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Spring Data Rest: Limit sending values on Update method

I have implemented by project using Spring-Data-Rest. I am trying to do an update on an existing record in a table. But when I try to send only a few fields instead of all the fields(present in Entity class) through my request, Spring-Data-Rest thinking I am sending null/empty values. Finally when I go and see the database the fields which I am not sending through my request are overridden with null/empty values. So my understanding is that even though I am not sending these values, spring data rest sees them in the Entity class and sending these values as null/empty. My question here is, is there a way to disable the fields when doing UPDATE that I am not sending through the request. Appreciate you are any help.
Update: I was using PUT method. After reading the comments, I changed it to PATCH and its working perfectly now. Appreciate all the help

Before update, load object from database, using jpa method findById return object call target.
Then copy all fields that not null/empty from object-want-to-update to target, finally save the target object.
This is code example:
public void update(Object objectWantToUpdate) {
Object target = repository.findById(objectWantToUpdate.getId());
copyNonNullProperties(objectWantToUpdate, target);
repository.save(target);
}
public void copyNonNullProperties(Object source, Object target) {
BeanUtils.copyProperties(source, target, getNullPropertyNames(source));
}
public String[] getNullPropertyNames (Object source) {
final BeanWrapper src = new BeanWrapperImpl(source);
PropertyDescriptor[] propDesList = src.getPropertyDescriptors();
Set<String> emptyNames = new HashSet<String>();
for(PropertyDescriptor propDesc : propDesList) {
Object srcValue = src.getPropertyValue(propDesc.getName());
if (srcValue == null) {
emptyNames.add(propDesc.getName());
}
}
String[] result = new String[emptyNames.size()];
return emptyNames.toArray(result);
}

You can write custom update query which updates only particular fields:
#Override
public void saveManager(Manager manager) {
Query query = sessionFactory.getCurrentSession().createQuery("update Manager set username = :username, password = :password where id = :id");
query.setParameter("username", manager.getUsername());
query.setParameter("password", manager.getPassword());
query.setParameter("id", manager.getId());
query.executeUpdate();
}

As some of the comments pointed out using PATCH instead of PUT resolved the issue. Appreciate all the inputs. The following is from Spring Data Rest Documentation:
"The PUT method replaces the state of the target resource with the supplied request body.
The PATCH method is similar to the PUT method but partially updates the resources state."
https://docs.spring.io/spring-data/rest/docs/current/reference/html/#customizing-sdr.hiding-repository-crud-methods
Also, I like #Tran Quoc Vu answer but not implementing it for now since I dont have to use custom controller. If there is some logic(ex: validation) involved when updating the entity, I am in favor of using the custom controller.

JPA: how to detect if existing entity was updated?

Is there a better way to check/detect if entity was updated in db? The reason being is the system publishes any changes to an external webservice, we dont want to publish if there is no changes as the webservice is slow to respond (we want to keep the soap body light as we are posting variable text lenght).
My current approach is described below:
For a given entity:
public class Comment {
int id;
String text;
}
In my service class I will detect it like so:
public class CommentServiceImpl {
void saveList(List<Comment> comments) {
for(Comment c : comments) {
Comment existing = this.findById(c.id);
if (existing != null) {
boolean nochange = existing.getText().equals(c.getText());
if (nochange) {
//do nothing, we don't want to publish to external webservice
} else {
this.save(c);
externalWs.publish(c);
}
}
}
}

This is not an answer in JPA but, if u are using Oracle, DCN is a pretty good api. Check it:
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/java.112/e16548/dbchgnf.htm

How to refresh an entity in a Future?

I am not really sure where my problem lies, as I am experimenting in two areas that I don't have much experience with: JPA and Futures (using Play! Framework's Jobs and Promises).
I have the following bit of code, which I want to return a Meeting object, when one of the fields of this object has been given a value, by another thread from another HTTP request. Here is what I have:
Promise<Meeting> meetingPromise = new Job<Meeting> () {
#Override
public Meeting doJobWithResult() throws Exception {
Meeting meeting = Meeting.findById(id);
while (meeting.bbbMeetingId == null) {
Thread.sleep(1000);
meeting = meeting.refresh(); // I tried each of these
meeting = meeting.merge(); // lines but to no avail; I
meeting = Meeting.findById(id); // get the same result
}
return meeting;
}
}.now();
Meeting meeting = await(meetingPromise);
As I note in the comments, there are three lines in there, any one of which I think should allow me to refresh the contents of my object from the database. From the debugger, it seems that the many-to-one relationships are refreshed by these calls, but the single values are not.
My Meeting object extends Play! Framework's Model, and for convenience, here is the refresh method:
/**
* Refresh the entity state.
*/
public <T extends JPABase> T refresh() {
em().refresh(this);
return (T) this;
}
and the merge method:
/**
* Merge this object to obtain a managed entity (usefull when the object comes from the Cache).
*/
public <T extends JPABase> T merge() {
return (T) em().merge(this);
}
So, how can I refresh my model from the database?

So, I ended up cross-posting this question on the play-framework group, and I got an answer there. So, for the discussion, check out that thread.
In the interest of having the answer come up in a web search to anyone who has this problem in the future, here is what the code snippet that I pasted earlier looks like:
Promise<Meeting> meetingPromise = new Job<Meeting> () {
#Override
public Meeting doJobWithResult() throws Exception {
Meeting meeting = Meeting.findById(id);
while (meeting.bbbMeetingId == null) {
Thread.sleep(1000);
if (JPA.isInsideTransaction()) {
JPAPlugin.closeTx(false);
}
JPAPlugin.startTx(true);
meeting = Meeting.findById(id);
JPAPlugin.closeTx(false);
}
return meeting;
}
}.now();
Meeting meeting = await(meetingPromise);
I am not using the #NoTransaction annotation, because that messes up some other code that checks if the request is coming from a valid user.

I'm not sure about it but JPA transactions are managed automatically by Play in the request/controller context (the JPAPlugin opens a transaction before invocation and closes it after invocation).
But I'm not sure at all what happens within jobs and I don't think transactions are auto-managed (or it's a feature I don't know). So, is your entity attached to an entitymanager or still transient? Is there a transaction somewhere? I don't really know but it may explain some weird behavior if not...

JPA ID Generation Strategy

I defined a generator for a JPA class:
<sequence-generator name="MY_SEQ" allocation-size="-1"
sequence-name="MY_SEQ"
initial-value="100000000" />
There are cases where I already have an ID for an entity but when I insert the Entity the Id gets generated using the generator.
Is it possible to define a generator that will only generate an Id when one does not exist?
I am using Hibernate as a JPA Provider.
Thank you

I couldn't find a way to do this in JPA so I used Hibernate EJB3 event listeners. I over rode the saveWithGeneratedId to use reflection to check the entity for an #Id annotation and then to check that field for a value. If it has a value then I call saveWithRequestedId instead. Other wise I let it generate the Id. This worked well because I can still use the sequence for Hibernate that is set up if I need an Id. The reflection might add overhead so I might change it a little. I was thinking of having a getId() or getPK() method in all entities so I don't have to search for which field is the #Id.
Before I used reflection I tried calling session.getIdentifier(entity) to check but I was getting TransientObjectException( "The instance was not associated with this session" ). I couldn;t figure out how to get the Entity into the session without saving it first so I gave up. Below is the listener code I wrote.
public class MergeListener extends org.hibernate.ejb.event.EJB3MergeEventListener
{
#Override
protected Serializable saveWithGeneratedId(Object entity, String entityName, Object anything, EventSource source, boolean requiresImmediateIdAccess) {
Integer id = null;
Field[] declaredFields = entity.getClass().getDeclaredFields();
for (Field field : declaredFields) {
Id annotation = field.getAnnotation(javax.persistence.Id.class);
if(annotation!=null) {
try {
Method method = entity.getClass().getMethod("get" + field.getName().substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + field.getName().substring(1));
Object invoke = method.invoke(entity);
id = (Integer)invoke;
} catch (Exception ex) {
//something failed (method not found..etc) , keep going anyway
}
break;
}
}
if(id == null ||
id == 0) {
return super.saveWithGeneratedId(entity, entityName, anything, source, requiresImmediateIdAccess);
} else {
return super.saveWithRequestedId(entity, id, entityName, anything, source);
}
}
}
I then had to add the listener to my persistence.xml
<property name="hibernate.ejb.event.merge" value="my.package.MergeListener"/>

it's not a good Idea, sequences are used for surrogate keys, are meaningless in the business sense but assures you, there won't be duplicates thus no error at inserting time.

How can I force a reload of an entity?

I'm using a ajax4jsf poller <a4j:poll> to check whether an entity has been updated in the database by another process. I want to reload the entity each time.
How can I force a reload?
Calling loadInstance() seems to have has no effect. (Polling works as expected)
#Name("myComponentHome")
public class MyComponentHome extends EntityHome<ComponentType> {
public void poll() {
log.warn("poll");
ComponentType loadInstance = loadInstance();
if ( loadInstance.getReportTime() != null ) {
log.warn("poll report detected stoping poller");
setInstance( loadInstance() );
pollEnabled = false;
}
}
...
}
Versions Seam 2.1.2 Jboss 4.2
EDIT:
Maybe it's easier to answer if one knows that Seams loadInstance() is implemented as:
return getEntityManager().find(getEntityClass(), getId());

getEntityManager().refresh(entity);