I'd like hibernate to support SQL Server like "user defined types" ------------------------------------------------------------------ Key: HHH-1667 URL: http://opensource.atlassian.com/projects/hibernate/browse/HHH-1667 Project: Hibernate Core Issue Type: New Feature Components: core Affects Versions: 3.2.0.cr2 Environment: N/A Reporter: Mark Roulo SQL Server allows the creation of user defined types. These allow (I think ... I've never used SQL server) a user to define a new type (much like C typedef) that: a) Has an underlying type (e.g. Number, Text, ...) and b) Constraints (must be in range 0 to 100) The schema can then use this user defined type where it normally would require copy-and-paste of the type and the constraints. It seems that hibernate could easily add this capability even to databases that don't support it because the SQL generation could perform the copy-and-paste itself. The benefits seem pretty obvious: a) A type can be changed in one spot, if necessary b) The 'same' types become obvious ... all ints aren't the same 'type' anymore ... which helps with comprehension of the schema (which joins make sense ...) c) The constraints that *should* be the same, *ARE* the same. This helps with consistency.