# Neo4j-OGM's RelationshipEntity in Spring Data Neo4j 6 **URL:** \ **Category:** Spring Data Neo4j & Neo4j-OGM\ **Tags:** spring\ **Created:** [August 24, 2021, 12:17pm UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/neo4j-ogms-relationshipentity-in-spring-data-neo4j-6/43423 "2021-08-24T12:17:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![corneil.duplessis](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/corneil.duplessis/32/3452_2.png) [@corneil.duplessis](https://community.neo4j.com/u/corneil.duplessis)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2021, 12:17pm UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/neo4j-ogms-relationshipentity-in-spring-data-neo4j-6/43423/1 "2021-08-24T12:17:29Z")
I really believe this position should be reconsidered. If I want to do the following as an example. I have something like Skill as a node. This can be linked to many other things like Course, Job, Person I don't need the models or Course or Job or Person to be aware of the relationship with Skill. and I don't want Skill to be modified when a new kind of relationship is added. I want to manipulate those relationships by themselves like I could with OGM and RelationshipEntity. By forcing ownership I am now forced to load the relationship or use projections to avoid loading the relationship and forced update the class with @Node as the owner of the relationship when adding a new kind of relationship. With RelationshipEntity I had a way of adding and querying a relationship without updating the NodeEntity until I decided I wanted that relationship as part NodeEntity. With SDN 6 I cannot manipulate arbitrary relationships. I have to go to CypherDSL or Neo4J OGM or core Neo4J API. I always thought that Nodes and Relationships have the same value and standing. This approach turns Neo4J into a Document database. If there is something I am misunderstanding I am open to being shown the error of my ways. ---
**Author:** ![gerrit.meier](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/gerrit.meier/32/27374_2.png) [@gerrit.meier](https://community.neo4j.com/u/gerrit.meier)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 1:53pm UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/neo4j-ogms-relationshipentity-in-spring-data-neo4j-6/43423/2 "2021-08-25T13:53:56Z")
Picture me surprise: You mean that you never before attached a `@RelationshipEntity` to a `@NodeEntity`? And you are right: If you want to just pick and edit a relationship that is not owned by a node you have to go the manual route. Either be it SDN's `Neo4jClient` or the Java driver directly. Why we did it this way (and it probably won't change in the future): Also in Neo4j itself a relationship cannot live on it's own. There always needs to be a start and an end node. Bringing this into our object model world, the relationship is the natural connection between different nodes. This is for me a very similar concept like the well known mapping tables in the relational database world. Also something you would not regularly fetch from the database with a ORM. What would be interesting for me: Why would you avoid the ownership at all cost? ---
**Author:** ![corneil.duplessis](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/corneil.duplessis/32/3452_2.png) [@corneil.duplessis](https://community.neo4j.com/u/corneil.duplessis)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 3:21pm UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/neo4j-ogms-relationshipentity-in-spring-data-neo4j-6/43423/3 "2021-08-25T15:21:50Z")
In most cases, I have @NodeEntity the owns the @Relationship. There are cases where I will end up loading far too much data if I model the relationship via ownership in a @NodeEntity. In those cases, I like being able to model and manipulate the @RelationshipEntity. That option is now gone. This means that a part of the model cannot be expressed like the rest of the model, I have to document it separately and manipulate it via CyperDSL or Direct API.