foundation/org.eclipse.persistence.core/src/main/java/org/eclipse/persistence/annotations/SerializedObject.java

/*
 * Copyright (c) 2013, 2021 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
 *
 * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
 * terms of the Eclipse Public License v. 2.0 which is available at
 * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0,
 * or the Eclipse Distribution License v. 1.0 which is available at
 * http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/edl-v10.php.
 *
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0 OR BSD-3-Clause
 */

// Contributors:
//     24 April 2013-2.5.1 ailitche
//       SerializedObjectPolicy initial API and implementation
package org.eclipse.persistence.annotations;

import org.eclipse.persistence.config.QueryHints;

import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.TYPE;
import static java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME;

import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

import jakarta.persistence.Column;

/**
 * SerializedObject annotation is used to set an
 * org.eclipse.persistence.descriptors.SerializedObjectPolicy on an Entity or MappedSuperClass.
 *
 * If SerializedObjectPolicy is specified Eclipselink writes out the whole entity object with its
 * privately owned (and nested privately owned) entities and element collections into an additional
 * (likely BLOB) field in the database. That field could be specified in the annotation, it defaults to "SOP" in the main table.
 *
 * <p>
 * Examples:
 * <pre><code>
 * {@literal @}Entity
 * {@literal @}SerializedObject(MySerializedObjectPolicy.class);
 * public class Employee {...
 * </code></pre>
 * <pre><code>
 * {@literal @}Entity
 * {@literal @}SerializedObject(value = MySerializedObjectPolicy.class, column = @Column(name="SERIALIZED"));
 * public class Address {...
 * </code></pre>
 *
 * If SerializedObjectPolicy is set on an entity then SerializedObjectPolicies with the same field are set
 * on all inheriting entities.
 *
 * The query that uses SerializedObjectPolicy extracts the whole object from that field.
 * To read object(s) using SerializedObjectPolicy the query should specify
 * @see QueryHints#SERIALIZED_OBJECT
 *
 * <p>
 * Examples:
 * <pre><code>
 * Query query = em.createQuery("SELECT e FROM Employee e").setHint(QueryHints.SERIALIZED_OBJECT, "true");
 * </code></pre>
 * <pre><code>
 * Map hints = new HashMap();
 * hints.put("eclipselink.serialized-object", "true");
 * Address address = em.find(Address.class, id, hints);
 * </code></pre>
 *
 * The goal is to make reads from the database faster.
 * The draw back is slower writes into the database.
 * So SerializedObjectPolicy may make sense for read-only / read-mostly application
 * for Entity, which always loads all its dependent entities and / or ElementCollections.
 *
 * In case the serialized object column contains null or obsolete version of the object
 * the query using SerializedObjectPolicy would either throw exception or - if all other fields have been read, too -
 * would build the object using these fields (exactly as in case SerializedObjectPolicy is not used).
 *
 * Note that currently no default implementation of SerializedObjectPolicy is available
 * and this class should be provided by the user.
 *
 * @see org.eclipse.persistence.descriptors.SerializedObjectPolicy
 *
 * @author ailitche
 * @since EclipseLink 2.5.1
 */
@Target({TYPE})
@Retention(RUNTIME)
public @interface SerializedObject {
    /**
     * The Class that implements org.eclipse.persistence.descriptors.SerializedObjectPolicy interface.
     * This class must be specified.
     */
    Class<?> value();

    /**
     * (Optional) The column that holds the serialized object. By default it's a BLOB column named "SOP" in entity's main table.
     */
    Column column() default @Column(name="SOP");
}