JPA and SQL Server column encryption - sql-server

Question

I'm using WebSphere 7 and their JPA 2.0 implementation which is based on OpenJPA, and I have something driving me crazy. I have to connect to a SQL Server 2008 database that uses the database column encryption. The encryption is done by several database commands:
1 - OPEN SYMMETRIC KEY DECRYPTION BY CERTIFICATION
2 - Perform insert/select/update/etc using the database methods EncryptByKey or DecryptByKey
3 - CLOSE SYMMETRIC KEY
I have searched and it does not appear that OpenJPA supports this functionality. Does anybody know how to get OpenJPA to play nicely with this type of encryption? Or should I just skip JPA for this project and use good old fashioned PreparedStatements?

Answer 1

So yeah, it does look like doing a native query is only way to do this. So it comes out to something like this:
EntityManager em = getEntityManager();
Query openKey = em.createNativeQuery("OPEN SYMMETRIC KEY MY_KEY DECRYPTION BY CERTIFICATE MY_CERT");
openKey.executeUpdate();
Query query = em.createNativeQuery("SELECT FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME, CONVERT(varchar, DECRYPTBYKEY(SSN)) as SSN from report where record_id = ?", Report.class);
query.setParameter(1, recordId);
report = (Report) query.getSingleResult();
Query closeKey = em.createNativeQuery("CLOSE SYMMETRIC KEY MY_KEY");
closeKey.executeUpdate();