JDO Arrays

JDO allows implementations to optionally support the persistence of arrays. DataNucleus provides full support for arrays in similar ways that collections are supported. DataNucleus supports persisting arrays as

  • Single Column - the array is byte-streamed into a single column in the table of the containing object.
  • Serialised - the array is serialised into single column in the table of the containing object.
  • Using a Join Table - where the array relation is persisted into the join table, with foreign-key links to an element table where the elements of the array are PersistenceCapable
  • Using a Foreign-Key in the element - only available where the array is of a PersistenceCapable type
JDO has no simple way of detecting changes to an arrays contents. To update an array you must either
  • replace the array field with the new array value
  • update the array element and then call JDOHelper.makeDirty(obj, "fieldName");


Single Column Arrays

Let's suppose you have a class something like this

So we have an Account and it has a number of permissions, each expressed as a byte. We want to persist the permissions in a single-column into the table of the account (but we don't want them serialised). We then define MetaData something like this 

<class name="Account" identity-type="datastore">
    <field name="firstName">
        <column name="FIRST_NAME" length="100" jdbc-type="VARCHAR"/>
    </field>
    <field name="lastName">
        <column column="LAST_NAME" length="100" jdbc-type="VARCHAR"/>
    </field>
    <field name="permissions" column="PERMISSIONS"/>
</class>

You could have added <array> to be explicit but the type of the field is an array, and the type declaration also defines the component type so nothing more is needed. This results in a datastore schema as follows

DataNucleus supports persistence of the following array types in this way : boolean[], byte[], char[], double[], float[], int[], long[], short[], Boolean[], Byte[], Character[], Double[], Float[], Integer[], Long[], Short[], BigDecimal[], BigInteger[]

See also :-



Serialised Arrays

Let's suppose you have a class something like this

So we have an Account and it has a number of permissions, each expressed as a byte. We want to persist the permissions as serialised into the table of the account. We then define MetaData something like this 

<class name="Account" identity-type="datastore">
    <field name="firstName">
        <column name="FIRST_NAME" length="100" jdbc-type="VARCHAR"/>
    </field>
    <field name="lastName">
        <column column="LAST_NAME" length="100" jdbc-type="VARCHAR"/>
    </field>
    <field name="permissions" serialized="true" column="PERMISSIONS"/>
</class>

That is, you define the field as serialized . To define arrays of short, long, int, or indeed any other supported array type you would do the same as above. This results in a datastore schema as follows

DataNucleus supports persistence of many array types in this way, including : boolean[], byte[], char[], double[], float[], int[], long[], short[], Boolean[], Byte[], Character[], Double[], Float[], Integer[], Long[], Short[], BigDecimal[], BigInteger[], String[], java.util.Date[], java.util.Locale[]

See also :-



Arrays persisted into Join Tables

DataNucleus will support arrays persisted into a join table. Let's take the example above and make the "permission" a class in its own right, so we have

So an Account has an array of Permission s, and both of these objects are PersistenceCapable . We want to persist the relationship using a join table. We define the MetaData as follows 

<class name="Account" table="ACCOUNT">
    <field name="firstName">
        <column name="FIRST_NAME" length="100" jdbc-type="VARCHAR"/>
    </field>
    <field name="lastName">
        <column column="LAST_NAME" length="100" jdbc-type="VARCHAR"/>
    </field>
    <field name="permissions" table="ACCOUNT_PERMISSIONS">
        <array/>
        <join column="ACCOUNT_ID"/>
        <element column="PERMISSION_ID"/>
        <order column="PERMISSION_ORDER_IDX"/>
    </field>
</class>
<class name="Permission" table="PERMISSION">
    <field name="name"/>
</class>

This results in a datastore schema as follows



See also :-



Arrays persisted using Foreign-Keys

DataNucleus will support arrays persisted via a foreign-key in the element table. This is only applicable when the array is of a PersistenceCapable type. Let's take the same example above. So we have

So an Account has an array of Permission s, and both of these objects are PersistenceCapable . We want to persist the relationship using a foreign-key in the table for the Permission class. We define the MetaData as follows 

<class name="Account" table="ACCOUNT">
    <field name="firstName">
        <column name="FIRST_NAME" length="100" jdbc-type="VARCHAR"/>
    </field>
    <field name="lastName">
        <column column="LAST_NAME" length="100" jdbc-type="VARCHAR"/>
    </field>
    <field name="permissions">
        <array/>
        <element column="ACCOUNT_ID"/>
        <order column="ACCOUNT_PERMISSION_ORDER_IDX"/>
    </field>
</class>
<class name="Permission" table="PERMISSION">
    <field name="name"/>
</class>

This results in a datastore schema as follows



See also :-