I would like an opinion and any pointers related to the following type of mapping. I realize the database structure is not ideal for hibernate. Unfortunately it cannot be changed at this time.

<class name="com.x.Region" table="region">
<id column="RGN" name="regionId" type="long">
<generator class="assigned" />
</id>
... Some properties
</class>

<class name="com.x.CustomerSales" table="customersales">
<composite-id>
<key-property column="RGN" name="regionId" type="long" />
<key-property column="CST" name="customerId" type="long" />
</composite-id>
... Some properties
<many-to-one name="region" column="RGN" not-null="true" class="com.x.Region" update="false" insert="false"/>
</class>

<class name="com.x.SalespersonSales" table="salespersonsales">
<id column="SLSPER" name="salespersonId" type="long">
<generator class="assigned" />
</id>
... Some properties
<many-to-one name="destination" class="com.x.CustomerSales">
<column name="RGN" />
<column name="CST" />
</many-to-one>
</class>

The names of these tables etc. are made up but reflect a situation I have run into several times recently. This seems to be working in my tests but I wonder if there is a better way to map these types of relationships.

Looks fine and stright forward to me. What are your concerns?

Thanks for looking at this. I just haven't seen any examples of this type of composite mapping and wanted to get opinions. I have at least 20 tables out of 400 that have this type of mapping and don't want to go too far down the wrong path. The ugliest part of this mapping is the duplicate property mapping for RGN to regionId and region in the customersales table.

oh you should map that <many-to-one> with insert="false" update="false".


you *could* use a <key-many-to-one> but I really don't recommend it.

Thanks, for the input. I haven't ever used a <key-many-to-one> but I will look at it and try to understand when it is appropriate. The documentation on <key-many-to-one> is a little light so I will see how it works through testing. I will try to post something on this to the Wiki because I have to provide information on composite key mapping to our developers anyway.

The many-to-one does have update="false" insert="false" or did you mean in the salespersonsales file mapping to CustomerSales?

ugh yeah sorry you are right i misread the second time