yes , i was talking about many-to-one associations I've a table USER and the user has many columns: id user_name pass email city_code the city_code column has a forigen key to CITIES table which has the columns: code name in some xml file or other config file I've parameter dropdown_colum_wildcard = %_code now everytime the seam-gen find a column that looks like %_code (i.e. city_code) and there is a forigen key on this column it will know that it should genrete a drop down list in the create/edit screens instead of association table View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4069261#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...