Can I use Spring Data JPA Auditing without the orm.xml file (using JavaConfig instead)?

Question

I\'m trying to get Spring Data Auditing to work in my Spring 3.2.8 / Spring Data 1.5 / Hibernate 4 project.

As per the Spring Data Auditing docs, I\'ve added the

Answer 1

Short version: No

As of JPA 2.0, it is not possible to define such entity listener without an XML file (orm.xml).

JPA 2.0:

Default entity listeners—entity listeners that apply to all entities in the persistence unit—can be specified by means of the XML descriptor. (p.93)

Long version: The workaround...

If all entities in your project extends an AbstractAuditable superclass then you can put @EntityListeners({AuditingEntityListener.class}) on AbstractAuditable. Listeners attached to an entity class are inherited by its subclasses.

JPA 2.0:

Multiple entity classes and mapped superclasses in an inheritance hierarchy may define listener classes and/or lifecycle callback methods directly on the class. (p.93)

Note that a subclass can exclude explicitly an inherited listener using the @ExcludeSuperclassListeners annotation.

There is one last interesting footnote from the spec I'd like to quote:

JPA 2.0:

Excluded listeners may be reintroduced on an entity class by listing them explicitly in the EntityListeners annotation or XML entity-listeners element. (Footnote [45] p.97)

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Here is some code for illustrating the workaround:

AbstractAuditableEntity.java

import java.util.Date;

import javax.persistence.EntityListeners;
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue;
import javax.persistence.GenerationType;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.MappedSuperclass;
import javax.persistence.Temporal;
import javax.persistence.TemporalType;

import org.springframework.data.annotation.CreatedDate;
import org.springframework.data.annotation.LastModifiedDate;
import org.springframework.data.jpa.domain.support.AuditingEntityListener;

@MappedSuperclass
@EntityListeners({AuditingEntityListener.class}) // AuditingEntityListener will also audit any subclasses of AbstractAuditable...
public abstract class AbstractAuditableEntity {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue
    private Long id;

    @CreatedDate
    @Temporal(TemporalType.TIMESTAMP)
    private Date createdDate;

    @LastModifiedDate
    @Temporal(TemporalType.TIMESTAMP)
    private Date lastModifiedDate;
}

MyEntity.java

@Entity
public abstract class MyEntity extends AbstractAuditableEntity {

}

I think an interface Auditable may be used (@EntityListeners can appear on an interface) instead of an AbstractAuditable class but I didn't try...

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Reference: JSR-000317 Java Persistence 2.0 - Final Release