Hi,

The JPQL BNF prohibits this operation. From 4.10:

update_statement ::= update_clause [where_clause]
update_clause ::=UPDATE abstract_schema_name [[AS]  
identification_variable]
SET update_item {, update_item}*
update_item ::= [identification_variable.]{state_field |  
single_valued_association_field}=
new_value

The update_item must be an identification variable followed by a  
single "." with a state field or single-valued association field, so  
no embedded object.

Craig

On Sep 18, 2006, at 9:37 AM, Kevin Sutter wrote:

> Hi,
> Does OpenJPA (or JPA, for tha matter) support the updating of related
> objects via JPQL?  For example, should the following query work  
> where we are
> attempting to access the orderId on the related currentOrder object?
>
> UPDATE Customer c SET c.currentOrder.orderId = :orderId WHERE c.id =
> :customerId
>
> As you can guess, we are getting an exception and call stack from  
> OpenJPA.
> But, then we started wondering whether this is even supported by  
> the JPA
> spec.  The spec isn't clear one way or the other (or, at least, I  
> couldn't
> find a definitive answer).  Any ideas?
>
> In case you were wondering, here's the call stack:
>
> [9/16/06 16:15:52:953 EDT] 00000032 ExceptionUtil E   CNTR0020E:  
> EJB threw
> an unexpected (non-declared) exception during invocation of method
> "openOrder" on bean "BeanId 
> (OpenJPATestEAR#OpenJPATest.jar#OrderEJB, null)".
> Exception data: <4|false|0.9.0-incubating-SNAPSHOT>
> org.apache.openjpa.persistence.ArgumentException: An error occurred  
> while
> parsing the query filter 'UPDATE Customer c SET  
> c.currentOrder.orderId =
> :orderId WHERE c.id = :customerId'. Error message:
> <4|false|0.9.0-incubating-SNAPSHOT>
> org.apache.openjpa.kernel.jpql.ParseException: Encountered "." at  
> character
> 37, but expected: ["="].
>    at org.apache.openjpa.kernel.jpql.JPQLExpressionBuilder 
> $ParsedJPQL.parse
> (JPQLExpressionBuilder.java:1655)
>    at org.apache.openjpa.kernel.jpql.JPQLExpressionBuilder$ParsedJPQL
> .<init>(JPQLExpressionBuilder.java:1638)
>    at org.apache.openjpa.kernel.jpql.JPQLParser.parse 
> (JPQLParser.java:44)
>    at org.apache.openjpa.kernel.ExpressionStoreQuery.newCompilation(
> ExpressionStoreQuery.java:141)
>    at org.apache.openjpa.kernel.QueryImpl.newCompilation 
> (QueryImpl.java
> :598)
>    at org.apache.openjpa.kernel.QueryImpl.compileForCompilation(
> QueryImpl.java:581)
>    at org.apache.openjpa.kernel.QueryImpl.compileForExecutor 
> (QueryImpl.java
> :608)
>    at org.apache.openjpa.kernel.QueryImpl.getOperation 
> (QueryImpl.java:1421)
>    at org.apache.openjpa.kernel.DelegatingQuery.getOperation(
> DelegatingQuery.java:120)
>    at org.apache.openjpa.persistence.QueryImpl.executeUpdate 
> (QueryImpl.java
> :293)
> :
> :
>
> Thanks,
> Kevin

Craig Russell
Architect, Sun Java Enterprise System http://java.sun.com/products/jdo
408 276-5638 mailto:Craig.Russell@sun.com
P.S. A good JDO? O, Gasp!