@OneToMany mapping but only one is needed

I have to create a new table to store version numbers of Terms&Conditions user have accepted and the time stamp of when they click accept. (This table only contains info related to user. Info about the T&C version itself is stored in another table) That means user A could have accepted 3 versions of T&Cs that has been updated over time. The only version I care most about is the latest version the user has agreed to, but I still need to keep the history of accepted versions for integrity’s sake. Scenario: > 1. I will already have the user entry in the database before the version records get stored. > 2. There can be users that has not agreed to any version of T&C. > 3. 1 User may have accepted several version of T&C over time > 4. I want to retrieve only the latest version user has accepted along with the user object with minimal step taken. > 5. If possible when I delete the user I would like it if ALL accepted version records for that user also get deleted (foreign key on cascade delete or something) How can I implement a clean solution for this? I have come up with two possibilities but I’m not sure if it’s any feasible. Solution 1: @OnetoOne unidirectional relationship with User keeping the FK reference to the latest T&C record the user has agreed to. The T&C record will keep user_id as non primary and non unique FK field. @Entity @Table(name = “user”) public class User { @Id @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY) @Column(name =“user”) Long id; @Column(name = “username”) private String username; ......... @JoinColumn(name = “terms_record_id”) @OneToOne(cascade = CascadeType.ALL) private TermsRecord termsRecord; // joined on terms_record_id to get only the latest version accepted } And the entity to record version user has accepted @Entity @Table(name = “terms_record”) public class TermsRecord { @Id @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY) @Column(name = “terms_record_id”) private Long id; @Column(name = “agreed_on”) private Date agreedOn; @column(name =“version_no”) private String versionNo; // I’m not sure if it needs to have userId in here as well? @column(name = “user_id”) private Long userId; ........ } And in the DB create table user { user_id bigint as Primary Key, ... terms_record_id FOREIGN KEY references terms_record(terms_record_id); // to refer to the most updated version } create table terms_record { terms_record_id bigint NOT NULL, user_id bigint, PRIMARY KEY(terms_record_id), FOREIGN KEY(user_id) REFERENCES User(user_id) cascade on delete // to keep the records of terms user has agreed to } In the code, it will be something like: User userA = getUser(user_id); TermsRecord tr = new TermsRecord(); tr.setVersionNo(“1.0.5”); tr.setAcceptedOn(....); userA.setTermsRecord(tr); save(userA); So in this way, if user A had accept to terms version 1.0.3 before, it won’t delete the entry from terms_record table but it will pull a different versionNo when you retrieve userA from database. Eg. userA.getTermsRecord.getVersionNo == 1.0.5 And In terms_record table terms_record_id | version_no ______________________________________ .......... | ......... 3 | 1.0.3 5 | 1.0.5 ........ | .......... Solution 2 Unidirectional @OneToMany annotation in user class With foreign key user_id stored in TermsRecord, and cascade on delete. Then retrieve the latest version manually.