Hibernate: Where do insertable = false, updatable = false belong in composite primary key constellations involving foreign keys?

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When implementing composite primary keys in Hibernate or other ORMs there are up to three places where to put the insertable = false, updatable = false in composite primary key constellations that use identifying relationships (FKs that are part of the PK):

  1. Into the composite PK class' @Column annotation (@Embeddable classes only) or
  2. Into the entity class' association @JoinColumn/s annotation or
  3. Into the entity class' redundant PK property's @Column annotation (@IdClass classes only)

The third is the only way to do with @IdClass and JPA 1.0 AFAIK. See http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Java_Persistence/Identity_and_Sequencing#Primary_Keys_through_OneToOne_Relationships. I will consider only cases 1. and 2.

Q: Which way is the preferred place to put the "insertable = false, updatable = false" to generally?

I have experienced problems with Hibernate concerning this question. For example, Hibernate 3.5.x will complain about the Zips table

CREATE TABLE Zips
(
  country_code CHAR(2),
  code VARCHAR(10),
  PRIMARY KEY (country_code, code),
  FOREIGN KEY (country_code) REFERENCES Countries (iso_code)
)

with:

org.hibernate.MappingException: Repeated column in mapping for entity: com.kawoolutions.bbstats.model.Zip column: country_code (should be mapped with insert="false" update="false")
org.hibernate.mapping.PersistentClass.checkColumnDuplication(PersistentClass.java:676)
org.hibernate.mapping.PersistentClass.checkPropertyColumnDuplication(PersistentClass.java:698)
...

As you can see the country_code column is both PK and FK. Here are its classes:

Entity class:

@Entity
@Table(name = "Zips")
public class Zip implements Serializable
{
    @EmbeddedId
    private ZipId id;

    @ManyToOne
    @JoinColumn(name = "country_code", referencedColumnName = "iso_code")
    private Country country = null;
...
}

Composite PK class:

@Embeddable
public class ZipId implements Serializable
{
    @Column(name = "country_code", insertable = false, updatable = false)
    private String countryCode;

    @Column(name = "code")
    private String code;
...
}

When putting the insertable = false, updatable = false into the entity class association's @JoinColumn all exceptions disappear and everything work fine. However, I don't see why the above code should not be working. It might be Hibernate having problems with this. Is the described a Hibernate bug, as it doesn't seem to evaluate @Column "insertable = false, updatable = false"?

In essence, what's the standard JPA way, the best practice, or preference where to put "insertable = false, updatable = false"?

2 Answers
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