I am making a database service that allows users to save favorite information. Several of our projects will be using this service, so each favorite needs a property to identify what project it is for. Here is the java class:

public class Favorite {
private Integer id;
private Integer uid;
private String category;
private String project; <--- project name
private Integer maxElements;
private Date creationTimestamp;
private List elements;

...methods...
}

I want to keep our database normalized so the favorite table has a project_id key that references the project table, whose only columns are id and name. Is there any way I can map the project name directly to the Favorite class without creating a Project class that only contains an id and name property? Can this be done with UserType?

Hibernate version:
2.1
Mapping documents:

Code between sessionFactory.openSession() and session.close():

Full stack trace of any exception that occurs:

Name and version of the database you are using:
MySQL 4.0.22
The generated SQL (show_sql=true):

Debug level Hibernate log excerpt:

You can do it with <join>, but this is not a good idea from a design standpoint. It makes your application much more difficult to extend.

Thanks for the response. I do not think I can use <join> as it is in v3.0, and I am here with 2.1. It seems that a many-to-one would be more appropriate anyway. Is it possible to make a UserType that can take the id and name from the referenced table and make it into a string for my favorite class?

I'm not sure about the UserType but you can map it as a m2o and just have your set method take the string from the aggregate object and store it in the project attribute.

Your POJO doesn't have to have attributes for each mapped field, just getters/setters for each one.

Be sure and specify cascade="none" so that there is no attempt to update the Project table.