Can add extra field(s) to @ManyToMany Hibernate extra table?

If you add extra fields on a linked table (STUDENT_COURSE), you have to choose an approach according to skaffman’s answer or another as shown bellow.

There is an approach where the linked table (STUDENT_COURSE) behaves like a @Embeddable according to:

@Embeddable
public class JoinedStudentCourse {

    // Lets suppose you have added this field
    @Column(updatable=false)
    private Date joinedDate;

    @ManyToOne(fetch=FetchType.LAZY)
    @JoinColumn(name="STUDENT_ID", insertable=false, updatable=false)
    private Student student;

    @ManyToOne(fetch=FetchType.LAZY)
    @JoinColumn(name="COURSE_ID", insertable=false, updatable=false)
    private Course course;

    // getter's and setter's 

    public boolean equals(Object instance) {
        if(instance == null)
            return false;

        if(!(instance instanceof JoinedStudentCourse))
            return false;

        JoinedStudentCourse other = (JoinedStudentCourse) instance;
        if(!(student.getId().equals(other.getStudent().getId()))
            return false;

        if(!(course.getId().equals(other.getCourse().getId()))
            return false;

        // ATT: use immutable fields like joinedDate in equals() implementation
        if(!(joinedDate.equals(other.getJoinedDate()))
            return false;

        return true;
    }

    public int hashcode() {
        // hashcode implementation
    }

}

So you will have in both Student and Course classes

public class Student {

    @CollectionOfElements
    @JoinTable(
        table=@Table(name="STUDENT_COURSE"),
        joinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="STUDENT_ID")
    )
    private Set<JoinedStudentCourse> joined = new HashSet<JoinedStudentCourse>();

}

public class Course {

    @CollectionOfElements
    @JoinTable(
        table=@Table(name="STUDENT_COURSE"),
        joinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="COURSE_ID")
    )
    private Set<JoinedStudentCourse> joined = new HashSet<JoinedStudentCourse>();

}

remember: @Embeddable class has its lifecycle bound to the owning entity class (Both Student and Course), so take care of it.

advice: Hibernate team suppports these two approachs (@OneToMany (skaffman’s answer) or @CollectionsOfElements) due some limitations in @ManyToMany mapping – cascade operation.

regards,