Hello.

I've looked at the past topics, but i have not found a real anwser... I'm sure someone has a smart solution !

A server application, in a J2EE EAR, uses Hibernate to read and write objects to and from a database. The object model presents different cases of associations. All that works as expected within the application.

The object model must be shared with other applications, like a J2EE application client executed out of the application server. This client must be as thin as possible, and can't import Hibernate.

I've tested several cases, changing relationship mapping not to be lazy, or forcing dependances initialization using the Hibernate.initialize, but no way to make it work : the Set type is always the Hibernate one, and, obviously, my client always fails to deserialize it !

So, now, the questions...

Can i really share the object model with other applications that don't use Hibernate, or should i duplicate the full model to have a separate with no Hibernate dependances ?

If yes, what is the solution to serialize an object graph relationships backed by Hibernate collection types, and deserialize it with no Hibernate dependances in the client context ?

Thanks for your help.

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Ephemeris Lappis

You can implements Extrernalizable in all classes having associations. In writeExternal(), write yourself sets, lists etc. yourself and then in readExternal() read them yourself.

For instance to write a list or a set, instead of :



Do :



And to read it :

You're right ! This is a solution. But it seems a bit tedious to change the serialiation for all objects.

I'd hoped a solution exists in Hibernate to change this form an external point of view. I'm sure many people has experienced the same problem with distributed applications...

Thanks anyway.

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Ephemeris Lappis