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Hibernate definition of the Java Persistence 2.0 (JSR 317) API.

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// $Id: ElementCollection.java 17752 2009-10-15 01:19:21Z [email protected] $
// EJB3 Specification Copyright 2004-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
package javax.persistence;

import java.lang.annotation.Target;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.METHOD;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.FIELD;
import static java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME;
import static javax.persistence.FetchType.LAZY;

/**
 * Defines a collection of instances of a basic type or embeddable
 * class.
 * Must be specified if the collection is to be mapped by
 * means of a collection table.
 *
 *  *    Example:
 *
 *    @Entity public class Person {
 *       @Id protected String ssn;
 *       protected String name;
 *       ...
 *       @ElementCollection
 *       protected Set<String> nickNames = new HashSet();
 *         ...
 *    }
 *  
 *
 * @since Java Persistence 2.0
 */
@Target( { METHOD, FIELD })
@Retention(RUNTIME)
public @interface ElementCollection {

    /**
     * (Optional) The basic or embeddable class that is the element
     * type of the collection.  This element is optional only if the
     * collection field or property is defined using Java generics,
     * and must be specified otherwise.  It defaults to the
     * paramterized type of the collection when defined using
     * generics.
     */
    Class targetClass() default void.class;

    /**
     *  (Optional) Whether the collection should be lazily loaded or must be
     *  eagerly fetched.  The EAGER strategy is a requirement on
     *  the persistence provider runtime that the collection elements
     *  must be eagerly fetched.  The LAZY strategy is a hint to the
     *  persistence provider runtime.
     */
    FetchType fetch() default LAZY;
}