This is a very simple example that just returns a static value.

	Note
	If Spring Security was setup, the method could return the current user. return SecurityContextHolder.getContext().getAuthentication().getName();

                
public class AuditorAwareImpl implements AuditorAware<String> {

    @Override
    public String getCurrentAuditor() {
        return "SYSTEM";
    }


}
                
            

This auditing class extends Spring Data JPA's AbstractPersistable, which has an auto-increment primary key field in it and some utility methods. The Auditable interface uses generics to take the user and it's primary key type.

	Note
	If the reference of AuditorAware was setup to be a user entity, then Spring Data JPA's AbstractAuditable could be used as the entity base. Notice the @MappedSuperclass annotation. It indicates it is designated to have it's field mappings used by subclasses.

                
@MappedSuperclass
@SuppressWarnings("serial")
public class AbstractAuditableEntity extends AbstractPersistable<Integer> implements Auditable<String, Integer> {

    private DateTime lastUpdated;
    private String lastUpdateUser;
    private DateTime created;
    private String createUser;
    
    /**
     * Gets created by audit user.
     */
    @Override
    public String getCreatedBy() {
        return createUser;
    }

    /**
     * Sets created by audit user.
     */
    @Override
    public void setCreatedBy(String createdBy) {
        this.createUser = createdBy;
    }
    
    /**
     * Gets create audit date.
     */    
    @Override
    public DateTime getCreatedDate() {
        return created;
    }

    /**
     * Sets create audit date.
     */    
    @Override
    public void setCreatedDate(DateTime creationDate) {
        this.created = creationDate;
    }

    /**
     * Gets last modified by audit user.
     */
    @Override
    public String getLastModifiedBy() {
        return lastUpdateUser;
    }
    
    /**
     * Sets last modified by audit user.
     */
    @Override
    public void setLastModifiedBy(String lastModifiedBy) {
        this.lastUpdateUser = lastModifiedBy;
    }

    /**
     * Gets last modified audit date.
     */    
    @Override
    public DateTime getLastModifiedDate() {
        return lastUpdated;
    }

    /**
     * Sets last modified audit date.
     */    
    @Override
    public void setLastModifiedDate(DateTime lastModifiedDate) {
        this.lastUpdated = lastModifiedDate;
    }

}
                
            

The Person class extends AbstractAuditableEntity. By doing that it gets a primary key and audit fields, along with getters/setters for the inherited fields, equals, and hashCode. Only the fields that are specific to this type need to be defined.

                
@Entity
@Inheritance(strategy = InheritanceType.JOINED)
@DiscriminatorColumn(name="TYPE", discriminatorType=DiscriminatorType.INTEGER)
public class Person extends AbstractAuditableEntity {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = -2175150694352541150L;

    private String firstName = null;
    private String lastName = null;

    @OneToMany(fetch=FetchType.EAGER, cascade=CascadeType.ALL)
    @JoinColumn(name="PERSON_ID", nullable=false)
    private Set<Address> addresses = null;

    ...
    
}