Hibernate trying to insert recursive object - I don't want it to

[chris gar]

I have a class with a recursive association:

  public class WorkItem implements java.io.Serializable {

    private Long id;
    ...
    private WorkItem parent;


    @Id
    @GeneratedValue
    @Column(name = "work_item_id")
    public Long getId() {
        return this.id;
    }



    @ManyToOne(optional=true)
    @JoinColumn(nullable = true )
    public WorkItem getParent() {
        return parent;
    }

  

the parent is optional but I don't think I have the correct mapping. Every time I try to insert a record with a null parent, it tries to insert a new one for the parent once the child is created. The parent field should only reference a preexisting object in the database.

Here is the error message

    
Hibernate: 
    select
    nextval ('hibernate_sequence')
Error in create (inserting in db org.hibernate.TransientObjectException: object references an unsaved transient instance - save the transient instance before flushing: data.domain.WorkItem

I'm sure it's something silly in my mapping. Any suggestions?