Hi,

I've a peculier problem.

Web services created using Axis do not encourage usage of collections...

And hibernate requires index to be stored in DB to use arrays...otherwise one needs to use bag or list...

I cannot alter our DB schema...So, is there any way that I can use Hibernate with web services backend system in many-to-many and one-to-many relationships?

Thanks.

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> And hibernate requires index to be stored in DB to use arrays...
>

If by "index" you mean primary key, then yeah, but your primary key can be a composite key made out of whatever columns happen to be in your DB. Check out the docs for using composite keys. If you're saying that the existing DB table doesn't have any columns that could comprise a primary key then yes you have a problem, but then you'd have the same problem with any ORM tool.

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> Web services created using Axis do not encourage usage of collections...
>

I assume you're talking about parameters in the web service call. Axis doesn't care what you use in the body of the web service code though, so presumably you could convert the parameters into a Collection if that's what you really wanted? Sorry, but it's not clear from your post what you're trying to do.

If by "index" you mean primary key, then yeah, but your primary key can be a composite key made out of whatever columns happen to be in your DB. Check out the docs for using composite keys. If you're saying that the existing DB table doesn't have any columns that could comprise a primary key then yes you have a problem, but then you'd have the same problem with any ORM tool.

Hibernate <list> mapping can use arrays as well as java Lists. But it requires a column in DB that specifies 'position' of the element in the array which will be maintained while storing and retrieving it.

This practice of additional column in every table that is on 'many' side of any mapping is not a standard DB design as far as I know. Normally most people would need a <bag> semantics, and order will be decided by user clicking on a column on the web page.

I assume you're talking about parameters in the web service call. Axis doesn't care what you use in the body of the web service code though, so presumably you could convert the parameters into a Collection if that's what you really wanted? Sorry, but it's not clear from your post what you're trying to do.

Yes, I'm talking about parameters and return values of Axis web services. Yes, writing rappers over all the collections would be a solution, but then writing simple SQL becomes a fast option for me.

Please let me know if you know anything about what to do in such situations.

Thanks.

I use axis quite a bit with Hibernate and I think I understand your issue.

What I've done is implemented an alternate PropertyAccessor for collection mappings that work on underlying collection (for example idbag) but because of axis / web services needs to actually be an array.

So ultimately there are wrappers that translate between array/collection semantics but only the alternate property accessor has to use them.

Scott