We Keep Coding

How to handle #Autowire object in its parent classes?

I know similar questions have been asked so many times here before, but I am still confused by the mechanisms.
Here is my problem. There is a null pointer exception coming from the CategoryDAO object in the CategoryService.
#Service
public class CategoryService {
#Autowired
private CategoryDAO categoryDAO;
public List<Category> list(){
List<Category> categories = categoryDAO.list();
for (Category category : categories){
List<Record> rs = recordDAO.list(category.getID());
category.setRecordNumber(rs.size());
}
return categories;
}
public void add(String name){
Category newCategory = new Category();
newCategory.setName(name);
categoryDAO.add(newCategory);
}
}
#Repository
public class CategoryDAO {
#Autowired
private SqlSessionFactory sqlSessionFactory;
public int getTotal(){
SqlSession sqlSession = sqlSessionFactory.openSession();
List<Category> categories = sqlSession.selectList("category.selectAll");
return categories.size();
}
}
In this top rated post and this one, both of the top answers mentioned that The most preferable option is to let Spring autowire all of your beans.
Does it mean I have to also autowire the CategoryService in other classes once I need it? Which means I cannot use new operator to initialise a class if it contains autowired object?
If yes, could you please explain the reason behind it?
Thanks
UPDATE
Here is an example about using the autowired class CategoryService:
public class RecordListener implements ActionListener {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
RecordPanel panel = RecordPanel.getInstance();
if (new CategoryService().list().size() == 0){
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(panel, "NO category is recorded, set category first");
MainPanel.getInstance().getPanel().display(CategoryPanel.getInstance());
return;
}
}
The CategoryService is used in new CategoryService().list().size() == 0. If I autowire it as a property of this class here then this class will also need to be injected once I need it. I would like to avoid that so things could be easier. How can I achieve that?

Does it mean I have to also autowire the CategoryService in other classes once I need it?
Yes.
Which means I cannot use new operator to initialise a class if it contains autowired object?
Yes.
The #Autowire annotation enables you to use Dependency Injection. A technique (or good practice, actually) that makes it easy to change the implementations you use for your interfaces in your application. You define beans/component/services that will get injected whenever you use the #Autowire annotation over an attribute or a constructor parameter.
Instead of using new all over your code you just declare which concrete class should be used for an interface (or maybe the class itself) annotated with #Autowire.
Imagine you create an interface RemoteAccess and an implementation FtpRemoteAccess and then every time you need it you write RemoteAccess remoteAccess = new FtpRemoteAccess();
After a while you might end up with that line over several places. Now, if you need to change this to HttpRemoteAccess because you have this new, better alternative, you have to review all your code base. Instead, if you used dependency injection you would just change the bean (there is more than one way to do that using Spring).
For all this to work, Spring must be able to inject all the dependencies of a bean. If you create a bean, all its attributes must be injected too because Spring will create that object for you.
Clarification:
Inside your bean (namely, you classes that will be injected) you can create objects using new provided that makes sense and those object are not injected types. You are already doing that in CategoryService::add() and it is ok. Dependency injection doesn't mean you will not ever write new again. You will just avoid it for objects that will be managed by Spring dependency injection.
Then, there are other good practices that disencourage using new like the static factory method that recommend putting a static method in your class to build complete objects and letting the constructor to be private. But you don't need to apply all the patterns all the time.
UPDATE:
For your RecordListener class you have to add a CategoryService attribute and then be sure it is initialized. There are two options: you can convert RecordListener in a bean itself and have it autowired where you need that. This way Spring will construct a RecordListener object for injecting it and will also add any other bean that is needed (like CategoryService)
#Component
public class RecordListener implements ActionListener {
#Autowire
private CategoryService categoryService;
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
RecordPanel panel = RecordPanel.getInstance();
if (categoryService.list().size() == 0) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(panel, "NO category is recorded, set category first");
MainPanel.getInstance().getPanel().display(CategoryPanel.getInstance());
return;
}
}
}
The other option is you inject CategoryService in the class that is currently creating the RecordListener and then pass it as constructor argument. In that case RecordListener will not be a bean.

Incapsulating class with static wrapper method is good idea?

I have been refactoring a huge method in the project I work and came up with this idea to create a validation service like this -
public class TrickyValidation {
String validationVariable1;
String validationVariable2;
String validationVariable3;
HashMap<String, Object> itemsMap;
Object dependentObject;
#Autowired
SpringService service;
public static boolean doTrickyValidation(HashMap<String, Object> itemsMap, Object dependentObject) {
return new TrickyValidation(itemsMap, dependentObject).validate();
}
private TrickyValidation(Object itemsMap, Object dependentObject) {
this.itemsMap = itemsMap;
this.someDependentObject = dependentObject;
init();
}
private boolean validate() {
// loads of logic for validation by using validationVaribales
return true;
}
private void init() {
// Some methods to extract thease variables from itemsMap, dependentObject etc..
this.validationVariable1 = service.get(dependentObject);
this.validationVariable1 = ...;
this.validationVariable1 = ...;
}
}
My goal what I want to do here is to Encapsulate everything as much as possible and use clean code principles.
I feel a bit here like fighting spring framework because I don't want
that "TrickyValidation" class would be #Servcie and belong to spring container. Will Autowired even work here?
Is it a good design? Most likely I will use this validation in a loop. I like this solution because when I have to validate things I just simply call one and only public static method of this class TrickyValidation.doTrickyValidation(map, obj)
Any suggestions are welcome on how to improve this, or why it's a bad idea.

This code probably won't work because in the init method of the object you're trying to access service which is not autowired into this instance. In general the autowiring works only for objects managed (created by) Spring.
In this case you create "manually" the object of class TrickyValidation...
IMO the better design is to split the "Validator" object that can be Spring managed and the Validation itself that is not spring based.
#Component
public class Validator {
#Autowired
private Service service;
public boolean doTrickyValidation(HashMap<String, Object> itemsMap, Object dependentObject) {
// resolve the validation strategy from the items passed to this method.
TrickyValidation validation = resolveTrickyValidation(itemsPam, dependentObject);
return validation.validate();
}
private TrickyValidation resolveTrickyValidation(...) {
// construct the proper validation strategy
// access service if you want
}
}

Java Rest Best Practices

I'm new to rest webservice and have a novice q'. I've created a rest class and would like to use helper classes to handle certain operations. So for example I've created the following service:
import statements...
#Path("/UserResources")
public class UserResource {
//Create Spring application context
static ClassPathXmlApplicationContext ctx = new
ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("classpath:/spring.xml");
private UserResourceHelper urh = new UserResourceHelper(); // this is the helper
class UserProfileService userProfileService = ctx.getBean(UserProfileService.class);
#POST
#Path("/createUser")
#Consumes(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
public Response createUser(#Context HttpServletRequest request, Object object) {
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
User user = userProfileService.findByPrimaryKey(object);
sb.append(urh.createUser(object));
return
Response.status(Status.CREATED.getStatusCode()).entity(result.toString()).build(); } }
I have a couple of questions on this approach:
Is this the correct way to instantiate the helper class? Or should I create a constructor and instantiate the class there? for example:
public UserResource (){
urh = new UserResourceHelper();
}
On this approach will there always be a new instance of the UserResourceHelper?
If so that would mean there will not be an issue on concurrency correct? ie. 2 requests coming in at the same time and the 1st object being received by the createUser method would suddenly get replaced by the 2nd object that suddenly came in?
I'm using Hibernate for ORM. Is the way i've instantiated the entities as per my code sample correct?
Thanks for your assistance!

On this approach will there always be a new instance of the UserResourceHelper?
yes. It always creates new instance
Suggestion:
If you want to create a new service for every request, you can make this as a service instead of a helper class and you can autowire the service in the controller.
#Service
public class UserResourceService {
}
and in the controller
public class someController {
#Autowired
private UserResourceService userResourceService;
}

You can use #Autowire annotation in spring boot, it will automatically create instance of class
#Autowire
UserResourceHelper userResourceHelper;

How to access configuration in a Lagom service at startup?

I am migrating my current app in Spring/J2EE to Lagom. I am working in Java. I need to read variables from the configuration (application.conf in resources folder). In the implementation module, I try to inject configuration as a class variable like this
#Inject
private Configuration config
but when I access this config object in the constructor, it gives null pointer exception.
The whole code is like this
import play.Configuration;
public class SomeServiceImpl implements SomeService {
#Inject
private Configuration config;
public SomeServiceImpl() {
//getting configuration from application.conf
// gives exception as config is null.
String key = config.getString(“key”);
}
#Override
public ServiceCall<Request, Response> send() {
//works here, does not give exception
String key = config.getString(“key”);
}
}
Sorry, I should have been clear from the beginning. I have edited the original question. I get null pointer exception when I try to read from configuration object in constructor but I am able to use it in service call implementation. I want some way in which I can access the configuration in application.conf at startup and possibly store in some config class which can be accessed anywhere later.

In Java, when an object is instantiated, the first thing that happens (before anything else can possibly happen) is the constructor is invoked. After that, frameworks like Guice (which Lagom uses) are free to inject things, but they can't do it until the constructor has been invoked. So, all your #Inject annotated fields will be null when the constructor is invoked, there is nothing you can do to work around that.
So, don't use field injection, use constructor injection, eg:
import play.Configuration;
public class SomeServiceImpl implements SomeService {
private final Configuration config;
#Inject
public SomeServiceImpl(Configuration config) {
this.config = config;
String key = config.getString("key");
}
#Override
public ServiceCall<Request, Response> send() {
String key = config.getString("key");
}
}
Constructor injection is not just recommended for this use case, you should be using it everywhere, it avoids all these potential issues.

how to reattach singleton Spring beans upon deserialization

I want to reinject singleton-scoped dependencies into prototype Spring beans, after they have been deserialized.
Say I've got a Process bean, which depends on a Repository bean. The Repository bean is a scoped as a singleton, but the Process bean is prototype-scoped. Periodically I serialize the Process, and then later deserialize it.
class Process {
private Repository repository;
// getters, setters, etc.
}
I don't want to serialize and deserialize the Repository. Nor do I want to put "transient" on the member variable that holds a reference to it in Process, nor a reference to some kind of proxy, or anything other than a plain old member variable declared as a Repository.
What I think I want is for the Process to have its dependency filled with a serializable proxy that points (with a transient reference) to the Repository, and, upon deserialization, can find the Repository again. How could I customize Spring to do that?
I figure I could use a proxy to hold the dependency references, much like . I wish I could use that exact technique. But the proxy I've seen Spring generate isn't serializable, and the docs say that if I use it with a singleton bean, I'll get an exception.
I could use a custom scope, perhaps, on the singleton beans, that would always supply a proxy when asked for a custom-scoped bean. Is that a good idea? Other ideas?

I used this instead, without any proxy:
public class Process implements HttpSessionActivationListener {
...
#Override
public void sessionDidActivate(HttpSessionEvent e) {
ServletContext sc = e.getSession().getServletContext();
WebApplicationContext newContext = WebApplicationContextUtils
.getRequiredWebApplicationContext(sc);
newContext.getAutowireCapableBeanFactory().configureBean(this, beanName);
}
}
The example is for a web environment when the application server serializes the session, but it should work for any ApplicationContext.

Spring provides a solution for this problem.
Take a look at the spring documentation http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/spring-framework-reference/html/aop.html#aop-atconfigurable.
7.8.1 Using AspectJ to dependency inject domain objects with Spring
...
The support is intended to be used for objects created outside
of the control of any container. Domain objects often fall into
this category because they are often created programmatically
using the new operator, or by an ORM tool as a result of a database query.
The trick is to use load time weaving. Just start the jvm with -javaagent:path/to/org.springframework.instrument-{version}.jar. This agent will recognize every object that is instantiated and if it is annotated with #Configurable it will configure (inject #Autowired or #Resource dependencies) that object.
Just change the Process class to
#Configurable
class Process {
#Autowired
private transient Repository repository;
// getters, setters, etc.
}
Whenever you create a new instance
Process process = new Process();
spring will automatically inject the dependencies.
This also works if the Process object is deserialized.

How about added using aspects to add an injection step when you deserialize the object?
You would need AspectJ or similar for this. It would work very similarly to the #Configurable function in Spring.
e.g. add some advice around the a "private void readObject(ObjectInputStream in) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException" method
This article may also help: http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Programming/serialization/

I think the idea of serializing a bean and then forcing a reinjection of dependencies is not the best architecture.
How about having some sort of ProcessWrapper bean instead which could be a singleton. It would be injected with the Repository and either manages the deserialization of the Process or has a setter for it. When a new Process is set in the wrapper, it would call setRepository() on the Process. The beans that use the Process could either be set with the new one by the wrapper or call the ProcessWrapper which would delegate to the Process.
class ProcessWrapper {
private Repository repository;
private Process process;
// getters, setters, etc.
public void do() {
process.do();
}
public void setProcess(Process process) {
this.process = process;
this.process.setRepository(repository);
}
}

Answering my own question: how I've solved the problem so far is to create a base class which serializes and deserializes using a cheap little proxy. The proxy contains only the name of the bean.
You'll note that it uses a global to access the Spring context; a more elegant solution might store the context in a thread-local variable, something like that.
public abstract class CheaplySerializableBase
implements Serializable, BeanNameAware {
private String name;
private static class SerializationProxy implements Serializable {
private final String name;
public SerializationProxy(CheaplySerializableBase target) {
this.name = target.name;
}
Object readResolve() throws ObjectStreamException {
return ContextLoader.globalEvilSpringContext.getBean(name);
}
}
#Override
public void setBeanName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
protected Object writeReplace() throws ObjectStreamException {
if (name != null) {
return new SerializationProxy(this);
}
return this;
}
}
The resulting serialized object is 150 bytes or so (if I remember correctly).

The method applicationContext.getAutowireCapableBeanFactory().autowireBean(detachedBean); can be used to reconfigure a Spring-managed bean that was serialized and then de-serialized (whose #Autowired fields become null). See example below. The serialization details are omitted for simplicity.
public class DefaultFooService implements FooService {
#Autowired
private ApplicationContext ctx;
#Override
public SerializableBean bar() {
SerializableBean detachedBean = performAction();
ctx.getAutowireCapableBeanFactory().autowireBean(detachedBean);
return detachedBean;
}
private SerializableBean performAction() {
SerializableBean outcome = ... // Obtains a deserialized instance, whose #Autowired fields are detached.
return outcome;
}
}
public class SerializableBean {
#Autowired
private transient BarService barService;
private int value;
public void doSomething() {
barService.doBar(value);
}
}