I thought it may be possible to add a lastModifiedDate to my persistent objects using a custom UserType. I want to keep this as unobtrusive as possible so I chose UserType over an Hibernate session interceptor.

However, it is not working as I intended. I extended DateType and overrode the following method:



a snippet of my mapping file is here:



This would probably work, but Hibernate does not call set unless it detects the field is dirty. I thought I could override the isDirty check in the UserType but it seems isDirty is not called during the Session.save() call (Insert).

Anyone have any ideas?

Your can eiter use the <timestamp> tag which gives you optimistic locking as well.
Or you can set your property in the onFlushDirty method of an Interceptor.

HTH
Ernst

Thanks for the help attempt. I mentioned the interceptor approach in my question, and the timestamp tag has a versioning implication that I don't want. (I use an integer value for versioning.)

There are *many* things I could do (include the property update in my DAO for example). I was wondering if it could be accomplished with a custom UserType? So far, I don't think it is possible because I can't force Hibernate to invoke my UserType if it doesn't think that my underlying property has been modified.

Guess you've set dynamic-update=true? Set it to false and hibernate sets all fields up on update.

AFAIK you cannot get this working only with a user type and have dynamic-update=true.

If you want to keep dynamic-update=true you must use an interceptor, set the filed in onFlushDirty or mark it as dirty in isDirty and set the value in a user type.

HTH
Ernst