Hibernate version: 2.1.6

Name and version of the database you are using: Oracle 9.2.0.5

The problem we have is that we have still some fields in the database which are not used anymore. Since they have a not-null constraint we have to populate them but we would want to hide them with our object model so that developers are no longer aware of these columns and populate them with a default value (e.g. always a space character).

Is there a way to specify a default value for a property or even a column not mapped with hibernate?

Three things I could think of off the top of my head

These two require you to map the column.

1. During construction time set the value to something and make the getters and setters private. Then no one can call these methods but you still get the values in there.

2. Use the unsaved-value attribute on your property mapping. This only works for non-primitive types though I believe.

Or, if you can add triggers to your database you can always have them populate those columns with default values on insert.