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Hibernate version: 
3.0.5
Mapping documents:
Code:
<?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>
   <class name="gov.epa.cdx.model.common.ParameterType" table="parameter_type">
      <id name="id" column="id" type="string"/>
   </class>
   <class name="gov.epa.cdx.model.common.Parameter" table="parameter">
      <composite-id>
         <key-many-to-one name="parentId" column="parent_id" lazy="false"/>
         <key-property name="name" column="name" type="string"/>
      </composite-id>
      <property name="value" column="value" type="string"/>
      <property name="physicalType" column="value_type" type="string"/>
      <many-to-one name="type" class="gov.epa.cdx.model.common.ParameterType" column="type_id" lazy="false"/>
   </class>
   <class name="gov.epa.cdx.model.dataflow.Dataflow" table="dataflow">
      <id name="id" column="id" type="string"/>
      <property name="name" column="name" type="string"/>
      <map name="parameters" table="parameter" lazy="false">
         <key column="parent_id"/>
         <map-key formula="name" type="string"/>
         <one-to-many class="gov.epa.cdx.model.common.Parameter"/>
      </map>
   </class>
</hibernate-mapping>
Code between sessionFactory.openSession() and session.close():Code:
// hibernate configured through spring
public static Dataflow createDataflow(Dataflow dataflow)
         throws DataAccessException {
      if (dataflow.getId() == null) {
         dataflow.setId(UUIDGenerator.getInstance()
               .generateRandomBasedUUID().toString());
      }
      HibernateTemplate ht = new HibernateTemplate(ComponentBuilder
            .getCoreSessionFactory());
      ht.save(dataflow);
      return dataflow;
   }
Full stack trace of any exception that occurs:Code:
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'coreSessionFactory' defined in class path resource [cdxcore2-components.xml]: Initialization of bean failed; nested exception is org.hibernate.MappingException: An association from the table parameter refers to an unmapped class: java.lang.String
Name and version of the database you are using:
MySql 5.0
What I want to do is use a generic parameter persistence mechanism for various objects in my domain. These objects are unrelated other than the fact that they have parameters. I would like the parameters to be stored in a map keyed by name. The dataflow object is the first of many that I would like to configure like this, which is why I don't explicitly name a class in the key-many-to-one attribute. What exactly am I doing wrong here? Is there another way I should be trying to accomplish the desired functionality?