PI34779: IMPLEMENT A WAY TO CONFIGURE THE DEFAULT REPRESENTATION OF JPA BOOLEAN FIELDS

8.5.5.7: WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Fix Pack 7
8.5.5.8: WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Fix Pack 8
8.5.5.9: WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Fix Pack 9
8.5.5.10: WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Fix Pack 10
8.5.5.11: WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Fix Pack 11
8.5.5.12: WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Fix Pack 12
8.5.5.13: WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Fix Pack 13
8.5.5.14: WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Fix Pack 14
8.5.5.15: WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Fix Pack 15
8.5.5.17: WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Fix Pack 17
8.5.5.20: WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5.20
8.5.5.18: WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Fix Pack 18
8.5.5.19: WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Fix Pack 19
8.5.5.16: WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Fix Pack 16

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• An application may use CHAR(1) as representation for boolean
  values in an Oracle database.
  There may also exist many JPA entities which contain Java
  Boolean or boolean fields.  In WebSphere Application Server,
  this internally gets treated as numbers.
  This leads to a select * from SOMETABLE where somebooleanfield
  = 1;
  If the application has somebooleanfield defined as CHAR(2) this
  will not use any index but instead will force a full table
  space scan with using toNumber(somebooleanfield) for every
  single row.
  This results in performance degradation.
  OpenJPA jira OPENJPA-2558 was created to address the problem in
  OpenJPA...
  Implement a way to select the db representation of Boolean
  values
  https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OPENJPA-2558
  

Local fix

Problem summary

• ****************************************************************
  * USERS AFFECTED:  All users of IBM WebSphere Application      *
  *                  Server V8.5.5 who make use of Boolean       *
  *                  values and would like their own             *
  *                  representation of the Boolean value.        *
  ****************************************************************
  * PROBLEM DESCRIPTION: Implement a way to select the database  *
  *                      representation of Boolean values.       *
  ****************************************************************
  * RECOMMENDATION:                                              *
  ****************************************************************
  Many Databases do not natively support the SQL-99 BOOLEAN
  datatype. Boolean and boolean fields in JPA entities will thus
  get represented as another type in the database. OpenJPA
  currently has a hardcoded mapping to int 1/0 in the base
  DBDictionary.  However, many existing databases don't use
  NUMBER(1) as column type, rather a database may use CHAR(1)
  (because it uses less space in the index). There are also
  many other possible representations where one of those is
  usually consistently used throughout a customer application,
  for example:
  Native Boolean -> PreparedStatement#setBoolean
  Int 0/1 -> PreparedStatement#setInt
  String "Y"/"N" -> PreparedStatement#setString
  String "T"/"F" -> PreparedStatement#setString
  String "y"/"n" -> PreparedStatement#setString
  String "t"/"f" -> PreparedStatement#setString
  Some users might us translated ones like: "J"/"N" in German
  apps for "Ja"/ "Nein" (yes/no).
  Given this it should be possible to add a custom Boolean
  representation.
  

Problem conclusion

• With this fix, code has been added to OpenJPA to allow a user
  to define their own Boolean representation. OpenJPA defines a
  number of built in options which are defined in the class
  org.apache.openjpa.jdbc.sql.BooleanRepresentationFactory.
  
  To use one of the values defined in
  BooleanRepresentationFactory, for example "STRING_10", set the
  following property in the persistence.xml file:
  
  <property name="openjpa.jdbc.DBDictionary"
  value="BooleanRepresentation=STRING_10"/>
  
  A user can implement the
  org.apache.openjpa.jdbc.sql.BooleanRepresentation and then use
  this implementation as follows by setting the following in a
  persistence.xml:
  
   <property name="openjpa.jdbc.DBDictionary"
  value="(BooleanRepresentation=com.mycompany.MyOwnBoolRepresentat
  ion)"/>
  
  Where, in this example,
  "com.mycompany.MyOwnBoolRepresentation" is an implementation
  of BooleanRepresentation
  
  The fix for this APAR is currently targeted for
  inclusion in Service Level (Fix Pack) 8.5.5.8 of WebSphere
  Application Server version 8.5.5.
  
  Please refer to the recommended updates page for delivery
  information:
  http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=180&uid=swg27004980
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  WEBSPHERE APP S

• Fixed component ID

  5724J0800

Applicable component levels

• R850 PSY

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