Native TopLink named query with named parameters

Question

Hello,
Defining my metadata in native TopLink xml and using the native TopLink's Session interface I can access and successfully execute a named query using positional parameters (parameters passed to match the ?1 ?2 etc). I used for this the Session.executeQuery(String, Class, List) method e.g.
select p from Person p where p.name = ?1
Now, how can I get the same Session to execute named queries using named parameters? None of the Session.executeQuery methods seem suitable ... Am I missing anything here? e.g.
select p from Person p where p.age = :age
I can't find in Session http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/toplink/doc/1013/main/b13698/oracle/toplink/sessions/Session.html a good match for this use-case. I would expect something like:
Session.executeQuery(String queryName, Class target, List argNames, List argValues)
or
Session.executeQuery(String queryName, Class target, Map argsKeyedByName)
but can't find any good match, can anyone please enlighten me?
Thanks in advance,
Best regards,
Giovanni

Answer 1

Hello Chris,
Many thanks for your response. I am sorry if I did not explain my problem properly.
Suppose I already defined a named query in the metadata XXXProject.xml using the <opm:querying ... this JPQL named query "customFinder" already exists and would look something like:
select p from Person p where p.firstname=:firstname and p.lastname=:lastname and p.birthdate=:birthdate
now say you want to execute this query from the Session:
Vector args = new Vector();
// how do you know the order? you shouldn't know the order!
// you know only the parameter names and that's what I mean
// about named parameters
// This args setup is wrong ... I need a way to specify to which
// parameter name each argument corresponds to. In other words
// if the named query where criteria order of parameters is modified
// perhaps because of pruning composite keys etc you won't break the
// existing code ...
args.add(new Date());
args.add("Azua");
args.add("Giovanni");
Session session = ...
session.executeQuery("customFinder", Person.class, args);
JPA supports both type of queries positional parameters and named parameters. Your explanation above is only for the first, my question refers to the later.
I have not yet found the api for this ... though I am investigating along the lines of:
Query query = session.getQuery("customFinder");
and then try to assign the arguments in the same order that the parameters are defined in query or?
Thanks in advance,
Best regards,
Giovanni
Edited by: bravegag on 29.05.2009 08:06