How to store meta data tags within the database

meinolf · **Joined:** Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:10 am **Posts:** 16

Hi,
I'm using hibernate Tools 3.2.0 Beta 6
and doing reverse engineering against Sybase ASE 12x.

Currently I do start generate all *.hbm.xml files by using
Ant + jdbcconfiguration, next is extending the hbm files with
"meta tags" and last but not least call hbm2java to create the
Java files.

Now I want to place the meta tag extentions, which I create
manually each time after regenerating the whole thing,
in the database. Is this possible? If so how to?

Within the documentation I saw a very small capture about
"5.4 Custom Database Metadata" but I've no idea how to use
this and on which table(s) I have to insert custom meta data tags.

Any help/example is welcome.

Best
etanrebih

max · **Posted:** Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:59 am

the only way to 'persist' the meta tags currently is in the templates.

i will (at some point) add support for specifying meta attributes in reveng.xml

meinolf · **Joined:** Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:10 am **Posts:** 16

Thanks for you answer Max,
but what is the chapter

5.4. Custom Database Metadata

in the tools documentation about?

Am I able to store Metadata e.g. key/value pairs etc.
within the database that I can access later on in a
custom templates?

If so how to do this because this is something that would help
me a lot.

Best
etanrebih

P.S. Regarding extend reveng.xml to store meta data would be a nice solution, but why not storing everything in the database? Would be much more flexible from my point of view!

max · **Posted:** Wed Sep 13, 2006 12:35 pm

its about reading database metadata, not about ORM metadata.

Its so you can implement an alternative to getting data from jdbc metadata.

And if you want to store extra stuff in the database (e.g. all of reveng.xml) then you can do that by implementing a ReverseEngineeringStrategy that get stuff from the database.

...but remember that then you will need to exclude the tables that is about reverse engineering ;)

btw. i would much rather prefer to have reveng.xml versioned in source control system than in the database - but that is just me ;)

If you implement a reverseeng strategy that can get stuff in the database (and somehow can put it in there too - have you thought about that part ?) then contribute it.