Hibernate’s
11 Years
Old Issue

This is the story about issue number 16. A simple request for a must-have-feature in one of the most used software frameworks in the world. Issue number 16 was opened 11 years ago and is still open.

Hibernate is an ORM framework for the Java platform. And back in 2004 Hibernate was the Golden Goose of database integration. Ad-hoc joins is one of the strengths of SQL. Not so much in HQL, SQL’s evil cousin.

David Lloyd was both polite and to the point when he opened up this issue:

It would be nice to be able to do explicit joins on unrelated classes with HQL.David Lloyd

I agree – that would have been really nice. Thinking about it, I would say that it goes without saying.

Since then the issue log shows some activity. It was closed once, then reopened. One could get an impression that it’s almost done at some point, but this feature seems to be hard to get over the finish line.

Opened since 2004. I can’t believe! o.O Any progress?Bruno Braga

To join or not to join, that may be the question. The answer, however, is likely found in good ole’ SQL.

11 years after the opening of that feature request, is there any news?Anthony Ogier