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Hibernate load data on start up and make available for all user

I have one table that has some important data like file uploading path, file path etc. Currently I am fetching all data at login time using hibernate and storing that objects in session and using them whenever and wherever i want. My question is, Is there any way so that i can fetch all data on server start up and make available that data for all user so that at login time i do not need to fire query in db. I am using struts 2.0 with hibernate.

I'm not sure, but you could use a singleton service, #Service with Spring for example, then define a method #PostConstruct to load (calling the DAO layer) and store the data in a static map defined in the singleton and provide accessors to the map (using a Collections.unmodifiableMap)

Yes. Create a ServletContextListener, which will be called when the application has been deployed, load the data in this listener, and store it in a singleton bean, or in the servlet context.

Testing the database connection with spring and hibernate

I'm currently working on a java application. It's a standalone client with Spring and Hibernate. Also C3P0.
In the previous version we used a standard user(hardcoded in the configuration file) for the database connection but now we changed it so that every user has to provide his own credentials.
The beans with the code for the database are basically created on-demand.
I changed the XML-files and added a postprocessor which sets the credentials as well as some connection settings. It looks similar to this now:
ClassPathXmlApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext();
configurer = new PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer();
// properties are retrieved from a private method
configurer.setProperties(getProperties());
context.addBeanFactoryPostProcessor(configurer);
context.setConfigLocations(new String[] { "first.xml","second.xml" });
context.refresh();
return context.getBean("myClass", MyClass.class);
This all works as expected but now we reach the part where I'm currently stuck.
I want to provide a test functionality for the connection, so that the user can click a button and then is told if his credentials were accepted or not.
My first idea was to do a simple select on the database. Sifting through the logs however, I noticed that Spring tries to connect to the database during the refresh() (or rather the instantiation of the bean) anyway. I can see exceptions in the logs, for example: java.sql.SQLException: Connections could not be acquired from the underlying database!
Unfortunately, Spring doesn't seem to actually care. The exceptions are logged away but refresh() finishes and is not throwing any exceptions because of this. I had hoped that I could simply catch the exception and then I would know that the connection failed.
I could just do the select as planned, but I want to limit the connection attempts as much as possible, because the database server will block the user after several attempts. Even permanently if there are to many attempts(already had some fun with that, before I changed the settings for the connection pool).
My searches regarding this problem came up with practically nothing. Is there a way to get the exception somehow? Or does Spring provide an API of sorts that would tell me about the connection error during the instantiation/refresh?
Failing that, any ideas for an alternative approach? Preferably one that needs only a single attempt to determine if a connection is possible.
Edit: For anyone interested: I went with the suggestion from Santosh and implemented a connection test in JDBC.
Unfortunately there seems to be no easy way to make use of the database errors/exceptions encountered during the bean instantiation.

The kind of functionality you are looking for would be very tricky to accomplish using spring+hibernate.
The connection properties are set at the session-factory level and if credentials are incorrect, the session-factory is not instantiated.
Quoting #Bozo from his answer here.
What you can do is extend LocalSessionFactoryBean and override the
getObject() method, and make it return a proxy (via
java.lang.reflect.Proxy or CGLIB / javassist), in case the
sessionFactory is null. That way a SessionFactory will be injected.
The proxy should hold a reference to a bare SessionFactory, which
would initially be null. Whenever the proxy is asked to connect, if
the sessionFacotry is still null, you call the buildSessionFactory()
(of the LocalSessionFactoryBean) and delegate to it. Otherwise throw
an exception. (Then of course map your new factory bean instead of the
current)
There is also a simple and rudimentary approach wherein before creating ClassPathXmlApplicationContext, simply try to obtain a connection using raw JDBC calls. If that succeed then proceed or else give use appropriate message.
You can limit the connection attempts here as you are in full control.

How do I inject a dependency into a Jersey resource?

I'm using Jersey to build a REST API, with Grizzly. I'm not using any dependency injection framework like Google Guice.
One of the resources needs to retrieve data from a Map in response to a GET request.
I can't figure out how I can inject this Map into the resource, since with Jersey I don't control how the resource is initialized.
I realize I could just declare the Map as static but that seems like a very ugly solution.

I eventually found the solution, I need to create a "Provider", as follows:
#Provider
public class DBPoolInjectableProvider extends SingletonTypeInjectableProvider<Context, BoneCPDataSource> {
public DBPoolInjectableProvider() throws SQLException {
super(BoneCPDataSource.class, APIMain.getDBPool());
}
}
As you can see, in this case I actually needed to get access to a database connection pool, but the same idea will work for any other type of object.
I just put this provider in a package that is scanned by Jersey and it picks it up and uses it whenever it sees a method like this in a Jersey resource:
public TestResponse testGet(#Context final BoneCPDataSource ds) throws SQLException {
...
}
(Personally I think that this kind of "action at a distance" is an anti-pattern, but I've got it working now so I'll shut up)

You can do the following:
Create a filter which has access to a map which you need.
Declare a thread local variable in the Filter
Before processing request, put a map into the variable
In your resource, when you need to have access to the map, access that local variable
After processing request, clean this map.
It's actually, almost the same as declaring a session per request with Hibernate/JPA.

How to access the session from a Java class

I need to write a small Java class that will enable me to add to and read from the current user session.
Everything I see refers to Servlets but I'd ideally like to just use a plain old class.
Can anyone please help this Java Newbie?
Thanks

The general concept of a "Session" is really just a data storage for an interaction between a HTTP client and server. Session management is automatically handled by all HTTP Servlets. What framework?
If you're just wanting to store information for a console app to remember information between runs, then consider using Xml to save/load data from a file.

Use a component based MVC framework which abstracts all the ugly Servlet API details away so that you ends up with zero javax.servlet imports. Examples of such are JSF2 and Struts2.
In JSF2 for example, you'd just declare User class as a session scoped managed bean:
#ManagedBean
#SessionScoped
public class User {
// ...
}
Then in the "action" bean which you're using to processing the form submit, reference it as managed property:
#ManagedBean
#RequestScoped
public class SomeFormBean {
#ManagedProperty(value="#{user}")
private User user;
public void submit() {
SomeData someData = user.getSomeData();
// ...
}
}
That's it.
If you'd like to stick to raw Servlet API, then you've to live with the fact that you have to pass the raw HttpServletRequest/HttpServletResponse objects around. Best what you can do is to homegrow some abstraction around it (but then you end up like what JSF2/Struts2 are already doing, so why would you homegrow -unless for hobby/self-learning purposes :) ).

Yes, just pass the HttpRequest to your class from your servlet.
In your servlet do something like this,
cmd.execute(request);
In your class do something like this,
public class Command implements ICommand {
.
.
public void execute(HttpServletRequest request){
HttpSession sess = request.getSession(false);
}
.
.
.
}

In general, as mentioned in the other answers, session in many ways acts as a store. So to interact wth a session from another class which is outside of the Servlet/JSP framework the reference to the session in question needs to be procured. There are few ways it can be achieved:
1) Passing the session as part of a method parameter (already mentioned in other answers)
2) Binding the session to a thread local variable on to the current thread executing (refer ThreadLocal). This method has the advantage of not declaring specific parameters on the method signature of the class that needs to use the session. In addition, if the calling thread goes through a library and then again calls some specific class e.g. Servlet->YourClass0 -> Apache Some Library -> YourClass1, the session will also be available to YourClass1.
However, the thread local also needs to be cleared when the executing thread returns through the initial component (servlet let's say) otherwise there certainly could be memory leaks.
In addition, please refer to your specific framework for treatement of sessions, the above mechanism works fine in Tomcat.

Sharing a static object between a servlet and a webservice

I have a servlet which handles http get requests that I'd like to be able to share an object which is also used by a webservice im developing. They are both on the same tomcat server within the same web-app container. Im not sure best how to do it any ideas ?

You can share things across the webapp by storing them as attributes in the ServletContext (using setAttribute / getAttribute). You could create the object in an impelementation of ServletContextListener, store it in the ServletContext, and then retrieve it and use it from your web service and servlet.

I will expand on my comment here.
In the simplest case ServletContext.setAttribute/getAttribute would be fine. But some people rightly raised the questions about thread safety.
For this a better approach would be to store a shared POJO in a ServletContext during webapp initialization and get it wherever you need with ServletContext.getAttribute.
For this you need to implement ServletContextListener interface and declare it in your web.xml file.
<listener>
<listener-class>your.package.ServletContextListenerImpl</listener-class>
</listener>
This listener is called once when your webapp is loaded by the servlet container, and when it is about to be unloaded by the servlet container. In both cases it passes ServletContextEvent that has a handle to ServletContext. It is at that point that you want to set/removeAttribute that points to your shared object.
Because of this you may be certain that ServletContext.getAttribute will return a valid object when called from the Servlet.service or one of the do... methods.
As for attribute name, I would go with your Shared class classname. I would also add a static access method to your shared class to get it from the ServletContext, like this:
public class Shared
{
...
public static Shared fromServletContext ( final ServletContext context )
{
return (Shared) context.getAttribute( Shared.class.getName( ) );
}
}

The simplest option is create a Singleton - a class which allows only one instance in memory. Since you get it by calling a static method on the class itself it should be available to both the servlet and the WS

If my alternative understanding of the question is correct, the data which comes from request should be stored, and then retreived by the web-service. If this is supposed to run in a multi-user environment, you might consider using an in-memory database (HSQLDB) to temporarily store the data. Then you will be able to retrieve it with your web-service, based on some criteria I cannot foretell.

If this is application-specific data (accessible by all users (sessions)), then use ServletContext#set/getAttribute(). If this is user (session)-specific data, then use HttpSession#set/getAttribute().
Let the servlet class set the object in the desired scope (application or session) by a specific attribute key and let the webservice get the object from the desired scope by the same attribute key.
I think you rather need the HttpSession.
The singleton story makes no sense here.