Configuring a Life Cycle Callback Method on a JPA Entity

You can specify a JPA entity class method as a callback method for any of the following life cycle events:

• Pre-persist

• Post-persist

• Pre-remove

• Post-remove

• Pre-update

• Post-update

• Post-load

The entity class method must have the following signature:

int <METHOD>()

The entity class method can have any method name as long as it does not begin with ejb.

For more information, see the following:

• "What is the JPA Entity Life Cycle?"

• "Life Cycle Callback Methods on a Bean Class"

• "Descriptor Event Manager" in the Oracle TopLink Developer's Guide

• "Configuring a Domain Object Method as an Event Handler" in the Oracle TopLink Developer's Guide

Note:

For an EJB 3.0 life cycle callback method code example, see: http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/java/oc4j/ejb3/howtos-ejb3/howtoejb30mappingannotations/doc/how-to-ejb30-mapping-annotations.html#callbacks.

Using Annotations

You can specify a JPA entity class method as a life cycle callback method using any of the following annotations:

• @PrePersist

• @PostPersist

• @PreRemove

• @PostRemove

• @PreUpdate

• @PostUpdate

• @PostLoad

Example 7-30 shows how to use the @PrePersist annotation to specify JPA entity class method initialize as a life cycle callback method.

Example 7-30 @PrePersist

@Entity
@Table(name="EJB_PROJECT")
public class Project implements Serializable {
    ...
    @Id()
    @Column(name="PROJECT_ID", primaryKey=true)
    public Integer getId() {
         return id;
    }
 
    ...
 
    @PrePersist
    public int initialize() {
        ...
    }
}