Storing extended properties like information as annotations?

[Jari Häkkinen]

There is reporter annotations stored as extended properties in the database. Would it be hard to create importers to import the extended properties as annotations instead. Is there pros/cons to store the extended properties as they are done today (think extended-properties.xml) or should annotations be preferred?

[Nicklas Nordborg]

The annotation system is designed for flexibility. The extended property system is designed for performance. For example:

• Getting the value of an annotation requires 2-3 extra queries per item, the values of extended properties are part of the item and requires no extra queries. The same is true for updates and inserts.
• The annotations are full-fledged objects managed by Hibernate. Reporters are part of the Batch system and doesn't use Hibernate to the same extent. In other words, annotations are part of the Hibernate internal caching system and uses a lot more memory.

[Jari Häkkinen]

(In [2779]) Addresses #406. Removed references to annotations system since it cannot replace extended properties due to efficiency issues.