Storing a Map<String,String> using JPA
JPA 2.0 supports collections of primitives through the @ElementCollection
annotation that you can use in conjunction with the support of java.util.Map
collections. Something like this should work:
@Entitypublic class Example { @Id long id; // .... @ElementCollection @MapKeyColumn(name="name") @Column(name="value") @CollectionTable(name="example_attributes", joinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="example_id")) Map<String, String> attributes = new HashMap<String, String>(); // maps from attribute name to value}
See also (in the JPA 2.0 specification)
- 2.6 - Collections of Embeddable Classes and Basic Types
- 2.7 Map Collections
- 10.1.11 - ElementCollection Annotation
- 11.1.29 MapKeyColumn Annotation
@ElementCollection(fetch = FetchType.LAZY) @CollectionTable(name = "raw_events_custom", joinColumns = @JoinColumn(name = "raw_event_id")) @MapKeyColumn(name = "field_key", length = 50) @Column(name = "field_val", length = 100) @BatchSize(size = 20) private Map<String, String> customValues = new HashMap<String, String>();
This is an example on how to set up a map with control over column and table names and field length.