I’m encountering an issue with a @ManyToMany mapping in my Spring Boot application using Hibernate. The problem arises when Hibernate tries to execute a query involving the join table for a Set<Asset> in the Product entity.

Error Message:

JDBC exception executing SQL [select i1_0.variant_id,i1_1.asset_id,i1_1.date_created,i1_1.file_name,i1_1.file_path,i1_1.file_type,i1_1.last_updated,i1_1.size_in_bytes,i1_1.url from product_images i1_0 join assets i1_1 on i1_1.asset_id=i1_0.images_asset_id where i1_0.variant_id=?] [Unknown column 'i1_0.images_asset_id' in 'on clause']

It seems that Hibernate is looking for a column named images_asset_id, which means it is likely generating the SQL query based on a default naming convention rather than the specified @JoinTable and @JoinColumn annotations.

Database Schema:

assets table:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS assets
(
    asset_id      BIGINT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    file_name     VARCHAR(255),
    file_path     VARCHAR(255),
    file_type     VARCHAR(50),
    url           VARCHAR(400),
    size_in_bytes BIGINT NULL DEFAULT 0,
    date_created  TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
    last_updated  TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

products table:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS products
(
    product_id         BIGINT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    title              VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    description        LONGTEXT,
    handle             VARCHAR(255),
    price              DECIMAL(10, 2) NOT NULL,
    min_price          DECIMAL(10, 2),
    max_price          DECIMAL(10, 2),
    variant_count      INT DEFAULT 0,
    inventory_tracking ENUM ('PRODUCT', 'VARIANT') DEFAULT 'PRODUCT',
    product_type       VARCHAR(255),
    quantity           INT DEFAULT 0,
    currency_id        BIGINT,
    date_created       TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
    last_updated       TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
    FOREIGN KEY (currency_id) REFERENCES currencies (currency_id)
);

product_images table:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS product_images
(
    product_image_id BIGINT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    asset_id         BIGINT NOT NULL,
    product_id       BIGINT NOT NULL,
    variant_id       BIGINT,
    date_created     TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
    last_updated     TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
    CONSTRAINT uc_image UNIQUE (product_id, variant_id, asset_id),
    FOREIGN KEY (product_id) REFERENCES products (product_id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    FOREIGN KEY (variant_id) REFERENCES product_variants (variant_id) ON DELETE SET NULL,
    FOREIGN KEY (asset_id) REFERENCES assets (asset_id) ON DELETE CASCADE
);

Entity Classes:

Product Entity:

@Entity
@Table(name = "products")
@EntityListeners(AuditingEntityListener.class)
public class Product {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    @Column(name = "product_id", nullable = false, updatable = false)
    private Long productId;

    // other fields

    @ManyToMany
    @JoinTable(
        name = "product_images",
        joinColumns = @JoinColumn(name = "product_id"),
        inverseJoinColumns = @JoinColumn(name = "asset_id")
    )
    private Set<Asset> images;

    @CreatedDate
    @Column(nullable = false, updatable = false)
    private OffsetDateTime dateCreated;

    @LastModifiedDate
    @Column(nullable = false)
    private OffsetDateTime lastUpdated;

    // getters and setters
}

Asset Entity:

@Entity
@Table(name = "assets")
@EntityListeners(AuditingEntityListener.class)
public class Asset {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    @Column(name = "asset_id", nullable = false, updatable = false)
    private Long assetId;

    @Column(name = "file_name")
    private String fileName;

    @Column(name = "file_path")
    private String filePath;

    @Column(name = "size_in_bytes")
    private Long sizeInBytes;

    @Column(name = "file_type", length = 50)
    private String fileType;

    @Column
    private String url;

    @CreatedDate
    @Column(nullable = false, updatable = false)
    private OffsetDateTime dateCreated;

    @LastModifiedDate
    @Column(nullable = false)
    private OffsetDateTime lastUpdated;

    @ManyToMany(mappedBy = "images")
    private Set<Product> products;

    // getters and setters
}

Application Configuration:

Main Application Class:

@SpringBootApplication(scanBasePackages = {"com.syeta.common","com.syeta.admin"})
@EnableJpaRepositories(basePackages = "com.syeta.common.repos")
@EntityScan(basePackages = "com.syeta.common.domain")
public class SyetaAdminApplication {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(SyetaAdminApplication.class, args);
    }
}

Problem Description:

Despite correctly defining the @ManyToMany relationship between Product and Asset entities using the product_images join table, Hibernate is generating an SQL query that looks for a non-existent column images_asset_id in the product_images table.

What might be causing Hibernate to generate an incorrect column name in the SQL query? How can I resolve this issue to correctly map the Set<Asset> in the Product entity?

Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

What I Tried

1. Verified the product_images table has correct columns product_id and asset_id.
2. Confirmed Product and Asset entities are correctly annotated.
3. Checked @EnableJpaRepositories, @EntityScan, and @ComponentScan in the main application class.
4. Performed mvn clean install to rebuild the project.
5. Enabled SQL logging to inspect generated queries.

Expected vs. Actual Result

I expected Hibernate to map the @ManyToMany relationship correctly and generate SQL queries with product_id and asset_id. Instead, it generated a query with images_asset_id, causing the error.

Question

What might be causing Hibernate to generate an incorrect column name in the SQL query? How can I resolve this issue?