I have a Spring Boot application using Hibernate where I recently added new values to an enum ContactTypeConstant used in an entity class BlockItemEntity. The entity is mapped to a PostgreSQL database.
Here's a simplified version of the entity and enum:
BlockItemEntity:
@Getter
@Setter
@NoArgsConstructor
@AllArgsConstructor
@Entity
@Table(name = "block_item", schema = "public")
public class BlockItemEntity implements Serializable {
@Id
@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
protected long id;
@Column(length = 256)
private String title;
@Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
private ContactTypeConstant contactType;
}
ContactTypeConstant:
@RequiredArgsConstructor
@Getter
public enum ContactTypeConstant {
EMAIL(10, "email"),
PHONE(20, "phone");
private final long id;
private final String title;
}
Initially, the database constraint was created without considering the additional enum values:
ALTER TABLE block_item
ADD CONSTRAINT block_item_contact_type_check
CHECK ((contact_type)::text = ANY
((ARRAY ['EMAIL'::character varying, 'PHONE'::character varying])::text[]));
Later, I introduced new enum values "MOBILE" and "SMS" to the ContactTypeConstant. When Hibernate attempts to insert a new BlockItemEntity using these updated enum values, I encounter a constraint violation error:
ERROR: new row for relation "block_item" violates check constraint "block_item_contact_type_check"
Is there a way to make Hibernate automatically update the check constraint based on the modified enum values? If not, what is the recommended approach for handling such enum changes in the database with Hibernate and Spring Boot?
I explored using ALTER TABLE to drop and recreate the table, updating the check constraint to include the new enum values. While I initially expected Hibernate to handle such updates automatically.
@Column(columnDefinition = "varchar(50)")on the enum field to store enum values as strings. This way, Hibernate didn't create a check constraint, allowing new enum values to be added without constraint violations. It worked well for my needs. – Aquifer