For a certain Hibernate entity we have a requirement to store its creation time and the last time it was updated. How would you design this?
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What data types would you use in the database (assuming MySQL, possibly in a different timezone that the JVM)? Will the data types be timezone-aware?
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What data types would you use in Java (
Date,Calendar,long, …)? -
Whom would you make responsible for setting the timestamps—the database, the ORM framework (Hibernate), or the application programmer?
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What annotations would you use for the mapping (e.g.
@Temporal)?
I’m not only looking for a working solution, but for a safe and well-designed solution.