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What is the best way to get response without HATEOAS?

I tried get entity by Data JPA & Data Rest without HATEOAS.
The condition is that I use the HATEOAS form, and sometimes I need a pure Json response.
So I'm creating JSON by creating the controller path separately from the repository's endpoint and creating the DTO class separately.
this is my code :
#RepositoryRestController
public class MetricController {
#Autowired
private MetricRepository metricRepository;
#RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET, value = "/metrics/in/{id}")
public #ResponseBody
MetricDTO getMetric(#PathVariable Long id) {
return MetricDTO.fromEntity(metricRepository.getOne(id));
}
}
#RepositoryRestResource
public interface MetricRepository extends JpaRepository<Metric, Long> { }
#Setter
#Getter
#NoArgsConstructor
#AllArgsConstructor
public class MetricDTO {
private SourceType sourceType;
private String metricTypeField;
private String metricType;
private String instanceType;
private String instanceTypeField;
private List<String> metricIdFields;
private List<String> valueFields;
private Map<String, String> virtualFieldValueEx;
public static MetricDTO fromEntity(Metric metric) {
return new MetricDTO(
metric.getSourceType(),
metric.getMetricTypeField(),
metric.getMetricType(),
metric.getInstanceType(),
metric.getInstanceTypeField(),
metric.getMetricIdFields(),
metric.getValueFields(),
metric.getVirtualFieldValueEx()
);
}
}
It's the way I do, but I expect there will be better options and patterns.
The question is, I wonder if this is the best way.

HATEOAS (Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State) is a constraint of the REST application architecture.
It basically tells that anyone who is a consumer of your REST endpoints can navigate between them with the help of the link.
let take your example
**HTTP Method** **Relation (rel)** **Link**
GET Up /metrics/in
GET Self /metrics/in/{id}
GET SourceType /sourceType/{id}
GET metricIdFields /url for each in JSON aarray
Delete Delete /employe/{employeId}
Use org.springframework.hateoas.Links class to create such link in your DTOs.
in you DTO add
public class MetricDTO {
private Links links;
//Getters and setters
//inside your setters add SLEF , GET , create Delete for current resource
}
https://www.baeldung.com/spring-hateoas-tutorial

Spring boot - partial update best practise?

I am using Spring boot v2 with mongo database. I was wondering what is the best way to do partial updates on the data model. Say I have a model with x attributes, depending on the request I may only want to update 1, 2 , or x of them attributes. Should I be exposing an end point for each type of update operation, or is it possible to expose one end pint and do it in a generic way? Note I will need to be able to validate the contents of the request attributes (e.g tel no must be numbers only)
Thanks,

HTTP PATCH is a nice way to update a resource by specifying only the properties that have changed.
The following blog explain it very well

You can actually expose just one endpoint. This is the situation I had a few months ago:
I wanted people to modify any (or even all)fields of a Projects document (who am I to force the users to manually supply all fields lol). So I have my Model,
Project.java:
package com.foxxmg.jarvisbackend.models;
//imports
#Document(collection = "Projects")
public class Project {
#Id
public String id;
public String projectTitle;
public String projectOverview;
public Date startDate;
public Date endDate;
public List<String> assignedTo;
public String progress;
//constructors
//getters & setters
}
I have my repository:
ProjectRepository.java
package com.foxxmg.jarvisbackend.repositories;
//imports
#Repository
public interface ProjectRepository extends MongoRepository<Project, String>, QuerydslPredicateExecutor<Project> {
//please note, we are going to use findById(string) method for updating
Project findByid(String id);
//other abstract methods
}
Now to my Controller, ProjectController.java:
package com.foxxmg.jarvisbackend.controllers;
//import
#RestController
#RequestMapping("/projects")
#CrossOrigin("*")
public class ProjectController {
#Autowired
private ProjectRepository projectRepository;
#PutMapping("update/{id}")
public ResponseEntity<Project> update(#PathVariable("id") String id, #RequestBody Project project) {
Optional<Project> optionalProject = projectRepository.findById(id);
if (optionalProject.isPresent()) {
Project p = optionalProject.get();
if (project.getProjectTitle() != null)
p.setProjectTitle(project.getProjectTitle());
if (project.getProjectOverview() != null)
p.setProjectOverview(project.getProjectOverview());
if (project.getStartDate() != null)
p.setStartDate(project.getStartDate());
if (project.getEndDate() != null)
p.setEndDate(project.getEndDate());
if (project.getAssignedTo() != null)
p.setAssignedTo(project.getAssignedTo());
return new ResponseEntity<>(projectRepository.save(p), HttpStatus.OK);
} else
return new ResponseEntity<>(HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND);
}
}
That will allow partial update in MongoDB with Spring Boot.

If you are using Spring Data MongoDB, you have two options either use the MongoDB Repository or using the MongoTemplate.

filtering api with spring data jpa [duplicate]

I have a spring-mvc project that is using spring-data-jpa for data access. I have a domain object called Travel which I want to allow the end-user to apply a number of filters to it.
For that, I've implemented the following controller:
#Autowired
private TravelRepository travelRep;
#RequestMapping("/search")
public ModelAndView search(
#RequestParam(required= false, defaultValue="") String lastName,
Pageable pageable) {
ModelAndView mav = new ModelAndView("travels/list");
Page<Travel> travels = travelRep.findByLastNameLike("%"+lastName+"%", pageable);
PageWrapper<Travel> page = new PageWrapper<Travel>(travels, "/search");
mav.addObject("page", page);
mav.addObject("lastName", lastName);
return mav;
}
This works fine: The user has a form with a lastName input box which can be used to filter the Travels.
Beyond lastName, my Travel domain object has a lot more attributes by which I'd like to filter. I think that if these attributes were all strings then I could add them as #RequestParams and add a spring-data-jpa method to query by these. For instance I'd add a method findByLastNameLikeAndFirstNameLikeAndShipNameLike.
However, I don't know how should I do it when I need to filter for foreign keys. So my Travel has a period attribute that is a foreign key to the Period domain object, which I need to have it as a dropdown for the user to select the Period.
What I want to do is when the period is null I want to retrieve all travels filtered by the lastName and when the period is not null I want to retrieve all travels for this period filtered by the lastName.
I know that this can be done if I implement two methods in my repository and use an if to my controller:
public ModelAndView search(
#RequestParam(required= false, defaultValue="") String lastName,
#RequestParam(required= false, defaultValue=null) Period period,
Pageable pageable) {
ModelAndView mav = new ModelAndView("travels/list");
Page travels = null;
if(period==null) {
travels = travelRep.findByLastNameLike("%"+lastName+"%", pageable);
} else {
travels = travelRep.findByPeriodAndLastNameLike(period,"%"+lastName+"%", pageable);
}
mav.addObject("page", page);
mav.addObject("period", period);
mav.addObject("lastName", lastName);
return mav;
}
Is there a way to do this without using the if ? My Travel has not only the period but also other attributes that need to be filtered using dropdowns !! As you can understand, the complexity would be exponentially increased when I need to use more dropdowns because all the combinations'd need to be considered :(
Update 03/12/13: Continuing from M. Deinum's excelent answer, and after actually implementing it, I'd like to provide some comments for completeness of the question/asnwer:
Instead of implementing JpaSpecificationExecutor you should implement JpaSpecificationExecutor<Travel> to avoid type check warnings.
Please take a look at kostja's excellent answer to this question
Really dynamic JPA CriteriaBuilder
since you will need to implement this if you want to have correct filters.
The best documentation I was able to find for the Criteria API was http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/j-typesafejpa/. This is a rather long read but I totally recommend it - after reading it most of my questions for Root and CriteriaBuilder were answered :)
Reusing the Travel object was not possible because it contained various other objects (who also contained other objects) which I needed to search for using Like - instead I used a TravelSearch object that contained the fields I needed to search for.
Update 10/05/15: As per #priyank's request, here's how I implemented the TravelSearch object:
public class TravelSearch {
private String lastName;
private School school;
private Period period;
private String companyName;
private TravelTypeEnum travelType;
private TravelStatusEnum travelStatus;
// Setters + Getters
}
This object was used by TravelSpecification (most of the code is domain specific but I'm leaving it there as an example):
public class TravelSpecification implements Specification<Travel> {
private TravelSearch criteria;
public TravelSpecification(TravelSearch ts) {
criteria= ts;
}
#Override
public Predicate toPredicate(Root<Travel> root, CriteriaQuery<?> query,
CriteriaBuilder cb) {
Join<Travel, Candidacy> o = root.join(Travel_.candidacy);
Path<Candidacy> candidacy = root.get(Travel_.candidacy);
Path<Student> student = candidacy.get(Candidacy_.student);
Path<String> lastName = student.get(Student_.lastName);
Path<School> school = student.get(Student_.school);
Path<Period> period = candidacy.get(Candidacy_.period);
Path<TravelStatusEnum> travelStatus = root.get(Travel_.travelStatus);
Path<TravelTypeEnum> travelType = root.get(Travel_.travelType);
Path<Company> company = root.get(Travel_.company);
Path<String> companyName = company.get(Company_.name);
final List<Predicate> predicates = new ArrayList<Predicate>();
if(criteria.getSchool()!=null) {
predicates.add(cb.equal(school, criteria.getSchool()));
}
if(criteria.getCompanyName()!=null) {
predicates.add(cb.like(companyName, "%"+criteria.getCompanyName()+"%"));
}
if(criteria.getPeriod()!=null) {
predicates.add(cb.equal(period, criteria.getPeriod()));
}
if(criteria.getTravelStatus()!=null) {
predicates.add(cb.equal(travelStatus, criteria.getTravelStatus()));
}
if(criteria.getTravelType()!=null) {
predicates.add(cb.equal(travelType, criteria.getTravelType()));
}
if(criteria.getLastName()!=null ) {
predicates.add(cb.like(lastName, "%"+criteria.getLastName()+"%"));
}
return cb.and(predicates.toArray(new Predicate[predicates.size()]));
}
}
Finally, here's my search method:
#RequestMapping("/search")
public ModelAndView search(
#ModelAttribute TravelSearch travelSearch,
Pageable pageable) {
ModelAndView mav = new ModelAndView("travels/list");
TravelSpecification tspec = new TravelSpecification(travelSearch);
Page<Travel> travels = travelRep.findAll(tspec, pageable);
PageWrapper<Travel> page = new PageWrapper<Travel>(travels, "/search");
mav.addObject(travelSearch);
mav.addObject("page", page);
mav.addObject("schools", schoolRep.findAll() );
mav.addObject("periods", periodRep.findAll() );
mav.addObject("travelTypes", TravelTypeEnum.values());
mav.addObject("travelStatuses", TravelStatusEnum.values());
return mav;
}
Hope I helped!

For starters you should stop using #RequestParam and put all your search fields in an object (maybe reuse the Travel object for that). Then you have 2 options which you could use to dynamically build a query
Use the JpaSpecificationExecutor and write a Specification
Use the QueryDslPredicateExecutor and use QueryDSL to write a predicate.
Using JpaSpecificationExecutor
First add the JpaSpecificationExecutor to your TravelRepository this will give you a findAll(Specification) method and you can remove your custom finder methods.
public interface TravelRepository extends JpaRepository<Travel, Long>, JpaSpecificationExecutor<Travel> {}
Then you can create a method in your repository which uses a Specification which basically builds the query. See the Spring Data JPA documentation for this.
The only thing you need to do is create a class which implements Specification and which builds the query based on the fields which are available. The query is build using the JPA Criteria API link.
public class TravelSpecification implements Specification<Travel> {
private final Travel criteria;
public TravelSpecification(Travel criteria) {
this.criteria=criteria;
}
public Predicate toPredicate(Root<T> root, CriteriaQuery<?> query, CriteriaBuilder builder) {
// create query/predicate here.
}
}
And finally you need to modify your controller to use the new findAll method (I took the liberty to clean it up a little).
#RequestMapping("/search")
public String search(#ModelAttribute Travel search, Pageable pageable, Model model) {
Specification<Travel> spec = new TravelSpecification(search);
Page<Travel> travels = travelRep.findAll(spec, pageable);
model.addObject("page", new PageWrapper(travels, "/search"));
return "travels/list";
}
Using QueryDslPredicateExecutor
First add the QueryDslPredicateExecutor to your TravelRepository this will give you a findAll(Predicate) method and you can remove your custom finder methods.
public interface TravelRepository extends JpaRepository<Travel, Long>, QueryDslPredicateExecutor<Travel> {}
Next you would implement a service method which would use the Travel object to build a predicate using QueryDSL.
#Service
#Transactional
public class TravelService {
private final TravelRepository travels;
public TravelService(TravelRepository travels) {
this.travels=travels;
}
public Iterable<Travel> search(Travel criteria) {
BooleanExpression predicate = QTravel.travel...
return travels.findAll(predicate);
}
}
See also this bog post.

How does SpringBoot deserialize JSON, and when does it do it?

I'm currently working on a SpringBoot API to interface with a MongoRepository, but I'm having trouble understanding how the JSON being passed becomes a Document for storage within Mongo. I currently have a simple API that stores a group of users:
#Document
#JsonInclude
public class Group {
#Id
#JsonView(Views.Public.class)
private String id;
#JsonView(Views.Public.class)
private String name;
#JsonView(Views.Public.class)
private Set<GroupMember> groupMembers = new HashSet<>();
}
There are also setter and getter methods for each of the fields, although I don't know how necessary those are either (see questions at the end).
Here is the straightforward component I'm using:
#Component
#Path("/groups")
#Api(value = "/groups", description = "Group REST")
public class Groups {
#Autowired
private GroupService groupService;
#GET
#Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
#ApiOperation(value = "Get all Groups", response = Group.class, responseContainer = "List")
#JsonView(Views.Public.class)
public List<Group> getAllGroups() {
return groupService.getAllGroups();
}
#POST
#Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
#Consumes(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
#ApiOperation(value = "Create a Group", response = Group.class)
#JsonView(Views.Detailed.class)
public Group submitGroup(Group group) {
return groupService.addGroup(group);
}
}
Finally, I have a Service class:
#Service
public class GroupServiceImpl implements GroupService {
#Autowired
private GroupRepository groupRepository;
#Override
public Group addGroup(Group group) {
group.setId(null);
return groupRepository.save(group);
}
#Override
public List<Group> getAllGroups() {
return groupRepository.findAll();
}
}
The GroupRespository is simply an interface which extends MongoRepository<Group,String>
Now, when I actually make a call to the POST method, with a body containing:
{
"name": "group001",
"groupMembers": []
}
I see that it properly inserts this group with a random Mongo UUID. However, if I try to insert GroupMember objects inside the list, I receive a null pointer exception. From this, I have two questions:
How does SpringBoot (Jackson?) know which fields to deserialize from the JSON being passed? I tested this after deleting the getter and setter methods, and it still works.
How does SpringBoot handle nested objects, such as the Set inside the class? I tested with List instead of Set, and it worked, but I have no idea why. My guess is that for each object that is both declared in my class and listed in my JSON object, SpringBoot is calling a constructor that it magically created behind the scenes, and one doesn't exist for the Set interface.
Suppose I'm adamant on using Set (the same user shouldn't show up twice anyway). What tools can I use to get SpringBoot to work as expected?
It seems to me that a lot of the things that happen in Spring are very behind-the-scenes, which makes it difficult for me to understand why things work when they do. Not knowing why things work makes it difficult to construct things from scratch, which makes it feel as though I'm hacking together a project rather than actually engineering one. So my last question is something like, is there a guide that explains the wiring behind the scenes?
Finally, this is my first time working with Spring... so please excuse me if my questions are entirely off the mark, but I would appreciate any answers nonetheless.

Java Spring: Efficient design of basic CRUD controller for RESTful API

So let's say I have a simple entity defined as such:
#Entity
public class Person implements Serializable {
#Id
#GeneratedValue
private Long id;
private String fieldOne;
private String fieldTwo;
//...
private String fieldN;
}
Let's consider a simple controller for an endpoint which handles updating Person's, but only updating fields passed in that aren't empty/blank:
#Controller
#RequestMapping(value = "/api/person")
public class PersonController {
#Autowired
PersonRepository personRepository;
#RequestMapping(value = "/update", method = RequestMethod.PUT)
public void updatePerson(#RequestParam("personId") Long personId,
#RequestParam("fieldOne") String fieldOne,
#RequestParam("fieldTwo") String fieldTwo,
//...
#RequestParam("fieldN") String fieldN) {
Person toUpdate = personRepository.findOne(personId);
if(fieldOne != null && !fieldOne.isEmpty())
toUpdate.setFieldOne(fieldOne);
if(fieldTwo != null && !fieldTwo.isEmpty())
toUpdate.setFieldTwo(fieldTwo);
//...
if(fieldN != null && !fieldN.isEmpty())
toUpdate.setFieldN(fieldN);
personRepository.save(toUpdate);
}
}
Is there a more efficient approach for such updating of an instance of an entity? I thought about using the DTO and #RequestBody approach (i.e. updatePerson(#Valid #RequestBody PersonDTO personDTO) but this does more or less the same thing.
My main concern is that regardless of what approach I use, I obviously do not want to receive a null/empty string and set some field of an entity to be blank, but then I want to do this as efficiently as possible (efficiency in terms of code readability/portability and of course, runtime) and I'm not entirely sure if having hundreds of if-statements similar to what I have above is the most efficient option.

The #RequestParam actually has another argument which is defaultValue, you can use this so the argument won't never be empty & so you can reduce the checking againts empty & null values
#RequestParam(value="field" , defaultValue="****")
by using that you have already eliminated if(fieldOne != null && !fieldOne.isEmpty()) and calling toUpdate.setFieldOne(...)that wrapping the fields directly. Using defaultValue automatically sets required to false, and inserts a default value into your input argument when the request parameter is missing from your URL.