Develop Reference

Design for large scale parameter validation for JPA?

I have a method that takes in a JSON and takes out the data and distributes it to various strings so that they can be set in an entity and persisted. My example below is quite simple but for my actual code I have about 20+ fields
For example see
public Projects createProject(JsonObject jsonInst) {
Projects projectInst = new Projects();
String pId = jsonInst.get("proId").getAsString();
String pName = jsonInst.get("proName").getAsString();
String pStatus = jsonInst.get("proStatus").getAsString();
String pCustId = jsonInst.get("proCustId").getAsString();
String pStartDate = jsonInst.get("proStartDate").getAsString();
...
//Set the entity data
projectInst.setProjectId(pId);
projectInst.setProjectName(pName);
...
Notice if a varible dosent have a corrosponding entry in the Json this code will break with null pointer exception. Obviously I need to validate each parameter befopre calling .getAsString()
What is the best way to do this from a readability point of view I could create 2 varibles for each parameter and check and set for example.
if(jsonInst.get("proName")){
String pName = jsonInst.get("proName").getAsString();
}
Or should I wait for it to be set
if(!pName.isEmpty()){
projectInst.setName(pName)
}
...
Which of these do you think is the best parameter to use for preventing errors.
Is there a way to handle if something is set on a large scale so that I can reduce the amount of code I have to write before I use that varible?

You can create a method that will take field name as parameter and will return json value for that field :
private String getJSONData(String field,JsonObject json){
String data=null;
if(json.has(field)){
data=json.get(field).getAsString();
}
return data;
}
you can call this method for each of your field:
String pId = getJSONData("proId",jsonInst);
By this way you can not only escape NullPointerException, but also avoid code repetition.

Reading values assigned to annotated field

i am very new to JAVA 8 and SPRING MVC . I have a java bean which is a POJO with setter and getter. My Spring web service using reflection maps the request parameters to the POJO.
I want to do input validation using annotation. I have a requirement were i need to read all the values of the annotated field and check atleast one value is provided. I wrote a sample code.... BUT NOT SURE HOW TO GET THE VALUES THAT ARE ASSIGNED TO A FIELD. Please do share sample code if you have:
public boolean isValid(String object, ConstraintValidatorContext constraintContext) {
boolean canProceed = false;
for(Field field : DocumentSearchRequest_global.class.getDeclaredFields())
{
if (field.isAnnotationPresent(ValidDocumentModifiedDate.class))
{
String name = field.getName();
//IAM ABLE TO GET THE NAME OF THE FIELD
System.out.println("1.name : "+ name);
System.out.println("2. "+field.getType().getName());
}
}
// Method[] method = DocumentSearchRequest_global.class.getDeclaredMethods();
for (Method method :DocumentSearchRequest_global.class.getDeclaredMethods() )
{
System.out.println(method.getName() );
//ABLE TO GET NAME OF THE GETTER AND SETTER METHODS IN THE POJO
//CAN U SUGGEST HOW TO READ THE VALUE OF A PARTICULAR FIELD.. EITHER BY //GETTING THE VALUE FROM THE GET METHOD??? ...
}

You can get the values by calling method.invoke(Object, Object...) where first parameter is your class instance on which method is to be executed and second variable arguments are arguments of the method. In your case it'll be null or empty. Here is simple code snippet Object value = method.invoke(DocumentSearchRequest_global_instance);

Java Jackson receive key with null value [duplicate]

What happens if I annotate a constructor parameter using #JsonProperty but the Json doesn't specify that property. What value does the constructor get?
How do I differentiate between a property having a null value versus a property that is not present in the JSON?

Summarizing excellent answers by Programmer Bruce and StaxMan:
Missing properties referenced by the constructor are assigned a default value as defined by Java.
You can use setter methods to differentiate between properties that are implicitly or explicitly set. Setter methods are only invoked for properties with explicit values. Setter methods can keep track of whether a property was explicitly set using a boolean flag (e.g. isValueSet).

What happens if I annotate a constructor parameter using #JsonProperty but the Json doesn't specify that property. What value does the constructor get?
For questions such as this, I like to just write a sample program and see what happens.
Following is such a sample program.
import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonProperty;
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.ObjectMapper;
public class JacksonFoo
{
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
// {"name":"Fred","id":42}
String jsonInput1 = "{\"name\":\"Fred\",\"id\":42}";
Bar bar1 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput1, Bar.class);
System.out.println(bar1);
// output:
// Bar: name=Fred, id=42
// {"name":"James"}
String jsonInput2 = "{\"name\":\"James\"}";
Bar bar2 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput2, Bar.class);
System.out.println(bar2);
// output:
// Bar: name=James, id=0
// {"id":7}
String jsonInput3 = "{\"id\":7}";
Bar bar3 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput3, Bar.class);
System.out.println(bar3);
// output:
// Bar: name=null, id=7
}
}
class Bar
{
private String name = "BLANK";
private int id = -1;
Bar(#JsonProperty("name") String n, #JsonProperty("id") int i)
{
name = n;
id = i;
}
#Override
public String toString()
{
return String.format("Bar: name=%s, id=%d", name, id);
}
}
The result is that the constructor is passed the default value for the data type.
How do I differentiate between a property having a null value versus a property that is not present in the JSON?
One simple approach would be to check for a default value post deserialization processing, since if the element were present in the JSON but had a null value, then the null value would be used to replace any default value given the corresponding Java field. For example:
import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonAutoDetect.Visibility;
import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonMethod;
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.ObjectMapper;
public class JacksonFooToo
{
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper().setVisibility(JsonMethod.FIELD, Visibility.ANY);
// {"name":null,"id":99}
String jsonInput1 = "{\"name\":null,\"id\":99}";
BarToo barToo1 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput1, BarToo.class);
System.out.println(barToo1);
// output:
// BarToo: name=null, id=99
// {"id":99}
String jsonInput2 = "{\"id\":99}";
BarToo barToo2 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput2, BarToo.class);
System.out.println(barToo2);
// output:
// BarToo: name=BLANK, id=99
// Interrogate barToo1 and barToo2 for
// the current value of the name field.
// If it's null, then it was null in the JSON.
// If it's BLANK, then it was missing in the JSON.
}
}
class BarToo
{
String name = "BLANK";
int id = -1;
#Override
public String toString()
{
return String.format("BarToo: name=%s, id=%d", name, id);
}
}
Another approach would be to implement a custom deserializer that checks for the required JSON elements. And yet another approach would be to log an enhancement request with the Jackson project at http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/JACKSON

In addition to constructor behavior explained in #Programmer_Bruce's answer, one way to differentiate between null value and missing value is to define a setter: setter is only called with explicit null value.
Custom setter can then set a private boolean flag ("isValueSet" or whatever) if you want to keep track of values set.
Setters have precedence over fields, in case both field and setter exist, so you can "override" behavior this way as well.

I'm thinking of using something in the style of an Option class, where a Nothing object would tell me if there is such a value or not. Has anyone done something like this with Jackson (in Java, not Scala, et al)?

(My answer might be useful to some people finding this thread via google, even if it doesn't answer OPs question)
If you are dealing with primitive types which are omittable, and you do not want to use a setter like described in the other answers (for example if you want your field to be final), you can use box objects:
public class Foo {
private final int number;
public Foo(#JsonProperty Integer number) {
if (number == null) {
this.number = 42; // some default value
} else {
this.number = number;
}
}
}
this doesn't work if the JSON actually contains null, but it can be sufficient if you know it will only contain primitives or be absent

another option is to validate the object after deserialization either manually or via frameworks such java bean validation or, if you are using spring, the spring validation support.

How to create data object dynamically in java?

I am studying data object in Java
I have question for creating the data object dynamically.
For example ,
we have...
public class tasks {
private int vmnumber;
private int tasknumber;
private String status;
public tasks(int vmnumber , int tasknumber , String status) {
this.vmnumber = vmnumber;
this.tasknumber = tasknumber;
this.status = status; }
and there are some getvmnumber gettasknumber , getstatus , and some set functions for
what I understand about creating data object is we have to initialize each time.
for example , in the main file ,
public class task{
public static void main(String [] args){
task t = null , t2 = null;
t = new task();
t.tasknumber = 3;
t.vmnumber = 4;
t.status = "Start";
t2 = new task();
t.tasknumber = 2;
t.vmnumber = 1;
t.status = "Wait";
}
however, i would like to how we can create data object dynamically because program possibly get the information of tasks on real time.(then we can't manually create the data object, we need to something which can create the data object dynamically...)
Second, I would like to know how to get the data from data object.
For example , if we want to find all the information of task number 3 , what should i do ?
lets say , we have task1, task2, task3 data object and we want to see the all information of task1. then what should i do ?
thanks

There are few points to discuss, from your question.
I guess you want to create new tasks, which is maybe a request from the user interace of your application, or a webservice, a batch...
Well, you already know how to create object : with the new keyword. Depending on the original request, your main function may have to create multiple instances of the same class, "Task".
More, when you instantiate the class "Task", you would never want to assign directly values to the properties of it.
So, instead of coding t.tasknumber = 3, you should code : t.setTaskNumber(3)
Also, you should rename the properties of your class to reflect the JavaBeans conventions :
- private int taskNumber instead of tasknumber
Of course, it is only a convention, and it is not mandatory in your program. But it helps generating getters/setters, and, well, it is a convention :-)
To retrieve "information" within your created tasks, you only have to call the getters :
- myTask.getTaskNumber()
Hope this helps you a little bit.

How to invoke a string from a class using method.invoke(-,-)

Here i am trying to get uContainer object from another project. uContainer having all the setters and getters with return values set from properties file. Like a user properties for perticular user. I am using to get perticular method values from uContainer instance. But in the 4th line my application getting crashed.
uContainer is an instance of UserContainer class.
getSingleResultListing also a boolean variable in UserContainer class having with getters and setters methods.
The code is given below.
Method getUContainer = form.getClass().getMethod("getUserContainer", new Class[0]);
Object uContainerObj = (Object)getUContainer.invoke(form, new Object[0]);
Method getFlagValueMethod = uContainerObj.getClass().getMethod("getSingleResultListing", new Class[0]);
String flagValue = (String)getFlagValueMethod.invoke(uContainerObj, new Object[0]);
log.info(">>>flagValue: "+flagValue);
boolean singleListingFlag = Boolean.getBoolean(flagValue);
log.info(">>>singleListingFlag: "+singleListingFlag);
here in the fourth line while invoking the uContainer object i am getting error ..
Thanks..

You are casting the returned object to a String, but you are not getting a String from that method. You cannot convert objects to String via a cast operator. If you want the string representation, write
String flagValue = getFlagValueMethod.invoke(uContainerObj, new Object[0]).toString();