[hibernate-dev] AnyType mappings

[Felix Gnass]

Hello,

when using <any> mappings it's quite likely that you get 
ObjectNotFoundExceptions, as it's impossible to use on-delete cascades 
in such a scenario. Unlike other relation mappings, <any> currently does 
not support the not-found="ignore" setting.

The only work-around I came up with so far is to use a custom Type that 
extends AnyType and calls session.internalLoad(entityName, id, false, 
*true* ) instead of session.internalLoad(entityName, id, false, *false* ).

I have no idea how many people actually use the <any> mapping feature. 
While it might look like a bad design decision at the first glance, 
there are indeed some valid use-cases for such a mapping (like the audit 
log example quoted in the documentation). For none of the possible 
applications that come into my mind, the default behavior of throwing an 
ObjectNotFoundException really makes much sense. So I wonder whether it 
would be feasible to always use nullable=true in AnyType.java?

If this isn't an option, I'd like to vote for adding a 
not-found="ignore|exception" setting :-)

Best regards,
-Felix