[hibernate-dev] hibernate-commons-annotations and Class references

[Steve Ebersole]

Yes, SimpleValueBinder#setType is one of the places I was looking at.  
Though it would seem to me that SimpleValueBinder#fillSimpleValue might 
be more appropriate based on what I am trying to accomplish; that is 
the method where SimpleValue#setTypeUsingReflection is called which is 
the process I am trying to "hook into"[1].  But as you said, setType() 
gets an XProperty reference; fillSimpleValue() does not.

As background, this is for the new JPA 2.1 AttributeConverter feature.  
In my opinion, the best way to treat this is as a hook into this "Type 
determination" process.  If there is an AttributeConverter in effect 
for a given attribute we will essentially create a new (Basic)Type 
instance for it on-the-fly.  However, AttributeConverters can come into 
play at many levels, which is what I am trying to work through atm.  
The highest precedence is when attributes are explicitly marked with an 
@Convert annotation that names the AttributeConverter class.  Thats 
easy enough as I have access to that (in setType at least) through the 
XProperty.  Next in precedence is @Convert annotations on the entity 
owning the attribute, or any of its mapped/entity superclassses.  
Finally, we need to look at "global" AttributeConverter definitions.  
Its this second level of precedence that I am concerned about 
specifically because I need to know that the owner and all of its 
superclasses are available as XClasses.

[1] This is based on one of those non-documented assumptions that the 
old o.h.mapping model makes where SimpleValue#setTypeUsingReflection is 
used as the final call in attempts to set the value's typing 
information.  Its used as the trigger to SimpleValue that it now has 
all the information it it going to get in terms of Type determination...

On Wed 04 Jul 2012 03:12:06 AM CDT, Hardy Ferentschik wrote:
>
> On Jul 4, 2012, at 2:29 AM, Steve Ebersole wrote:
>
>> I am working in the org.hibernate.cfg.annotations.SimpleValueBinder
>> class.  I need to be able to search for an annotation that exists either
>> on the property or on the entity that defines that property (or on one
>> of that entity's super-classes).  I have no idea how to achieve this
>> with hibernate-commons-annotations.
>>
>> As far as I can tell you need to manually get the Class reference in
>> order to be able to get the XClass reference?  Is that correct?
>
> If you don't have the XClass (or Class) yet you need indeed first get a Class
> reference and then via the ReflectionManager (mappings#getReflectionManager())
> get the XClass. Then you use the XClass api.
>
>> Also, at what point, if any, during SimpleValueBinder processing can I
>> be certain that the owning entity class and its super-classes have been
>> processed?
>
> I am not sure you can. I think the class is more of a container on which you set
> properties and then at some stage you call #make(). Do you need to do this annotation
> processing at a specific point in time?
> Maybe you could do the processing in SimpleValueBinder#setType. There you are already
> dealing with XProperty and there is a fair amount of annotation processing going on.
> Not sure whether this is suitable in your case.
>
> --Hardy
>

--
steve at hibernate.org
http://hibernate.org