New 'entities' at runtime

dhartford · **Joined:** Fri Jul 30, 2004 4:02 pm **Posts:** 50

Hi all,
Does OGM support adding new document types (new entities) during runtime, such that they are defined during runtime then available for searching without a restart?

Usecase: Given a parent object, PetOwner, who has a list of Pets. There may be specific pet types with additional fields (Dog with breed field), but over time new pets may be added that also need additional fields (MicroPig with weight field that wasn't available in other pets, just as a random example). Attempting to find tooling that would easily support runtime definition of new entity/types and the associated data storage.

-D

emmanuel · **Posted:** Thu Dec 18, 2014 6:54 am

We don't quite have plans for what you describe. It would require Hibernate ORM to accept new entities at runtime as well. Which can be discussed.
Your problem adds an additional twist because you would want to add classes on an existing hierarchy - that requires existing structures to be made mutable.

But we are thinking of the ability to expose unmapped properties. Check out https://hibernate.atlassian.net/browse/OGM-470

Code:

{
    # common to all products
    "_id" : "1234-5678-0123-4567",
    "name": "Binford 2000",
    "description": "High performance lawnmover",
    "price": "799.99",

    # specific to category/type etc.
    "engine power": "20 PS",
    "color": "Red",
    "Cut height": "100"
}
This could be mapped to a Product entity like this:
@Entity
public class Product {

    @Id
    private long id;
    private String name;
    private double description;
    private BigDecimal price;

    @AdditionalProperties
    private Map<String, Object> additionalProperties;

    // ...
}

emmanuel · **Posted:** Thu Dec 18, 2014 6:55 am

And I forgot the question.
Would that be good enough, do you really need dynamic entities added at runtime?

dhartford · **Joined:** Fri Jul 30, 2004 4:02 pm **Posts:** 50

Thanks for the quick response!

For my usecase, having an additional properties field would fit well, since majority of time the usecases we have is there will always be a base entity type.

will vote for ticket, and add comment about possible search/sorting options either through JPA-QL or example usage.

Thanks again, this would absolutely work for my usecase.
-D

emmanuel · **Posted:** Thu Dec 18, 2014 10:00 am

Ah indeed JP-QL support should be considered for the additional properties.