Hibernate @OneToOne @NotNull

Question

Is it valid to declare @OneToOne and @NotNull on both sides of a relationship, such as:

class ChangeEntry
{
    @OneToOne(cascade=CascadeType.ALL)
    @NotNull
    ChangeEntryDetails changeEntryDetails;

    public void addDetails(ChangeEntryDetails details) {
       this.changeEntryDetails = details;
       details.setChangeEntry(this);
    }
 }

 class ChangeEntryDetails
 {
     @OneToOne(cascase=CascadeType.ALL)
     @NotNull
     ChangeEntry changeEntry;

     public void setChangeEntry(ChangeEntry changeEntry)
     {
          this.changeEntry = changeEntry;
     }
 }

I can't find anything that says this is invalid, but it seems that during persistence at least one side of the relationship must be violated. (Eg., if writing changeEntry first, changeEntryDetails will be null temporarily).

When trying this, I see an exception thrown not-null property references a null or transient value.

I'd like to avoid relaxing the constraint if possible, because both sides must be present.

Answer 1

It should be persisting the transient value because of your cascade type.

If you are actually trying to persist the first element before you've set the other transient element, then you'd expect this error.

The constraint you've specified only specifies that the value cannot be null in the database, rather than in the data model, clearly when you construct a new instance of the object, the reference will be null. While the reference is null you cannot persist the entity.

Answer 2

Is it valid to declare @OneToOne and @NotNull on both sides of a relationship (...) I can't find anything that says this is invalid, but it seems that during persistence at least one side of the relationship must be violated. (e.g. if writing changeEntry first, changeEntryDetails will be null temporarily).

It is valid and everything works fine with properly mapped entities. You need to declare one side of your bi-directional association as the "owning" side (this "control" the order of inserts). One possible working solution:

@Entity
@NamedQueries( { @NamedQuery(name = ChangeEntry.FIND_ALL_CHANGEENTRIES, query = "SELECT c FROM ChangeEntry c") })
public class ChangeEntry implements Serializable {
    public final static String FIND_ALL_CHANGEENTRIES = "findAllChangeEntries";

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue
    private Long id;

    @OneToOne(optional = false, cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
    @JoinColumn(name = "DETAILS_ID", unique = true, nullable = false)
    @NotNull
    private ChangeEntryDetails changeEntryDetails;

    public void addDetails(ChangeEntryDetails details) {
        this.changeEntryDetails = details;
        details.setChangeEntry(this);
    }

    // constructor, getters and setters
}

And for the other entity (note the mappedBy attribute set on the non-owning side of the association):

@Entity
public class ChangeEntryDetails implements Serializable {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue
    private Long id;

    @OneToOne(optional = false, mappedBy = "changeEntryDetails")
    @NotNull
    private ChangeEntry changeEntry;

    // constructor, getters and setters
}

With these entities, the following test (for demonstration purposes) passes:

public class ChangeEntryTest {
    private static EntityManagerFactory emf;    
    private EntityManager em;

    @BeforeClass
    public static void createEntityManagerFactory() {
        emf = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("TestPu");
    }    
    @AfterClass
    public static void closeEntityManagerFactory() {
        emf.close();
    }    
    @Before
    public void beginTransaction() {
        em = emf.createEntityManager();
        em.getTransaction().begin();
    }    
    @After
    public void rollbackTransaction() {   
        if (em.getTransaction().isActive()) {
            em.getTransaction().rollback();
        }
        if (em.isOpen()) {
            em.close();
        }
    }

    @Test 
    public void testCreateEntryWithoutDetails() {
        try {
            ChangeEntry entry = new ChangeEntry();
            em.persist(entry);
            fail("Expected ConstraintViolationException wasn't thrown.");
        } catch (ConstraintViolationException e) {
            assertEquals(1, e.getConstraintViolations().size());
            ConstraintViolation<?> violation = e.getConstraintViolations()
                .iterator().next();

            assertEquals("changeEntryDetails", violation.getPropertyPath()
                .toString());
            assertEquals(NotNull.class, violation.getConstraintDescriptor()
                .getAnnotation().annotationType());
        }
    }

    @Test
    public void testCreateDetailsWithoutEntry() {    
        try {
            ChangeEntryDetails details = new ChangeEntryDetails();
            em.persist(details);
            fail("Expected ConstraintViolationException wasn't thrown.");
        } catch (ConstraintViolationException e) {
            assertEquals(1, e.getConstraintViolations().size());
            ConstraintViolation<?> violation = e.getConstraintViolations()
                .iterator().next();

            assertEquals("changeEntry", violation.getPropertyPath()
                .toString());
            assertEquals(NotNull.class, violation.getConstraintDescriptor()
                .getAnnotation().annotationType());
        }
    }

    @Test
    public void validEntryWithDetails() {
        ChangeEntry entry = new ChangeEntry();
        ChangeEntryDetails details = new ChangeEntryDetails();
        entry.addDetails(details);
        em.persist(entry);

        Query query = em.createNamedQuery(ChangeEntry.FIND_ALL_CHANGEENTRIES);
        assertEquals(1, query.getResultList().size());
    }
}