So far in my Java code with Spring Boot I was using models, or POJO objects to achieve better control of my objects, etc. Usually I am creating Entities, Repositories, Services, Rest controllers, just like documentation and courses are suggesting.
Now however I am working with Thymeleaf templates, HTML a bit of Bootstrap and CSS in order to create browser interface. For methods in #Controller, as parameter, I am passing Model from Spring Model UI like this:
#GetMapping("/employees")
private String viewAllEmployees(Model employeeModel) {
employeeModel.addAttribute("listEmployees", employeeService.getAllEmployees());
return "employeeList";
}
My question is: How can I use my POJO objects instead of org.springframework.ui.Model;?
My first guess was this:
public class EmployeeModel implements Model{
private long employeeId;
private String firstName;
private String lastName;
private String email;
private String phone;
private long companyId;
//getter and setter methods
}
And in order to do that I have to #Override Model methods which is fine with me. And it looks like Java, Spring etc. does not complain in compile time, and I can use this POJO object in my #Controller like this:
#Controller
public class EmployeeController {
#Autowired
private EmployeeService employeeService;
#GetMapping("/employees")
private String viewAllEmployees(EmployeeModel employeeModel) {
employeeModel.addAttribute("listEmployees", employeeService.getAllEmployees());
return "employeeList";
}}
I run the code and it starts, shows my /home endpoint which works cool, however when I want to go to my /employees endpoing where it should show my eployees list it throws this:
Method [private java.lang.String com.bojan.thyme.thymeApp.controller.EmployeeController.viewAllEmployees(com.bojan.thyme.thymeApp.model.EmployeeModel)] with argument values:[0] [type=org.springframework.validation.support.BindingAwareModelMap] [value={}] ] with root cause java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: argument type mismatch
exception.
Please note that Rest controller is working perfectly in browser and Postman.
Is it possible that String as a method is the problem? Should my method be of some other type like List<EmployeeModel> or maybe EmployeeModel itself? If it is so, how to tell the method that I want my employeeList.html to be returned?
I sincerely hope that someone can halp me with this one :)
How can I use my POJO objects instead of org.springframework.ui.Model;?
I don't think that is the best practice when you are working with Thymeleaf. According to their documentation, you should attach your Objects to your Model. So in your controller you would be manipulating models that contain your Pojos.
Example:
#RequestMapping(value = "message", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView messages() {
ModelAndView mav = new ModelAndView("message/list");
mav.addObject("messages", messageRepository.findAll());
return mav;
}
You should always use org.springframework.ui.Model as argument. This class is basically a Map with key/value pairs that are made available to Thymeleaf for rendering.
Your first example is how you should do it:
#GetMapping("/employees") //<1>
private String viewAllEmployees(Model model) {
model.addAttribute("employees", employeeService.getAllEmployees()); // <2>
return "employeeList"; // <3>
}
<1> This is the URL that the view will be rendered on
<2> Add any Java object you want as attribute(s) to the model
<3> Return the name of the Thymeleaf template. In a default Spring Boot with Thymeleaf application, this will refer to the template at src/main/resources/templates/employeeList.html. In that template, you will be able to access your model value with ${employees}.
Related
I need to ignore the field when return the response from spring boot. Pls find below info,
I have one pojo called Student as below
Student {
id,
name,
lastName
}
i am getting a body for as PostRequest as below
{
id:"1",
name:"Test",
lname:"Test"
}
i want get all the data from frontEnd (id,name,Lname) But i just want to return the same pojo class without id as below,
{
name:"Test",
lName:"Test"
}
I have tried #JsonIgnore for column id, But it makes the id column as null(id=null -it is coming like this even when i send data to id field from postman) when i get the data from frontEnd.
I would like to use only one pojo to get the data with proper data(withoud getting id as Null), and need to send back the data by ignoring the id column.
Is there any way to achieve it instead of using another pojo?
You just need to use #JsonInclude(JsonInclude.Include.NON_NULL) at class level and it will be helpful for ignore all your null fields.
For example :
#JsonInclude(JsonInclude.Include.NON_NULL)
public class Test {
// Fields
// Constructors
// Getters - setters
}
As of now you are using only one POJO it's not good practice because it's your main entity into your project, so good practice is always make DTO for the same.
This is possible via the #JsonView annotation that is part of Jackson. Spring can leverage it to define the views used on the controller.
You'd define your DTO class like this:
class User {
User(String internalId, String externalId, String name) {
this.internalId = internalId;
this.externalId = externalId;
this.name = name;
}
#JsonView(User.Views.Internal.class)
String internalId;
#JsonView(User.Views.Public.class)
String externalId;
#JsonView(User.Views.Public.class)
String name;
static class Views {
static class Public {
}
static class Internal extends Public {
}
}
}
The Views internal class acts as a marker to jackson, in order to tell it which fields to include in which configuration. It does not need to be an inner class, but that makes for a shorter code snippet to paste here. Since Internal extends Public, all fields marked with Public are also included when the Internal view is selected.
You can then define a controller like this:
#RestController
class UserController {
#GetMapping("/user/internal")
#JsonView(User.Views.Internal.class)
User getPublicUser() {
return new User("internal", "external", "john");
}
#GetMapping("/user/public")
#JsonView(User.Views.Public.class)
User getPrivateUser() {
return new User("internal", "external", "john");
}
}
Since Spring is aware of the JsonView annotations, the JSON returned by the /public endpoint will contain only externalId and name, and the /internal endpoint will additionally include the internalId field.
Note that fields with no annotation will not be included if you enable any view. This behaviour can be controlled by MapperFeature.DEFAULT_VIEW_INCLUSION, which was false in the default Spring ObjectMapper when I used this for the last time.
You can also annotate your #RequestBody parameters to controller methods with JsonView, to allow/disallow certain parameters on input objects, and then use a different set of parameters for output objects.
I would like to create a C# like composite class action with spring boot 2 with an array request.
My client will send the following:
Contet-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
With body:
company[name]:qwe
company[size]:1
address[country]:asd
address[address]:zxc
My action should be something like this:
#PostMapping
public ResponseEntity<ResponseData<String>> action(CompanyCompositeRequest request)
{
...
}
And the classes that I'd like to fill automatically:
class CompanyCompositeRequest {
private Company company;
private Address address;
}
class Company {
private String name;
private int size;
}
class Address {
private String country;
private String address;
}
And I'd like to run the Validator from the javax.validation on the properties of the classes in the composite.
Is that even possible? I tried a lot of version, and didn't find a working version, but I saw similar solutions. If I need to change the sent data from the client it's possible, for example in a JSON raw data, or something like that.
Thanks!
It is possible by using the #RequestBody annotation in your controller method. It will make Spring automagically map the request body into your custom class.
See: http://websystique.com/springmvc/spring-mvc-requestbody-responsebody-example
I'm working on a rest api project with spring boot and hibernate, and I'm wondering on json serialization of RestController using Jackson.
Here is the problem: I use external hibernate entities class defined in a library I cannot edit. This classes are very complex and define lot of field I'm not interested in when I return the object with the rest api.
Actually, I've solved the problem wrapping the original class with a wrapper class that exposes only the values I want to return from the controller.
Eg:
original class
class AccountEntity {
///...
public String getName() {
return this.name;
}
/// ... Lot of code here
}
Wrapper class:
class AccountWrapper {
AccountEntity original;
public AccountWrapper(AccountEntity original) {
this.original = original;
}
public String getName() {
return this.original.getName();
}
}
and the use the Wrapper as following
#RestController("/api/user")
public class UsersController {
#GetMapping("/")
public AccountWrapper getUser() {
AccountEntity account = //get account in some way
AccountWrapper accountWrapper = new AccountWrapper(account);
return accountWrapper;
}
}
The method works well, but it's not very clean and makes stuff more complex (e.g., when I have to return lists), because I always have to wrap the original class.
I didn't found a method to make me able to specify which fields I want to serialize without modify (and I cannot) the original class.
Any help?
Instead of using a wrapper class, create a DTO object for the rest API that will be leaner than the DB entity and a trasformer to create DTO from entity (and vice a verce)
The difference from using a wrapper here is that the DB entity is not part of the DTO, and thus does not need to be serialized on the response.
The big advantage here is that you separate the DB layer from the API layer, which makes it more flexible and easy to manage.
you can read more about this pattern here
Apparently, you can use Jackson Mixins to annotate a class with Jackson annotations.
See this answer for example.
The idea is to create an class with the annotations you want and to use objectMapper.getSerializationConfig().addMixInAnnotations() to register the MixIn with your class.
For example:
//Class you don't controll
public class User {
private String name;
private String password; //attribute we want to omit
//... getters and setters
}
public abstract class UserMixIn {
#JsonIgnore String getPassword();
}
objectMapper.addMixInAnnotations(User.class, UserMixIn.class);
Hope it helps,
The following is just an exmaple for context not the actual implementation. Using Spring MVC, I have the following Model which has validation based on annotations.
#Entity
public class Customer {
#Id private int id;
#NotNull private String name;
}
And the following DTO used to map the data received in the request's body in the Controller's createNewCustomer function.
public class CustmerDTO{
private String name;
}
In my Controller I am using the modelMapper to convert the customerDTO to a new domain model Customer object. Based on the #NotNull annotation, if the name property of the recieved object (customerDTO) is empty the ConstraintViolationException is thrown.
public class CustomerController {
#Autowired private CustomerService customerService;
#Autowired private ModelMapper modelMapper;
#PostMapping(value = "/customer")
public Customer createNewCustomer (#RequestBody CustomerDTO customerDTO) {
try {
Customer newCustomer = modelMapper.map(customerDTO, Customer.class);
return customerService.saveCustomer(newCustomer);
}
catch (ConstraintViolationException e) {
throw new CustomerMissingInformation();
}
}
}
As you can see here I handle validation for the Customer in the Controller, which by definition is not a good habit, as Controllers in MVC are part of the presentation layer, and should have no clue about how to perform data validation, also I want to keep my controllers as light as possible.
Can I keep this design or is there any good approach to move my validation in the Service layer while keeping validation annotations and also allowing the Controller to be able to receive representation objects(DTOs) and convert them to domain models?
Looking more into this, I came to the following conclusion. Validation for persisting an object should happen as soon as possible and at property level, as you don't want your persistence layer or any mappers that you might be using deal with null when it is not expected. Everything that goes past property validation, shall be approached from a contextual validation perspective, and be passed to methods that hold logic for a given context.
Is this order valid to be filled, is this customer valid to check in to the hotel. So rather than have methods like isValid have methods like isValidForCheckIn.
I worked out a concept to conditionally validate using JSR 303 groups. "Conditionally" means that I have some fields which are only relevant if another field has a specific value.
Example: There is an option to select whether to register as a person or as a company. When selecting company, the user has to fill a field containing the name of the company.
Now I thought I use groups for that:
class RegisterForm
{
public interface BasicCheck {}
public interface UserCheck {}
public interface CompanyCheck {}
#NotNull(groups = BasicCheck.class)
private Boolean isCompany
#NotNull(groups = UserCheck.class)
private String firstName;
#NotNull(groups = UserCheck.class)
private String lastName;
#NotNull(groups = CompanyCheck.class)
private String companyName;
// getters / setters ...
}
In my controller, I validate step by step depending on the respective selection:
#Autowired
SmartValidator validator;
public void onRequest(#ModelAttribute("registerForm") RegisterForm registerForm, BindingResult result)
{
validator.validate(registerForm, result, RegisterForm.BasicCheck.class);
if (result.hasErrors()
return;
// basic check successful => we can process fields which are covered by this check
if (registerForm.getIsCompany())
{
validator.validate(registerForm, result, RegisterForm.CompanyCheck.class)
}
else
{
validator.validate(registerForm, result, RegisterForm.UserCheck.class);
}
if (!result.hasErrors())
{
// process registration
}
}
I only want to validate what must be validated. If the user selects "company" fills a field with invalid content and then switches back to "user", the invalid company related content must be ignored by the validator. A solution would be to clear those fields using Javascript, but I also want my forms to work with javascript disabled. This is why I totally like the approach shown above.
But Spring breaks this idea due to data binding. Before validation starts, Spring binds the data to registerForm. It adds error to result if, for instance, types are incompatible (expected int-value, but user filled the form with letters). This is a problem as these errors are shown in the JSP-view by <form:errors /> tags
Now I found a way to prevent Spring from adding those errors to the binding result by implementing a custom BindingErrorProcessor. If a field contains null I know that there was a validation error. In my concept null is not allowed - every field gets annotated with #NotNull plus the respective validation group.
As I am new to Spring and JSR-303 I wonder, whether I am totally on the wrong path. The fact that I have to implement a couple of things on my own makes me uncertain. Is this a clean solution? Is there a better solution for the same problem, as I think this is a common problem?
EDIT
Please see my answer here if you are interested in my solution in detail: https://stackoverflow.com/a/30500985/395879
You are correct that Spring MVC is a bit picky in this regard,and it is a common problem. But there are work-arounds:
Make all your backing fields strings, and do number/date etc conversions and null checks manually.
Use JavaScript to set fields to null when they become irrelevant.
Use JavaScript to validate fields when they are entered. This will fix almost all of your problems.
Good luck!
I know this question is old, but I came upon it looking for an answer for a different situation.
I think for your situation you could use inheritance for the forms and then use two controller methods:
The forms would look like this:
public class RegistrationForm
{
// Common fields go here.
}
public class UserRegistrationForm
extends RegistrationForm
{
#NotNull
private String firstName;
#NotNull
private String lastName;
// getters / setters ...
}
public class CompanyRegistrationForm
extends RegistrationForm
{
#NotNull
private String companyName;
// getters / setters ...
}
The controller methods would look like this:
#RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST, params = "isCompany=false")
public void onRequest(
#ModelAttribute("registerForm") #Valid UserRegistrationForm form,
BindingResult result)
{
if (!result.hasErrors())
{
// process registration
}
}
#RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST, params = "isCompany=true")
public void onRequest(
#ModelAttribute("registerForm") #Valid CompanyRegistrationForm form,
BindingResult result)
{
if (!result.hasErrors())
{
// process registration
}
}
Notice that the #RequestMapping annotations include a params attribute so the value of the isCompany parameter determines which method is called.
Also notice that the #Valid annotation is place on the form parameter.
Finally, no groups are needed in this case.