@Target(TYPE) @Retention(RUNTIME) public @interface EntityListener

Declares an entity listener class and determines the entity classes to which it applies. The entity listener receives entity lifecycle callbacks for every entity class belonging to the persistence unit and assignable to one of its declared entity lifecycle callback methods. It is not necessary to separately declare the entity classes to which the listener applies.

This annotation is an alternative to EntityListeners. Callback methods of listeners declared using this annotation are invoked before callback methods of listeners declared using EntityListeners. However, there is no defined ordering among listeners declared using this annotation. If the order of invocation of callback methods is important, the entity listeners should be declared using the EntityListeners annotation instead.

Every entity listener class must have a public constructor with no parameters.

@EntityListener(Book.class)
class BookObserver { ... }

The annotated class may have callback methods annotated with any of the standard lifecycle callback annotations:

PostLoad,
PrePersist, PostPersist, PreRemove, PostRemove, and PreMerge,
PreInsert, PostInsert, PreUpdate, PostUpdate, PreUpsert, PostUpsert, PreDelete, and PostDelete.

A callback method declared by an entity listener class must have the signature void method(E entity) where E is an entity class, a mapped superclass, or a supertype of the entity class or mapped superclass to which the entity listener applies. If multiple entity classes are assignable to the type E, the callback method is invoked for any such class to which the entity listener applies.

@EntityListener
class BookObserver {

    @PostPersist
    void newBook(Book book) {
        ...
    }

}

An entity listener class may have multiple callback methods for a given type of lifecycle event, but at most one callback method for a given type of event and given parameter type.

@EntityListener
class Observer {

    // called only for Books
    @PostPersist
    void newBook(Book book) {
        ...
    }

    // called only for Authors
    @PostPersist
    void newAuthor(Author author) {
        ...
    }

    // called for any entity type to which the listener applies
    @PostLoad
    void entityLoaded(Object entity) {
        ...
    }

}

Entity listener classes in Jakarta EE environments support dependency injection through the Contexts and Dependency Injection (CDI) API when CDI is enabled. An entity listener class that makes use of CDI injection may also define lifecycle callback methods annotated with the PostConstruct and PreDestroy annotations. These methods are called after dependencies have been injected and before the entity listener instance is destroyed, respectively.

Since:

4.0

See Also:

Annotation Interface EntityListener