Hibernate: When to flush

[Choon-Chern Lim]

Is it recommended to flush everytime when insert, update or delete operation is performed?

In my web application, I currently use one transaction per user request, where all insert/update/delete/query are done before comitting the transaction and redirect to jsp. However, in one of my unique scenarios, I noticed the newly inserted row doesn't have an ID value assigned to it yet (assigned as "native" since my primary key uses DB identity) after I queried all rows.

[Mark Spritzler]

Where have you read that it is recommended to flush after every CRUD operation? That will cause more network and database traffic, which slows performance a little bit.

Mark

[Choon-Chern Lim]

If user A inserts a new record without flushing it, and user B queries the record in split second, wouldn't user B acquire that record with null ID assigned to it?

[Paul Sturrock]

Originally posted by Choon-Chern Lim:
If user A inserts a new record without flushing it, and user B queries the record in split second, wouldn't user B acquire that record with null ID assigned to it?

How would user B manage to query for a record that doesn't yet exist?

However, in one of my unique scenarios, I noticed the newly inserted row doesn't have an ID value assigned to it yet (assigned as "native" since my primary key uses DB identity) after I queried all rows.

You have an entity defined that allows a null primary key? How did your RDBMS allow you to get away with that? I ask since this violates one of the rules of that defines a PK, namely that it is unique, unchanging and not null.
[ August 09, 2006: Message edited by: Paul Sturrock ]

[Choon-Chern Lim]

All my primary keys are defined something like this:-

    
followUpOutcomeId int identity(1,1) not null constraint pk_followUpOutcome_followUpOutcomeId primary key,

In my current application, user A inserts a new record and acquires the newly inserted record.

    
TblPatient tblPatient = (TblPatient) session.load(TblPatient.class, frm.getDBPatientId());
 
TblFollowUpOutcome tblFollowUpOutcome = new TblFollowUpOutcome();
tblFollowUpOutcome.set...(...);
 
tblPatient.addFollowUpOutcome(tblFollowUpOutcome);
 
session.update(tblPatient);
//session.flush();
 
System.out.println("######################: " + tblFollowUpOutcome.getFollowUpOutcomeId());

In the above scenario, the printout displays null ID value.

When I look at the log, it seems like Hibernate only writes to database right after I do the printout.

    
[8/9/06 10:24:10:132 CDT] 00000036 SystemOut     O ######################: null
[8/9/06 10:24:10:163 CDT] 00000036 SystemOut     O Hibernate: 
    insert 
    into
        LogPatient
        (logDatetime, logUserId, logAction, medrecno, comment) 
    values
        (?, ?, ?, ?, ?)
[8/9/06 10:24:10:178 CDT] 00000036 SystemOut     O Hibernate: 
    insert 
    into
        FollowUpOutcome
        (patientId, eventType, eventDate) 
    values
        (?, ?, ?)

When I do a flush prior to printout, then it works as expected:-

    
[8/9/06 10:22:46:959 CDT] 0000004b SystemOut     O Hibernate: 
    insert 
    into
        FollowUpOutcome
        (patientId, eventType, eventDate) 
    values
        (?, ?, ?)
[8/9/06 10:22:46:990 CDT] 0000004b SystemOut     O ######################: 15

In this example, is it the time I would need to flush the session? Or is there other way to obtain the ID value?

The one-to-many relation between these 2 tables are set up like this:-

    
<class name="TblFollowUpOutcome" table="FollowUpOutcome">
 
<id name="followUpOutcomeId">
<generator class="native" />
</id>
 
<many-to-one name="patient" column="patientId" not-null="true" />

...
 
</class>
 

<class name="TblPatient" table="Patient">
 
<id name="patientId">
<generator class="native" />
</id>
 

<set name="followUpOutcomes" inverse="true" cascade="all-delete-orphan">
<key column="patientId" />
<one-to-many class="TblFollowUpOutcome" />
</set>

...
 
</class>

Any suggestion is appreciated. Thanks.

[Paul Sturrock]

One of the downsides of allowing the database to generate your id is you will have to commit the transaction in order to allow it to do this. So in the context of your application, yes you will have to flush after every insert. You won't have to flush after every update though, since an update will never change the PK (if it does, its really an insert). Nor should you need to flush after a delete, since the PK is meaninless after a delete.

[Choon-Chern Lim]

Thanks for the explanation, Paul.... it makes more sense to me now.