Hibernate 6.6 Breaking Changes - StaleObjectStateException

Breaking Changes in Spring Boot Version 3.4.0 using Hibernate

This document outlines critical breaking changes introduced in version 6.6 of the Hibernate library for Spring Boot. Developers upgrading to this version must understand and address these changes to ensure application stability and prevent unexpected failures at runtime.

Change Summary:

Hibernate version 6.6 introduces a significant alteration to the way an Entity ID is handled through Hibernate and by extension, Spring Data JPA. Previous versions allowed for inserting an id into an entity even when the id was marked @GeneratedValue. This approach has been replaced with a StaleObjectStateException for correctness. However, this means that any projects that actively insert an id will fail at runtime after Spring Boot 3.4.0. For some, this can be an insidious issue due to low areas of testing or optional insertion workflows.

The update is documented at the following jboss link: https://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/orm/6.6/migration-guide/migration-guide.html#merge-versioned-deleted

Technical Details:

A demo is available here: https://github.com/StevenPG/HibernateBreakingChangeDemo

Compilation Errors:

There are no compilation errors from this issue, the error will occur at runtime.

Runtime Exceptions:

Attempting to insert an id on a field marked with @GeneratedValue will trigger runtime exceptions:

An example exception from the linked test repository is below:

Row was updated or deleted by another transaction (or unsaved-value mapping was incorrect): [com.stevenpg.demo.ExampleEntity#1]
org.springframework.orm.ObjectOptimisticLockingFailureException: Row was updated or deleted by another transaction (or unsaved-value mapping was incorrect): [com.stevenpg.demo.ExampleEntity#1]
	at org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.HibernateJpaDialect.convertHibernateAccessException(HibernateJpaDialect.java:325)
	at org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.HibernateJpaDialect.translateExceptionIfPossible(HibernateJpaDialect.java:244)
	...
	at java.base/java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1596)
	at java.base/java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1596)
Caused by: org.hibernate.StaleObjectStateException: Row was updated or deleted by another transaction (or unsaved-value mapping was incorrect): [com.stevenpg.demo.ExampleEntity#1]
	at org.hibernate.event.internal.DefaultMergeEventListener.entityIsDetached(DefaultMergeEventListener.java:426)
	at org.hibernate.event.internal.DefaultMergeEventListener.merge(DefaultMergeEventListener.java:214)
	...
	at org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionInterceptor.invoke(TransactionInterceptor.java:119)
	at org.springframework.aop.framework.ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed(ReflectiveMethodInvocation.java:184)
	at org.springframework.dao.support.PersistenceExceptionTranslationInterceptor.invoke(PersistenceExceptionTranslationInterceptor.java:138)
	... 9 more


Row was updated or deleted by another transaction (or unsaved-value mapping was incorrect): [com.stevenpg.demo.ExampleEntity#1]
org.hibernate.StaleObjectStateException: Row was updated or deleted by another transaction (or unsaved-value mapping was incorrect): [com.stevenpg.demo.ExampleEntity#1]
	at app//org.hibernate.event.internal.DefaultMergeEventListener.entityIsDetached(DefaultMergeEventListener.java:426)
	at app//org.hibernate.event.internal.DefaultMergeEventListener.merge(DefaultMergeEventListener.java:214)
	at app//org.hibernate.event.internal.DefaultMergeEventListener.doMerge(DefaultMergeEventListener.java:152)
	...
	at java.base@21.0.3/java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1596)
	at java.base@21.0.3/java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1596)

Migration Procedures:

This can be resolved by simply downgrading to an older version of Spring Boot, or by removing the @GeneratedValue annotation from your entity. If the application intends to sometimes or always set the ID, simply allow the application to generate the random identifier.

For example,

myEntity.setId(UUID.randomUUID());

To ensure a successful upgrade, simply ensure the Hibernate version matches the table and expected error result above. Versions later than 6.6.2 are expected to include the issue.

Commentary

In my own work, we have many API endpoints that allow the user to override the identifier. Rather than have a separate identifier for the user and for the database, we instead simply insert the user’s preferred UUID.

This is now a huge issue, as we have an optional flow in each controller that allows for an insertion on an entity that contains @GeneratedValue.

We now have to do dedicated testing through our applications when upgrading past Spring Boot 3.4.0 to ensure these issues do not occur at runtime in a production environment through this breaking change.

We have simply swapped @GeneratedValue for UUID.randomUUID() where necessary, while inserting the id supplied by the user when requested.