I have a number of database tables that are very similar and I was wondering if there is a way to store the common part of the mapping file in a file that can be included in the other mapping files.

An example of what I want to do follows:

Current two files:

file1.hbm.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC "-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD 3.0//EN"
"http://hibernate.sourceforge.net/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd">
<!-- Generated 2009.12.04 MDG -->
<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="com.db.model.Tablea" table="Tablea">
<id name="tableaId" type="java.lang.Long">
<column name="PK_TABLEA" precision="22" scale="0" />
<generator class="sequence">
<param name="sequence">SEQ_TABLEA</param>
</generator>
</id>
<property name="col1" type="string">
<column name="COL1" length="20" not-null="true" />
</property>
<property name="col2" type="string">
<column name="COL2" length="50" />
</property>
<property name="coln" type="string">
<column name="COLN" length="50" />
</property>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>


file2.hbm.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC "-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD 3.0//EN"
"http://hibernate.sourceforge.net/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd">
<!-- Generated 2009.12.04 MDG -->
<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="com.db.model.Tableb" table="TABLEB">
<id name="tablebId" type="java.lang.Long">
<column name="PK_TABLEB" precision="22" scale="0" />
<generator class="sequence">
<param name="sequence">SEQ_TABLEB</param>
</generator>
</id>
<property name="col1" type="string">
<column name="COL1" length="20" not-null="true" />
</property>
<property name="col2" type="string">
<column name="COL2" length="50" />
</property>
<property name="coln" type="string">
<column name="COLN" length="50" />
</property>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

What I would like to do is:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC "-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD 3.0//EN"
"http://hibernate.sourceforge.net/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd">
<!-- Generated 2009.12.04 MDG -->
<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="com.db.model.Tableb" table="TABLEB">
<id name="tablebId" type="java.lang.Long">
<column name="PK_TABLEB" precision="22" scale="0" />
<generator class="sequence">
<param name="sequence">SEQ_TABLEB</param>
</generator>
</id>
INCLUDE A FILE CONTAINING THE COMMON PROPERTIES
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>