-per-concrete-class mapping strategy. There are somewhat less
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restrictive limitations to <literal><union-subclass></literal>
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mappings. (TODO)
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</para>
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<para>
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The following table shows the limitations of table-per-concrete-class
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mappings, and of implicit polymorphism, in Hibernate.
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</para>
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<table frame="topbot">
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<title>Features of inheritance mappings</title>
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<tgroup cols='8' align='left' colsep='1' rowsep='1'>
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<colspec colname='c1' colwidth="1*"/>
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<colspec colname='c2' colwidth="1*"/>
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<colspec colname='c3' colwidth="1*"/>
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<colspec colname='c4' colwidth="1*"/>
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<colspec colname='c5' colwidth="1*"/>
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<colspec colname='c6' colwidth="1*"/>
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<colspec colname='c7' colwidth="1*"/>
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<colspec colname='c8' colwidth="1*"/>
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<thead>
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<row>
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<entry>Inheritance strategy</entry>
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<entry>Polymorphic many-to-one</entry>
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<entry>Polymorphic one-to-one</entry>
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<entry>Polymorphic one-to-many</entry>
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<entry>Polymorphic many-to-many</entry>
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<entry>Polymorphic <literal>load()/get()</literal></entry>
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<entry>Polymorphic queries</entry>
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<entry>Polymorphic joins</entry>
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<entry>Outer join fetching</entry>
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</row>
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</thead>
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<tbody>
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<row>
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<entry>table-per-class-hierarchy</entry>
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<entry><literal><many-to-one></literal></entry>
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<entry><literal><one-to-one></literal></entry>
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<entry><literal><one-to-many></literal></entry>
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<entry><literal><many-to-many></literal></entry>
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<entry><literal>s.get(Payment.class, id)</literal></entry>
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<entry><literal>from Payment p</literal></entry>
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<entry><literal>from Order o join o.payment p</literal></entry>
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<entry><emphasis>supported</emphasis></entry>
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</row>
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<row>
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<entry>table-per-subclass</entry>
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<entry><literal><many-to-one></literal></entry>
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<entry><literal><one-to-one></literal></entry>
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<entry><literal><one-to-many></literal></entry>
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<entry><literal><many-to-many></literal></entry>
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<entry><literal>s.get(Payment.class, id)</literal></entry>
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<entry><literal>from Payment p</literal></entry>
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<entry><literal>from Order o join o.payment p</literal></entry>
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<entry><emphasis>supported</emphasis></entry>
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</row>
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<row>
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<entry>table-per-concrete-class (implicit polymorphism)</entry>
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<entry><literal><any></literal></entry>
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<entry><emphasis>not supported</emphasis></entry>
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<entry><emphasis>not supported</emphasis></entry>
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<entry><literal><many-to-any></literal></entry>
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<entry><emphasis>use a query</emphasis></entry>
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<entry><literal>from Payment p</literal></entry>
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<entry><emphasis>not supported</emphasis></entry>
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<entry><emphasis>not supported</emphasis></entry>
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</row>
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<row>
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<entry>table-per-concrete-class (union-subclass)</entry>
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<entry><literal><many-to-one></literal></entry>
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<entry><literal><one-to-one></literal></entry>
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<entry><literal><one-to-many></literal> (for <literal>inverse="true"</literal> only)</entry>
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<entry><literal><many-to-many></literal></entry>
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<entry><literal>s.get(Payment.class, id)</literal></entry>
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<entry><literal>from Payment p</literal></entry>
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<entry><literal>from Order o join o.payment p</literal></entry>
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<entry><emphasis>supported</emphasis></entry>
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</row>
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</tbody>
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</tgroup>
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</table>
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</sect1>
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</chapter>
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