Behavior of entityManager when using SpringDataJpa with Hibernate/eclipselink - java

I want to use a mix of SpringDataJpa and Eclipselink/Hibernate for persistence in my application. Till now, I have come across an approach detailed here. What I want to is use Spring Data JPARepository for CRUD operations and use a conventional #Repository bean for more complex queries or other functionality. It is important that I ensure the same entityManager is used for both, the usual method calls to the #Repository class and calls to the spring JpaRepository interface (class generated by spring).
My setup is done as in the example given here.

Don't.
Why would you split the repository bean in two (from the perspective of the user of the repository). You can have custom methods in your repository of which you completely control the implementation.
If you really want to you can always inject an EntityManager in other classes and if they participate in the same transaction (and you don't have some really weird setup) you will using the same single EntityManager in all places.

Related

How does spring instantiate a bean from a annotated interface (e.g. JpaRepository)? [duplicate]

I have been working with Spring Data JPA repository in my project for some time and I know the below points:
In the repository interfaces, we can add the methods like findByCustomerNameAndPhone() (assuming customerName and phone are fields in the domain object).
Then, Spring provides the implementation by implementing the above repository interface methods at runtime (during the application run).
I am interested on how this has been coded and I have looked at the Spring JPA source code & APIs, but I could not find answers to the questions below:
How is the repository implementation class generated at runtime & methods being implemented and injected?
Does Spring Data JPA use CGlib or any bytecode manipulation libraries to implement the methods and inject dynamically?
Could you please help with the above queries and also provide any supported documentation ?
First of all, there's no code generation going on, which means: no CGLib, no byte-code generation at all. The fundamental approach is that a JDK proxy instance is created programmatically using Spring's ProxyFactory API to back the interface and a MethodInterceptor intercepts all calls to the instance and routes the method into the appropriate places:
If the repository has been initialized with a custom implementation part (see that part of the reference documentation for details), and the method invoked is implemented in that class, the call is routed there.
If the method is a query method (see DefaultRepositoryInformation for how that is determined), the store specific query execution mechanism kicks in and executes the query determined to be executed for that method at startup. For that a resolution mechanism is in place that tries to identify explicitly declared queries in various places (using #Query on the method, JPA named queries) eventually falling back to query derivation from the method name. For the query mechanism detection, see JpaQueryLookupStrategy. The parsing logic for the query derivation can be found in PartTree. The store specific translation into an actual query can be seen e.g. in JpaQueryCreator.
If none of the above apply the method executed has to be one implemented by a store-specific repository base class (SimpleJpaRepository in case of JPA) and the call is routed into an instance of that.
The method interceptor implementing that routing logic is QueryExecutorMethodInterceptor, the high level routing logic can be found here.
The creation of those proxies is encapsulated into a standard Java based Factory pattern implementation. The high-level proxy creation can be found in RepositoryFactorySupport. The store-specific implementations then add the necessary infrastructure components so that for JPA you can go ahead and just write code like this:
EntityManager em = … // obtain an EntityManager
JpaRepositoryFactory factory = new JpaRepositoryFactory(em);
UserRepository repository = factory.getRepository(UserRepository.class);
The reason I mention that explicitly is that it should become clear that, in its core, nothing of that code requires a Spring container to run in the first place. It needs Spring as a library on the classpath (because we prefer to not reinvent the wheel), but is container agnostic in general.
To ease the integration with DI containers we've of course then built integration with Spring Java configuration, an XML namespace, but also a CDI extension, so that Spring Data can be used in plain CDI scenarios.

How are Spring Data repositories actually implemented?

I have been working with Spring Data JPA repository in my project for some time and I know the below points:
In the repository interfaces, we can add the methods like findByCustomerNameAndPhone() (assuming customerName and phone are fields in the domain object).
Then, Spring provides the implementation by implementing the above repository interface methods at runtime (during the application run).
I am interested on how this has been coded and I have looked at the Spring JPA source code & APIs, but I could not find answers to the questions below:
How is the repository implementation class generated at runtime & methods being implemented and injected?
Does Spring Data JPA use CGlib or any bytecode manipulation libraries to implement the methods and inject dynamically?
Could you please help with the above queries and also provide any supported documentation ?
First of all, there's no code generation going on, which means: no CGLib, no byte-code generation at all. The fundamental approach is that a JDK proxy instance is created programmatically using Spring's ProxyFactory API to back the interface and a MethodInterceptor intercepts all calls to the instance and routes the method into the appropriate places:
If the repository has been initialized with a custom implementation part (see that part of the reference documentation for details), and the method invoked is implemented in that class, the call is routed there.
If the method is a query method (see DefaultRepositoryInformation for how that is determined), the store specific query execution mechanism kicks in and executes the query determined to be executed for that method at startup. For that a resolution mechanism is in place that tries to identify explicitly declared queries in various places (using #Query on the method, JPA named queries) eventually falling back to query derivation from the method name. For the query mechanism detection, see JpaQueryLookupStrategy. The parsing logic for the query derivation can be found in PartTree. The store specific translation into an actual query can be seen e.g. in JpaQueryCreator.
If none of the above apply the method executed has to be one implemented by a store-specific repository base class (SimpleJpaRepository in case of JPA) and the call is routed into an instance of that.
The method interceptor implementing that routing logic is QueryExecutorMethodInterceptor, the high level routing logic can be found here.
The creation of those proxies is encapsulated into a standard Java based Factory pattern implementation. The high-level proxy creation can be found in RepositoryFactorySupport. The store-specific implementations then add the necessary infrastructure components so that for JPA you can go ahead and just write code like this:
EntityManager em = … // obtain an EntityManager
JpaRepositoryFactory factory = new JpaRepositoryFactory(em);
UserRepository repository = factory.getRepository(UserRepository.class);
The reason I mention that explicitly is that it should become clear that, in its core, nothing of that code requires a Spring container to run in the first place. It needs Spring as a library on the classpath (because we prefer to not reinvent the wheel), but is container agnostic in general.
To ease the integration with DI containers we've of course then built integration with Spring Java configuration, an XML namespace, but also a CDI extension, so that Spring Data can be used in plain CDI scenarios.

Understanding Spring and "No EntityManager with actual transaction available"

I have a Spring Boot application with Hibernate, with a bunch of DAOs annotated with #Repository and Spring's #Transactional. Everything works fine. Then I decide to move common methods (persist, find, merge) to an AbstractDao. Writing operations (persist, merge) start throwing that No EntityManager with actual transaction available for current thread - cannot reliably process 'persist' call exception. I try adding #Transactional to AbstractDao, and contrary to my expectations, it fixes it.
Why is that so? I thought that since, unlike CGLIB, Spring uses interfaces instead of extending classes, it wouldn't work, and I would need to define an interface to declare instead of my DAOs. But I also guess that I'm mixing concepts of how Spring deals with dependency management and with transactions.
Can somebody provide an explanation of why does it work? Is there a better way of dealing with this problem?

Using Services and DAOs in spring mvc controller

I'm building a web application that primarily constitutes of CRUD operations of data from back end/database. There are instances where in I have to write business logic(I'm sure we will have more business logic built as we go deeper in to development). Currently for each UI screen I'm creating I create a model class,Service class, DAO class, a controller(it's servlet essentially) and bunch of jsp pages. In most cases the service class just calls the methods from DAO to pass in model objects. Essentially we use model classes to map data from UI screens. Hence the controller will have the model objects populated when a form is submitted. I have started using service classes to keep a separation layer from web layer to DAO layer. But at times I feel that the service class is just adding unnecessary level of API calls, I would think that I could just inject the DAO in to Controller and complete the task faster. I want to use the service class only when there is additional business logic to be performed. If you have to design an application what factors do you consider using controller->DAO vs controller->Service->DAO control flow?
DAOs are more granular and deal with one specific entity. Services provide macro level functionalities and can end up using more than one DAO. Typically, Services are used for defining transaction boundaries to gain atomicity. In other words, if you end up updating multiple tables using multiple DAOs, defining transaction boundary at service will help in either committing or rollbacking all the changes done to DB.
In your design, since you are primarily doing CRUD for various entities, it may seem that services are not adding much value. However, think of web-based front end as one way of updating data. Usage of services will allow you to expose same capabilities as a web-service later to other forms of client like third party integrators, etc.
So, in summary, your design seems to be in line with conventional practices. If you feel that you can combine multiple services into one based on some common theme such that it can reduce the overhead of code, then, you should go ahead and do it. At the end of day, ultimate goal is to create maintainable code which no one is afraid to change when need arises.
In Pro-Spring-3 book they mentioned below line, for controller with JPA2
Once the EntityManagerFactory had been properly configured, injecting it into your service layer
classes is very simple.
and they are using the same class as service and repository as in below:
package com.apress.prospring3.ch10.service.jpa;
// Import statements omitted
#Service("jpaContactService")
#Repository
#Transactional
public class ContactServiceImpl implements ContactService {
private Log log = LogFactory.getLog(ContactServiceImpl.class);
#PersistenceContext
private EntityManager em;
// Other code omitted
}
but in case you are going to use spring-data CRUDRepository or JPARepository then your DAO will be Interface and you have to make service layer to handle your code
I'd reference my answer here
The long and short of it is the advantage of using a Service layer is it gives you room to move in the future if you want to do anything with Spring Security and roles etc. It allows you to handle transactions more atomically and Spring itself has really nice annotations for this.
Use a service class when dealing with more than one aggregate root.
Inject repositories (aka a dao that returns a collection) or dao's directly into controller, no need for an extra layer/class to do a basic get.
Only use service classes where necessary, otherwise you have twice as much code as required.
You can make repository generic, and annoatoate with #Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRED) which enforces a transaction is present, but won't create a new one if already present. So if you later use multple repositoes in one service class method, you will only have the one transaction.

Can I get a reference from a JPA bean to the EntityManager instance that manages it?

The question basically sums it up.
Play framework has the JPABase class that JPA beans inherit from. This class has a method called em() which returns the bean's entityManager instance. Is there something equivalent to this in plain JPA?
AFAIK, no. And I would find it very questionable. JPA entities are supposed to be POJOs usable outside of the persistence layer, where the JPA classes are not even in the classpath. Exposing the EntityManager in those POJOs seems wrong to me.
It looks like the Play Framework implements the Active Record pattern allowing you to make persistence operations directly in the bean. This is perfectly acceptable and you can implement a similar solution.
However, once you choose this approach, you will not have the benefits of POJOs. For example, this solution may not be the best alternative if your application has n-tier architecture.
Anyway take a look at the source code, it's free!
https://github.com/playframework/play/blob/master/framework/src/play/db/jpa/JPABase.java

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