Java tutorial
/******************************************************************************* * Copyright (c) 2011 - 2013 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved. * * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the * terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 and Eclipse Distribution License v. 1.0 * which accompanies this distribution. * The Eclipse Public License is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html * and the Eclipse Distribution License is available at * http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/edl-v10.php. * * Contributors: * Linda DeMichiel - Java Persistence 2.1 * ******************************************************************************/ package javax.persistence; import java.lang.annotation.Target; import java.lang.annotation.Retention; import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.TYPE; import static java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME; /** * Specifies that the annotated class is a converter and defines its * scope. A converter class must be annotated with the <code>Converter</code> * annotation or defined in the object/relational mapping descriptor as * a converter. * * <p>If the <code>autoApply</code> element is specified as * <code>true</code>, the persistence provider must automatically * apply the converter to all mapped attributes of the specified * target type for all entities in the persistence unit except for * attributes for which conversion is overridden by means of the * <code>Convert</code> annotation (or XML equivalent). * * <p>In determining whether a converter is applicable to an attribute, * the provider must treat primitive types and wrapper types as * equivalent. * * <p>Note that Id attributes, version attributes, relationship * attributes, and attributes explicitly annotated as * <code>Enumerated</code> or <code>Temporal</code> (or designated as * such via XML) will not be converted. * * <p>Note that if <code>autoApply</code> is <code>true</code>, the * <code>Convert</code> annotation may be used to override or disable * auto-apply conversion on a per-attribute basis. * * <p>If <code>autoApply</code> is <code>false</code>, only those * attributes of the target type for which the <code>Convert</code> * annotation (or corresponding XML element) has been specified will * be converted. * * <p>If there is more than one converter defined for the same target * type, the <code>Convert</code> annotation should be used to * explicitly specify which converter to use. * * @see AttributeConverter * @see Convert * * @since Java Persistence 2.1 */ @Target({ TYPE }) @Retention(RUNTIME) public @interface Converter { boolean autoApply() default false; }