How do you write a *batch* update for a many-to-many relationship? I can't find any documentation or examples on this.

The Contact object has a many-to-many relationship to the Owner object. This is my feeble hql attempt (although i've tried many other variations):

update Contact set Contact.owners.ownerId = :newOwnerId where Contact.owners.ownerId = :ownerId

I get error:
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: node to traverse cannot be null!

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

UPDATE queries in HQL are not allowed to join (explicit or implicit) other entities. This means that you are limited to update column that are part of the root entity of the query. In your case you are limited to update properties on the Contact entity.

But... won't the following HQL work?

Thanks for the response. Your proposed HQL won't work in my scenario because the ownerId is the primary key identiy field - that would create two owners with the same identity and I would get a SQL exception.

I guess I'll just loop through the contact's owners or create a native SQL statement for this one.

One thought - would it make sense to map the "join" table in hibernate? Is it possible to update the property of a hibernate object if is part of a compsite key? (e.g. my "join" table ContactOwner only has fields: ownerId and contactId as the composite key)