I have an address class as a component for the user class and a mobile phone class as a component for the address class. Because of locale specific validation, the mobile and address are locale specific (NLAddress, UKAddress, etc.) and instantiated through a factory.

The question is how do I make sure the classes are retrieved in their specific locale version? Because Hibernate requires you to specify the component class, I always get the generic class (AnAddress, AMobile) back when the user is instantiated and the address and mobile is retrieved from the database.

I guess my real question is: how to distinguish between subclasses within a component?


I have the following file structure:
Subscriber.java - class containing component reference to Address interface. Subclass of User.java

AddressFactory.java - factory creating addresses based on created string name, based on locale
Address.java - interface containing component reference to mobile.java
AnAddress.java - generic class, implements Address
NLAddress.java - implementation class, extends AnAddress

MobileFactory.java - factory creating mobiles based on created string name, based on locale
Mobile.java - interface
AMobile.java - generic class, implements Mobile
NLMobile.java - implementation class, extends AMobile


user.hbm.xml
<component name="address" class="nl.msw.dates4free.business.entities.address.AnAddress">
<component name="mobile" class="nl.msw.dates4free.business.entities.address.AMobile">
<property name="mobile" length="25"/>
</component>
<many-to-one column="FK_provinceID" cascade="none" name="province"/>
<property name="city" length="255"/>
<property name="street" length="255"/>
<property name="zipcode" length="255"/>
<many-to-one column="FK_countryID" cascade="none" outer-join="true" name="country"/>
</component>



Kind regards,

Marc

Please post your mapping files for the Address classes.

I think I have a similar issue: My polymorphism is defined on a

Code:

component

(value object), instead of the

Code:

class

(entity):

For example,
public class A{ // persistent
Long id;
Specification spec;
}

public abstract class Specification{
}

public class ASpecification extends Specification{
}

How do I define the mapping?

Thanks[/b]

I had tried several work arounds for my abstract class Activity. It has abstract method that is the only diffrence for the subclasses. The discriminator mechanism returns the correct concrete classes. I had to rework existing DB schema and load in the discriminator column.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC
"-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD 3.0//EN"
"http://hibernate.sourceforge.net/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd">
<hibernate-mapping package="activityjammer.src.model.activity">

<class name="Activity"
table="production.activity"
discriminator-value="ABSTRACT">

<id name="id" column="id" unsaved-value="0">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<discriminator column="discriminator" type="string"/>

< YOUR PROPERTIES HERE >

<many-to-one name="user"
class="userfactory.src.model.User"
column="id_user"
not-null="true" />

<many-to-one name="location"
class="activityjammer.src.model.Location"
column="id_location"
not-null="true" />

<subclass name="activityjammer.src.model.activity.CommuteActivity" discriminator-value="COMMUTE">
<join table="production.activitycommute">
<key column="id"/>

<many-to-one name="destination"
class="activityjammer.src.model.Location"
column="id_destination"
not-null="true"/>
</join>
</subclass>

<subclass name="activityjammer.src.model.activity.GeneralActivity" discriminator-value="GENERAL">
</subclass>

<subclass name="activityjammer.src.model.activity.HireTransportationActivity" discriminator-value="HIRE_TRANS">
</subclass>

<subclass name="activityjammer.src.model.activity.ReturnTransportationActivity" discriminator-value="RETURN_TRANS">
</subclass>

<subclass name="activityjammer.src.model.activity.RentableCheckOut" discriminator-value="CHECKOUT">
</subclass>

<subclass name="activityjammer.src.model.activity.RentableCheckIn" discriminator-value="CHECKIN">
</subclass>

</class>

</hibernate-mapping>

The issue is different though. In your case, you have subclasses for persistent entities (Activity). However, what if you when to have subclasses for components? Something like this: