I have two classes, a creator class and a "file" class. Every "file" that is created has a creator, so we have a simple one-to-many association.



and



What I need is to delete the creator an subsequently all the "files" he has created. This can be quite a huge number (many thousands).

I read that if I want Hibernate to take charge of cascading deletes, I must declare this association as bidirectional, using scaffolding code. So everytime a file is created, I have to add it to the set of files of it´s creators class.

I am not concerned with the efficiency of the deletion, but I am concerned with the efficiency of the scaffolding code. The sets can become very large, and I never need the set only in case I want to delete the creator and everything he has created.

Is that the correct way to manage deletion of dependent objects?

Thanks in advance,

Axel W. Berle

This could be a good candidate for hand-coded SQL. In whatever code deletes the creator, do a DELETE FROM FILES WHERE CREATOR_ID = :1. No muss, no fuss.

Hi,

I thought about that, but it would be nicer to do it the right way. If it was efficient, I would prefer it the Hibernate-way. My example is of course simplified: there are lots of other dependent tables, with their dependencies, foreign keys etc. I would have to write a lot of other delete statements first, complicating matters. In fact I have to delete a whole object graph.

So, is it efficient, or isn´t it?

I think the best advice is to try it, run some tests, collect some data, and determine for yourself if the performance is "good enough" for your userbase.

Chances are, it will be good enough, but you'll never know without trying, and no one else will be able to give you a definitive answer.