# How to retrieve the modification flags with Hibernate Envers

**URL:** <https://discourse.hibernate.org/t/how-to-retrieve-the-modification-flags-with-hibernate-envers/259>\
**Category:** Hibernate ORM\
**Created:** [February 21, 2018, 9:41am UTC](https://discourse.hibernate.org/t/how-to-retrieve-the-modification-flags-with-hibernate-envers/259 "2018-02-21T09:41:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lpenet](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.hibernate.org/lpenet/32/38_2.png) [@lpenet](https://discourse.hibernate.org/u/lpenet)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 9:41am UTC](https://discourse.hibernate.org/t/how-to-retrieve-the-modification-flags-with-hibernate-envers/259/1 "2018-02-21T09:41:07Z")

</div>

I am a (rather happy) user of Hibernate Envers for auditing changes in some of my apps.

I am most often using queries such as :

```
    AuditReader ar = AuditReaderFactory.get(em);
    List<Object[]> auditResults = ar.createQuery().forRevisionsOfEntity(MyClass.class, false, true)
            .add(AuditEntity.id().eq(id))
            .getResultList();

```

to retrieve the successive versions of an entity.

However, I see no way to leverage the modification flags that I have activated with org.hibernate.envers.global\_with\_modified\_flag.

I can, of course, do a native query on the \_audit table, but, well, it seems to me to me more a hack than a real solution.  
What would be great is to have an option to get an additional fourth object in the query results.  
It could be a List of modified property names…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vlad](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.hibernate.org/vlad/32/658_2.png) [@vlad](https://discourse.hibernate.org/u/vlad)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 9:44am UTC](https://discourse.hibernate.org/t/how-to-retrieve-the-modification-flags-with-hibernate-envers/259/2 "2018-02-21T09:44:22Z")

</div>

@Naros can you help @lpenet with this question about Envers? Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Naros](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.hibernate.org/naros/32/19_2.png) [@Naros](https://discourse.hibernate.org/u/Naros)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 4:04pm UTC](https://discourse.hibernate.org/t/how-to-retrieve-the-modification-flags-with-hibernate-envers/259/3 "2018-02-21T16:04:39Z")

</div>

Hi @lpenet!

This is actually something that was requested in [HHH-8058](https://hibernate.atlassian.net/browse/HHH-8058).

The simpliest idea was to do exactly what you suggested, as a part of the object array return, we would include a list of properties that were modified at that revision:

```auto
    /**
	 * Creates a query that selects the revisions at which the given entity was modified. Unless a
	 * projection is set, the result will be a list of 4-element arrays, containing the following:
	 * <ol>
	 * <li>The entity instance</li>
	 * <li>Revision entity, corresponding to the revision where the entity was modified. If no custom
	 * revision entity is used, this will be an instance of {@link org.hibernate.envers.DefaultRevisionEntity}.</li>
	 * <li>The revision type, an enum of class {@link org.hibernate.envers.RevisionType}.</li>
	 * <li>The names of the properties changed in this revision</li>
	 * </ol>
	 * Additional criterion may be specified to filter the result set.
	 *
	 * @param clazz Class of the entities for which to query.
	 * @param selectDeletedEntities If true, the result set will include revisions where entities were deleted.
	 *
	 * @return the audit query
	 */
	@Incubating(since = "6.0")
	public AuditQuery forRevisionsOfEntityWithChanges(Class<?> clazz, boolean selectDeletedEntities);

```

As you’ll notice this was planned to be included as part of 6; however I can go ahead and move this up to be included in the upcoming 5.3 release if that would help you.

What I’d like to hear from you is whether or not this is going to be sufficient for your needs. Ideally I prefer to keep things like this as _generalized_ as possible but also make sure it supplies ample information that it can be useful across a variety of situations.

Thoughts?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lpenet](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.hibernate.org/lpenet/32/38_2.png) [@lpenet](https://discourse.hibernate.org/u/lpenet)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 5:06pm UTC](https://discourse.hibernate.org/t/how-to-retrieve-the-modification-flags-with-hibernate-envers/259/4 "2018-02-21T17:06:48Z")

</div>

It looks great to me. What you describe is exactly what I am looking for.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![santhosh1215](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@santhosh1215](https://discourse.hibernate.org/u/santhosh1215)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 1:08pm UTC](https://discourse.hibernate.org/t/how-to-retrieve-the-modification-flags-with-hibernate-envers/259/5 "2021-12-13T13:08:05Z")

</div>

> [@Naros](#):
>
> notice this was planned to be included as part of 6;

I vote for it and awaiting for this change!!!