Let's consider the following code

@Embeddable
public class MultiLanguageString {
private String defaultValue;

@ElementCollection
private Map<String, String> otherValues;

// getters, setter, ...
}

which models a String that can beside a defaultValue have values in other languages (i.e. key of the map is something like "en" or "de").

Then I want to use this multiple times in an entity.

@Entity
public class MultiLangDataSet {
@Embedded
@AttributeOverride(name="defaultValue", column=@Column(name="DEFAULTNAME"))
@AssociationOverride(name="otherValues", joinTable=@JoinTable(name="OVALUESNAME")
private MultiLanguageString name;

@Embedded
@AttributeOverride(name="defaultValue", column=@Column(name="SDESCRIPTION"))
@AssociationOverride(name="otherValues", joinTable=@JoinTable(name="OVALUESDESC")
private MultiLanguageString shortDescription;

// getters, setters, ...
}

Multiple usage of MultiLanguageString within an entity doesn't seem to be possible with JPA 2 because while I can disambiguate the "defaultValue" field with AttributeOverride it's not possible to do the same with the map field otherValues (AssociationOverride doesn't seem to work with ElementCollection, when I try to change the collection table name with it). But the example works, when I have only one MultiLanguageString object in MultiLangDataSet.

Is this a design flaw or a bug of JPA 2 or am I missing something? Does Hibernate itself provides a mapping extension that handles this usage szenario?

Clemens