Hello, I have four tables in a relational database.

*First table, called "establishments", contains two fiels "db_establishment_id" and "db_establishment_name".
Here is a sample:

[code]
db_establishment_id(pk) db_establishment_name
---------------------------------------------
1 The black frog
2 The king's head
3 McDonalds
[/code]

*Second table, called "categories", contains two fields "db_category_id" and "db_category_name"
Here is a sample:
[code]
db_category_id(pk) db_category_name
-----------------------------------
1 restaurant
2 pub
[/code]


*Third table, called "establishments_qualifiers", contains two fields "db_establishment_id" and "db_id_category"
Here is a sample:
[code]
db_establishment_id(pk,fk) db_category_id(pk,fk)
--------------------------------------
1 2
2 2
2 1
3 1
[/code]

*Fourth table, called "visitors_comments", contains two fields "db_establishment_id" and "db_comment"
Here is a sample:

[code]
db_establishment_id(pk) db_comment
-----------------------------------
2 nice pub
3 cheap food
3 yok!
[/code]

My question is as follows: does one need four ejbs or can I have a single ejb here? (I'd rather have one). Ideally I'd like ONE ejb as follows:
-int establishement_id
-String name
-List categories
-List comments

How can I have a single ejb with the variables as above? Do I need BMP or CMP?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the length of my post,

Julien Martin.

In all the servers I have worked with, a CMP EJB can only be mapped to a "flat" record, that is a query that returns exactly one row (though it can join across multiple tables).

If you use BMP, you get total control of the database mapping and can do whatever you want. You pay a heavy price in extra complexity and reduced performance, though.