EclipseLink/UserGuide/MOXy/Relationships/Bidirectional Relationships

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Key API

• XmlInverseReference

Bidirectional Relationships

In order to map bidirectional relationships in EclipseLink MOXy, one of the properties must be annotated as an @XmlInverseReference. Without this annotation, the cyclic relationship will result in an infinite loop during marshalling.

In this example, an Employee has a collection of PhoneNumbers, and each PhoneNumber has a back-pointer back to its Employee:

@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
public class Employee {
   private String name;
   private List<PhoneNumber> phones = new ArrayList<PhoneNumber>();
   ...
}
 
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
public class PhoneNumber {
   private String number;
   private Employee employee;
   ...
}

When binding JPA entities to XML, there are MOXy extensions will help you map a bidirectional relationship.

In this sample model, notice that Customer has a relationship to Address, and Address has a relationship back to Customer. In JPA, one direction of the relationship is mapped (the customer property on Address); the other direction specifies a mapping to leverage.

Sample Model

 
import javax.persistence.*;
 
@Entity
public class Customer {
 
    @Id
    private long id;
 
    @OneToOne(mappedBy="customer", cascade={CascadeType.ALL})
    private Address address;
 
}
 
 
import javax.persistence.*;
 
@Entity
public class Address implements Serializable {
 
    @Id
    private long id;
 
    @MapsId
    @OneToOne
    @JoinColumn(name="ID")
    private Customer customer;
 
}

To marshal these objects to XML, mark one direction @XmlTransient' to prevent a JAXB infinite loop during marshalling. Normally, during unmarshalling (from XML-to-object), you are responsible for populating the back pointer

 
import javax.persistence.*;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.*;
 
@Entity
public class Address implements Serializable {
 
    @Id
    private long id;
 
    @OneToOne
    @JoinColumn(name="ID")
    @MapsId
    @XmlTransient
    private Customer customer;
 
}

@XMLInverseReference

With the @XmlInverseReference annotation, MOXy will populate the back pointer automatically. In this sample, notice that the @XmlInverseReference annotation leverages the same "mappedBy" concept.

 
import javax.persistence.*;
import org.eclipse.persistence.oxm.annotations.*;
 
@Entity
public class Address implements Serializable {
 
    @Id
    private long id;
 
    @OneToOne
    @JoinColumn(name="ID")
    @MapsId
    @XmlInverseReference(mappedBy="address")
    private Customer customer;
 
}

Version: 2.2.0 DRAFT
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Collections and Maps	Relationships	Advanced XML Schema Concepts
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