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Update Specific Fields with Spring Data Rest and MongoDB

I'm using Spring Data MongoDB and Spring Data Rest to create a REST API which allows GET, POST, PUT and DELETE operations on my MongoDB database and it's all working fine except for the update operations (PUT). It only works if I send the full object in the request body.
For example I have the following entity:
#Document
public class User {
#Id
private String id;
private String email;
private String lastName;
private String firstName;
private String password;
...
}
To update the lastName field, I have to send all of the user object, including the password ! which is obviously very wrong.
If I only send the field to update, all the others are set to null in my database. I even tried to add a #NotNull constraints on those fields and now the update won't even happens unless I send all of the user object's fields.
I tried searching for a solution here but I only found the following post but with no solution: How to update particular field in mongo db by using MongoRepository Interface?
Is there a way to implement this ?

Spring Data Rest uses Spring Data repositories to automatically retrieve and manipulate persistent data using Rest calls (check out https://docs.spring.io/spring-data/rest/docs/current/reference/html/#reference).
When using Spring Data MongoDB, you have the MongoOperations interface which is used as a repository for your Rest endpoints.
However MongoOperations currently does not supports specific fields updates !
PS: It will be awesome if they add this feature like #DynamicUpdate in Spring Data JPA
But this doesn't mean it can be done, here's the workaround I did when I had this issue.
Firstly let me explain what we're going to do:
We will create a controller which will override all the PUT operations so that we can implement our own update method.
Inside that update method, we will use MongoTemplate which do have the ability to update specific fields.
N.B. We don't want to re-do these steps for each model in our application, so we will retrieve which model to update dynamically. In order to do that we will create a utility class. [This is optional]
Let's start by adding the org.reflections api to our project dependency which allows us to get all the classes which have a specific annotation (#Document in our case):
<dependency>
<groupId>org.reflections</groupId>
<artifactId>reflections</artifactId>
<version>0.9.12</version>
</dependency>
Then create a new class, called UpdateUtility and add the following methods and also replace the MODEL_PACKAGE attribute with your own package containing your entities:
public class UpdateUtility {
private static final String MODEL_PACKAGE = "com.mycompany.myproject.models";
private static boolean initialized = false;
private static HashMap<String, Class> classContext = new HashMap<>();
private static void init() {
if(!initialized) {
Reflections reflections = new Reflections(MODEL_PACKAGE);
Set<Class<?>> classes = reflections.getTypesAnnotatedWith(Document.class); // Get all the classes annotated with #Document in the specified package
for(Class<?> model : classes) {
classContext.put(model.getSimpleName().toLowerCase(), model);
}
initialized = true;
}
}
public static Class getClassFromType(String type) throws Exception{
init();
if(classContext.containsKey(type)) {
return classContext.get(type);
}
else {
throw new Exception("Type " + type + " does not exists !");
}
}
}
Using this utility class we can retreive the model class to update from it's type.
E.g: UpdateUtility.getClassFromType() will returns User.class
Now let's create our controller:
public class UpdateController {
#Autowired
private MongoTemplate mongoTemplate;
#PutMapping("/{type}/{id}")
public Object update(#RequestBody HashMap<String, Object> fields,
#PathVariable(name = "type") String type,
#PathVariable(name = "id") String id) {
try {
Class classType = UpdatorUtility.getClassFromType(type); // Get the domain class from the type in the request
Query query = new Query(Criteria.where("id").is(id)); // Update the document with the given ID
Update update = new Update();
// Iterate over the send fields and add them to the update object
Iterator iterator = fields.entrySet().iterator();
while(iterator.hasNext()) {
HashMap.Entry entry = (HashMap.Entry) iterator.next();
String key = (String) entry.getKey();
Object value = entry.getValue();
update.set(key, value);
}
mongoTemplate.updateFirst(query, update, classType); // Do the update
return mongoTemplate.findById(id, classType); // Return the updated document
} catch (Exception e) {
// Handle your exception
}
}
}
Now we're able to update the specified fields without changing the calls.
So in your case, the call would be:
PUT http://MY-DOMAIN/user/MY-USER-ID { lastName: "My new last name" }
PS: You can improve it by adding the possibility to update specific field in a nested objects...

How to serialize ANY Object into a URI?

My basic question: is there anything built that already does this automatically (doesn't have to be part of a popular library/package)? The main things I'm working with are Spring (MVC) and Jackson2.
I understand there are a few manual ways to do this:
Create a method in each class that serializes its specific properties into property=value& form (kind of stinks because it's a bunch of logic duplication, I feel).
Create a function that accepts an object, and uses reflection to dynamically read all the properties (I guess the getters), and build the string by getting each. I'm assuming this is how Jackson works for serialization/deserialization in general, but I really don't know.
Use some feature of Jackson to customly serialize the object. I've researched custom serializers, but it seems they are specific to a class (so I'd have to create one for each Class I'm trying to serialize), while I was hoping for a generic way. I'm just having trouble understanding how to apply one universally to objects. A few of the links:
http://techtraits.com/Programming/2011/11/20/using-custom-serializers-with-jackson/
http://wiki.fasterxml.com/JacksonHowToCustomSerializers
Use ObjectMapper.convertValue(object, HashMap.class);, iterate over the HashMap's key/value pairs, and build the string (which is what I'm using now, but I feel the conversions are excessive?).
I'm guessing there's others I'm not thinking of.
The main post I've looked into is Java: Getting the properties of a class to construct a string representation
My point is that I have several classes that I want to be able to serialize without having to specify something specific for each. That's why I'm thinking a function using reflection (#2 above) is the only way to handle this (if I have to do it manually).
If it helps, an example of what I mean is with, say, these two classes:
public class C1 {
private String C1prop1;
private String C1prop2;
private String C1prop3;
// Getters and setters for the 3 properties
}
public class C2 {
private String C2prop1;
private String C2prop2;
private String C2prop3;
// Getters and setters for the 3 properties
}
(no, the properties names and conventions are not what my actual app is using, it's just an example)
The results of serializing would be C1prop1=value&C1prop2=value&C1prop3=value and C2prop1=value&C2prop2=value&C2prop3=value, but there's only one place that defines how the serialization happens (already defined somewhere, or created manually by me).
So my idea is that I will have to end up using a form of the following (taken from the post I linked above):
public String toString() {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
try {
Class c = Class.forName(this.getClass().getName());
Method m[] = c.getDeclaredMethods();
Object oo;
for (int i = 0; i < m.length; i++)
if (m[i].getName().startsWith("get")) {
oo = m[i].invoke(this, null);
sb.append(m[i].getName().substring(3) + ":"
+ String.valueOf(oo) + "\n");
}
} catch (Throwable e) {
System.err.println(e);
}
return sb.toString();
}
And modify it to accept an object, and change the format of the items appended to the StringBuilder. That works for me, I don't need help modifying this now.
So again, my main question is if there's something that already handles this (potentially simple) serialization instead of me having to (quickly) modify the function above, even if I have to specify how to deal with each property and value and how to combine each?
If it helps, the background of this is that I'm using a RestTemplate (Spring) to make a GET request to a different server, and I want to pass a specific object's properties/values in the URL. I understand I can use something like:
restTemplate.getForObject("URL?C1prop1={C1Prop1}&...", String.class, C1Object);
I believe the properties will be automatically mapped. But like I said, I don't want to have to make a different URL template and method for each object type. I'm hoping to have something like the following:
public String getRequest(String url, Object obj) {
String serializedUri = SERIALIZE_URI(obj);
String response = restTemplate.getForObject("URL?" + serializedUri, String.class);
return response;
}
where SERIALIZE_URI is where I'd handle it. And I could call it like getRequest("whatever", C1Object); and getRequest("whateverElse", C2Object);.

I think, solution number 4 is OK. It is simple to understand and clear.
I propose similar solution in which we can use #JsonAnySetter annotation. Please, see below example:
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonAnySetter;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
public class JacksonProgram {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
C1 c1 = new C1();
c1.setProp1("a");
c1.setProp3("c");
User user = new User();
user.setName("Tom");
user.setSurname("Irg");
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
System.out.println(mapper.convertValue(c1, UriFormat.class));
System.out.println(mapper.convertValue(user, UriFormat.class));
}
}
class UriFormat {
private StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
#JsonAnySetter
public void addToUri(String name, Object property) {
if (builder.length() > 0) {
builder.append("&");
}
builder.append(name).append("=").append(property);
}
#Override
public String toString() {
return builder.toString();
}
}
Above program prints:
prop1=a&prop2=null&prop3=c
name=Tom&surname=Irg
And your getRequest method could look like this:
public String getRequest(String url, Object obj) {
String serializedUri = mapper.convertValue(obj, UriFormat.class).toString();
String response = restTemplate.getForObject(url + "?" + serializedUri, String.class);
return response;
}

Lets we have c1.
c1.setC1prop1("C1prop1");
c1.setC1prop2("C1prop2");
c1.setC1prop3("C1prop3");
Converts c1 into URI
UriComponentsBuilder.fromHttpUrl("http://test.com")
.queryParams(new ObjectMapper().convertValue(c1, LinkedMultiValueMap.class))
.build()
.toUri());
After we will have
http://test.com?c1prop1=C1prop1&c1prop2=C1prop2&c1prop3=C1prop3

Transforming Form Field to Object on Submit

I'm rather new to Play Framework so I hope this is intelligible.
How can I tell play to map a form element to an Object field in the Form's class?
I have a form with a select dropdown of names of objects from my ORM. The values of the dropdown items are the ID field of the ORM objects.
The form object on the Java side has a field with the type of the ORM object, and a setter taking a string and translating it to the object, but on form submission I only get a form error "Invalid Value" indicating the translation is not taking place at all.
My template has a form component:
#helper.select(
createAccountForm("industry"),
helper.options(industries)
)
Where industries is defined in the template constructor by : industries: Map[String, String]
and consists of ID strings to User-Readable names.
My controller defines the class:
public static class CreateAccountForm {
public String name;
public Industry industry;
public void setIndustry(String industryId) {
this.industry = Industry.getIndustry(Integer.parseInt(industryId));
}
}
EDIT: I was doing the setter in the class because this answer indicated to do so, but that didn't work.
EDIT2:
Turns out the setter method was totally not the way to go for this. After banging my head a bit on trying to get an annotation working, I noticed the Formatters.SimpleFormatter and tried that out. It worked, though I don't understand why the extra block around it is necessary.
Global.java:
public class Global extends GlobalSettings {
// Yes, this block is necessary; no, I don't know why.
{
Formatters.register(Industry.class, new Formatters.SimpleFormatter<Industry>() {
#Override
public Industry parse(String industryId, Locale locale) throws ParseException {
return Industry.getIndustry(Integer.parseInt(industryId));
}
#Override
public String print(Industry industry, Locale locale) {
return industry.name;
}
});
}
}

Play is binding the form to an object for you when you use it like described in the documentation: https://github.com/playframework/Play20/wiki/JavaForms
So your controller should look like:
Form<models.Task> taskForm = form(models.Task.class).bindFromRequest();
if (taskForm.hasErrors()) {
return badRequest(views.html.tasks.create.render(taskForm));
}
Task task = taskForm.get();
The task object can have a Priority options list. And you use it in the form (view) like:
#select(editForm("priority.id"), options(Task.priorities), 'class -> "input-xlarge", '_label -> Messages("priority"), '_default -> Messages("make.choice"), 'showConstraints -> false, '_help -> "")
Notice that I am using priorities.id to tell play that a chosen value should be binded by a priority ID. And of course getting the priorities of the Tasks:
public static Map<String, String> priorities() {
LinkedHashMap<String, String> prioritiesList = new LinkedHashMap<String, String>();
List<Priority> priorities = Priority.getPrioritiesForTask("task");
for (Priority orderPrio : priorities) {
prioritiesList.put(orderPrio.getId().toString(), orderPrio.getDescription());
}
return prioritiesList;
}

Jackson: What happens if a property is missing?

What happens if I annotate a constructor parameter using #JsonProperty but the Json doesn't specify that property. What value does the constructor get?
How do I differentiate between a property having a null value versus a property that is not present in the JSON?

Summarizing excellent answers by Programmer Bruce and StaxMan:
Missing properties referenced by the constructor are assigned a default value as defined by Java.
You can use setter methods to differentiate between properties that are implicitly or explicitly set. Setter methods are only invoked for properties with explicit values. Setter methods can keep track of whether a property was explicitly set using a boolean flag (e.g. isValueSet).

What happens if I annotate a constructor parameter using #JsonProperty but the Json doesn't specify that property. What value does the constructor get?
For questions such as this, I like to just write a sample program and see what happens.
Following is such a sample program.
import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonProperty;
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.ObjectMapper;
public class JacksonFoo
{
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
// {"name":"Fred","id":42}
String jsonInput1 = "{\"name\":\"Fred\",\"id\":42}";
Bar bar1 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput1, Bar.class);
System.out.println(bar1);
// output:
// Bar: name=Fred, id=42
// {"name":"James"}
String jsonInput2 = "{\"name\":\"James\"}";
Bar bar2 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput2, Bar.class);
System.out.println(bar2);
// output:
// Bar: name=James, id=0
// {"id":7}
String jsonInput3 = "{\"id\":7}";
Bar bar3 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput3, Bar.class);
System.out.println(bar3);
// output:
// Bar: name=null, id=7
}
}
class Bar
{
private String name = "BLANK";
private int id = -1;
Bar(#JsonProperty("name") String n, #JsonProperty("id") int i)
{
name = n;
id = i;
}
#Override
public String toString()
{
return String.format("Bar: name=%s, id=%d", name, id);
}
}
The result is that the constructor is passed the default value for the data type.
How do I differentiate between a property having a null value versus a property that is not present in the JSON?
One simple approach would be to check for a default value post deserialization processing, since if the element were present in the JSON but had a null value, then the null value would be used to replace any default value given the corresponding Java field. For example:
import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonAutoDetect.Visibility;
import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonMethod;
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.ObjectMapper;
public class JacksonFooToo
{
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper().setVisibility(JsonMethod.FIELD, Visibility.ANY);
// {"name":null,"id":99}
String jsonInput1 = "{\"name\":null,\"id\":99}";
BarToo barToo1 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput1, BarToo.class);
System.out.println(barToo1);
// output:
// BarToo: name=null, id=99
// {"id":99}
String jsonInput2 = "{\"id\":99}";
BarToo barToo2 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput2, BarToo.class);
System.out.println(barToo2);
// output:
// BarToo: name=BLANK, id=99
// Interrogate barToo1 and barToo2 for
// the current value of the name field.
// If it's null, then it was null in the JSON.
// If it's BLANK, then it was missing in the JSON.
}
}
class BarToo
{
String name = "BLANK";
int id = -1;
#Override
public String toString()
{
return String.format("BarToo: name=%s, id=%d", name, id);
}
}
Another approach would be to implement a custom deserializer that checks for the required JSON elements. And yet another approach would be to log an enhancement request with the Jackson project at http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/JACKSON

In addition to constructor behavior explained in #Programmer_Bruce's answer, one way to differentiate between null value and missing value is to define a setter: setter is only called with explicit null value.
Custom setter can then set a private boolean flag ("isValueSet" or whatever) if you want to keep track of values set.
Setters have precedence over fields, in case both field and setter exist, so you can "override" behavior this way as well.

I'm thinking of using something in the style of an Option class, where a Nothing object would tell me if there is such a value or not. Has anyone done something like this with Jackson (in Java, not Scala, et al)?

(My answer might be useful to some people finding this thread via google, even if it doesn't answer OPs question)
If you are dealing with primitive types which are omittable, and you do not want to use a setter like described in the other answers (for example if you want your field to be final), you can use box objects:
public class Foo {
private final int number;
public Foo(#JsonProperty Integer number) {
if (number == null) {
this.number = 42; // some default value
} else {
this.number = number;
}
}
}
this doesn't work if the JSON actually contains null, but it can be sufficient if you know it will only contain primitives or be absent

another option is to validate the object after deserialization either manually or via frameworks such java bean validation or, if you are using spring, the spring validation support.

Java Annotations removing string literals from them?

Not sure if this is a decent question or not but here it goes. We are trying to implement a UI testing framework (selenium web-driver) and want to use a Page driven design for example
class HomePage {
#FindBy(how = How.Id, id="myPageHeaderID")
private String pageHeader
In the simple example above I need to hard-code the "myPageHeaderID" string literal. One of the requirements proposed is that we be able to pull in the "myPageHeaderID" from a property for both maintenance reasons (no code deploy if something changes) and for internationalization reasons. I have been searching around and probably not doing a proper search but is there any way of doing what I am asking above?

I briefly went down this route, but due to our application it wasn't quite achievable (pages aren't always displayed in the same order once you've visited a page).
public class PageElement implements WebElementAdapter, Locatable {
private How how;
private String using;
private boolean required;
#FindBy(how = How.ID_OR_NAME, using = DEFAULT_LOCATION_STRATEGY)
private WebElement backingElement;
public PageElement(How how, String using using) {
this.how = how;
this.using = using;
this.required = true;
}
/**
* This is how the overriding of the element location is done. I then injected
* these values in a spring configured bean file.
*
* This is needed on your config file:
* default-lazy-init="true" default-init-method="initialize">
*/
public final void initElement() {
if (backingElement == null || isStale() {
backingElement = getDriver().findElement(getLocationStrategy());
}
}
public By getLocationStrategy() {
By by = new ByIdOrName(using.replace(DEFAULT_LOCATION_STRATEGY, using));
switch(how) {
case CLASS_NAME:
by = By.className(using.replace(DEFAULT_LOCATION_STRATEGY, using));
break;
//Do for others
}
return by;
}
public WebElement getBackingElement() {
return backingElement;
}
}
public interface WebElementAdapter {
WebElement getBackingElement();
}
public interface Locatable {
By getLocationStrategy();
}
I then created common widgets in POJOs, and injected these into page objects which were a collection of these widgets.
From there I had a simple test harness which was responsible for taking in strings (which were then executed. Basically it allowed for test cases to be written in SpEL and act on the beans which were injected.
It was what I thought a pretty neat project, but I had to shelf it to get some other things done.

Annotations are essentially metadata. Taking database metadata for example, it would be weird if Oracle database would turn into MySQL, right? Here is the article about Annotation Transformers in TestNG. Didn't try it myself, but I think it could be implemented in some way or another.

AFAIK, you can call a method from the Annotation.
#FindBy(how = How.Id, id=getProp())
private String pageHeader;
private String getProp()
{
String prop = //whatever way you want to get the value
return prop;
}
Doesn't that work?