Annotation Interface PropertyRef

@Target({FIELD,METHOD,ANNOTATION_TYPE})
@Retention(RUNTIME)
@Incubating
public @interface PropertyRef

Allows to specify the target of a foreign-key using a "target attribute" as opposed to join column(s). E.g.

    @Entity
    class Employee {
        @Id
        Integer id;
        @Column(name="ssn")
        String socialSecurityNumber;
    }
    @Entity
    class TaxDetails {
        @Id Integer id;
        @OneToOne
        @PropertyRef("socialSecurityNumber")
        Employee employee;
    }

Generally more useful with composite keys:

    @Embeddable
    class Name {
        String first;
        String last;
    }
    @Entity
    class Employee {
        @Id
        Integer id;
        @Embedded
        Name name;
    }
    @Entity
    class TaxDetails {
        @Id Integer id;
        @OneToOne
        @PropertyRef("name")
        Employee employee;
    }

API Note:

As Hibernate allows OneToMany.mappedBy() and ManyToMany.mappedBy() to refer to basic and embedded attributes already, this annotation is mainly useful for mapping to-one associations.

Required Element Summary

Required Elements

Modifier and Type	Required Element	Description
String	value	The name of the attribute on the target entity which defines the foreign-key target.

Element Details

value

String value

The name of the attribute on the target entity which defines the foreign-key target.