JPA Self Join using JoinTable

Question

I have 1 entity call Item in which I want to be able to link parent items to children. to use a join table to create a parent/child relationship. I haven't been able to get any good documentation on. So if anyone has any thoughts I'm all ears.

Here is what I have... which works most of the time.

public class Item implements java.io.Serializable {
     @Id
     private Long id;

     @ManyToOne(optional = true, fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
     @JoinTable(name = "ITEMTOITEM", joinColumns = { @JoinColumn(name = "ITEMID") }, inverseJoinColumns = { @JoinColumn(name = "PARENTITEMID") } )
     private Item parent;

     @OneToMany(mappedBy = "parent", fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
     private List<Item> children;
}

At times when I want to bring back objects that are tied to this item table I am getting an error of the following:

org.springframework.web.util.NestedServletException: Request processing failed; nested exception is org.springframework.webflow.engine.ActionExecutionException: Exception thrown executing [AnnotatedAction@6669ff5 targetAction = com.assisted.movein.web.common.nav.NavAction@6edf74b7, attributes = map['method' -> 'handleEntry']] in state 'oneTimeChargesAndFeesView' of flow 'in-flow' -- action execution attributes were 'map['method' -> 'handleEntry']'; nested exception is Exception [TOPLINK-4002] (Oracle TopLink Essentials - 2.0.1 (Build b04-fcs (04/11/2008))): oracle.toplink.essentials.exceptions.DatabaseException
Internal Exception: java.sql.SQLException: ORA-00904: "PARENTITEM_ITEMID": invalid identifier

 Error Code: 904
 Call: SELECT ITEMID, ITEMSHORTDESC, EFFENDDATE, ITEMDESC, PARENTITEM_ITEMID,  ITEMTYPECODE FROM ITEM WHERE (ITEMID = ?)
    bind => [1250]
Query: ReadObjectQuery(com.domain.Item)

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

After a lot of reading on JPA 2.0 I figured out that I needed a newer version of Eclipselink 2.3+ in order to support what I was trying to do. Here is the code that actually worked in my case, but it will not work due to our dependency on an older version [EclipseLink 2.0.2]. Also another project's is still using Toplink-essentials JPA 1.0 which again does like this notation.

public class Item {

@ManyToOne(optional = true, fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
@JoinTable(name = "ITEMINCENTIVESMAPPING", 
        joinColumns = { @JoinColumn(name = "INCENTIVEITEMID", referencedColumnName = "ITEMID", insertable = false, updatable = false) }, 
        inverseJoinColumns = { @JoinColumn(name = "ITEMID", referencedColumnName = "ITEMID", insertable = false, updatable = false) } )
private Item parentItem;

@OneToMany(fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
@JoinTable(name = "ITEMINCENTIVESMAPPING", 
        joinColumns = { @JoinColumn(name = "INCENTIVEITEMID", referencedColumnName = "ITEMID") }, 
        inverseJoinColumns = { @JoinColumn(name = "ITEMID", referencedColumnName = "ITEMID") } )
private List<Item> items;

}

Answer 2

Try to use @JoinColumninstead:

 @ManyToOne(optional = true, fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
 @JoinColumn(name = "PARENTITEMID", referencedColumnName = "ITEMID")
 private Item parent;

 @OneToMany(
        cascade = {CascadeType.ALL},
        orphanRemoval = true,
        fetch = FetchType.LAZY
 )
 @JoinColumn(name = "PARENTITEMID")
 private List<Item> children;

Answer 3

I believe @JoinTable is only allowed on a @OneToOne or @OneToMany or @ManyToMany, I don't think it makes any sense on a @ManyToOne. Use a @JoinColumn, or a @OneToOne.

Also your @OneToMany does not make sense, the mappedBy must be an attribute and you have no parentItem, it should be parent, and parent should use a @JoinColumn.