Re: [hibernate-dev] mutable versus immutable natural keys
On 12/07/2011 10:29 AM, Steve Ebersole wrote:
One of the enhancements I want to get into 4.1 is HHH-2879 /
HHH-2896
regarding adding an actual API for entity loading by natural key.
Woot.
However, I think at the same time we should be more explicit and
consistent about what it means when we say that a mapped natural key is
mutable or immutable. Basically, is "immutable" a hint from the user
that the values cannot change (so that we can perform certain
optimizations)? Or is "immutable" a mandate that we have to verify the
natural key has not changed, either through Hibernate or "behind" us?
Today we kind of have a blend of those two.
Personally I think we should take it as a hint from the user that the
values will not change. WDYT?
Would the hint mechanism involve any detection of changed values at all?
What would the user see if a natural key were changed?
-CB