Can I use @CreationTimestamp(source = Source.DB) / @UpdateTimestamp(source = SourceType.DB) is the @EmbeddedId

Question

@Data
@Buider
@NoArgsConstructor
@AllArgsConstructor
@Embeddable
public class ComplexPkey {
   @Column(name = "pkey", nullable = false) 
   public Long pkey;
   @CreationTimestamp(source = SourceType.DB)
   @Column(name = "create_timestamp", nullable = false)
   public Date createTimestamp;
   @UpdateTimestamp(source = SourceType.DB)
   @Column(name = "update_timestamp", nullable = false)
   public Date updateTimestamp;
}

@Getter
@Setter
@Entity
@Builder
@NoArgsConstuctor
@AllArgsConstructor
public class ComplexEntity {
    @EmbeddedId
    private ComplexPkey pkey;
    private String fieldExample;
}

When using Spring JPA's save() method, I encountered a constraint error related to the timestamp fields in the embedded ID. However, when the timestamps are placed directly in the ComplexEntity, the save() operation is successful.

Is it possible to use annotations like @CreationTimestamp and @UpdateTimestamp in an @EmbeddedId, or is there another way to retrieve the timestamp data from the database for a saved entity? (database is PostgreSQL)

I tried relocating the fields to the main class, and it helped, but the main point is that I need these fields specifically in the @EmbeddedId

Answer 1

It seems like Hibernate doesn't support @CreationTimestampt and @UpdateTimestamp in Embeddables. You can take a look here: https://discourse.hibernate.org/t/java-exception-when-using-creationtimestamp-or-updatetimestamp-annotation-in-embeddable/699

Vlad Mihalcea proposes a solution: to try @PrePersist and @PreUpdate, like here: https://vladmihalcea.com/prepersist-preupdate-embeddable-jpa-hibernate/