Delete-Orphan on One-to-Many relationship -> Why merge?

fdankof · **Joined:** Fri Sep 26, 2008 10:48 am **Posts:** 10

Hello!

I'm using Hibernate Annotation @Cascade(CascadeType.DELETE_ORPHAN) in addition to my JPA cascading annotations.

If I try to save a detached instance of the parent object whose children have been modified/deleted, update() only sets the foreign key of the children to 'null'.
Why are orphans only deleted when I use merge()??

Does this indicate that there might be a session that has already been opened? As far as I understood, update() should be used when a session is fresh.

I'm a little bit confused. Maybe there is someone who can give an explanation.

Hibernate Version: 3.2.6.ga

gonzao_diaz · **Joined:** Mon Nov 26, 2007 2:29 pm **Posts:** 443

In your design, can children exist as independent entities, without a parent?

fdankof · **Joined:** Fri Sep 26, 2008 10:48 am **Posts:** 10

No they can't.