[eclipselink-users] dynamic columns & maps?

[Bryan Hunt <bhunt@xxxxxxx>]

I have an interesting use-case involving what I call dynamic columns  
and maps.  Consider the following class:

public void Foo
{
  private long id;
  private String name;
  private ...
  private HashMap<String, Object> attributes;
}

The objects stored in the map are basic types you can store in a  
database column such as Integer, String, Timestamp, etc.  I'd like to  
persist instances of Foo into a database table where each key of the  
attribute map corresponds to the name of a column in the table.  The  
set of keys, along with the type of data stored, is specified by a  
user-defined configuration and can change over the life of the  
project.  I also need to do queries against those key, value pairs and  
have instances of Foo returned from the database.  For example:

SELECT * FROM FOOS WHERE ERROR = 'Fatal Error'

for(Foo foo : foos)
  System.out.println(foo.getAttributes().get("ERROR")); // Will print  
"Fatal Error"

Can JPA / EclipseLink handle this use-case?

Bryan