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How to specify default mapping method for Mapstruct

I have simple object Client
public class Client {
String externalCode;
String name;
String surname;
}
And I want to map it to nearly identical object
public class User {
String internalCode;
String name;
String surname;
}
See, I want externalCode to be mapped to internalCode. And I have a method which does that. I have marker my method with my custom #CodeMapping annotation and put that annotation to qualifiedBy parameter. So, here is my mapper.
#Mapper()
ClientMapper {
#CodeMapping
String toInternalCode(String externalCode) {
return externalCode + " internal part";
}
#Mapping(target = "internalCode", source = "externalCode", qualifiedBy = CodeMapping.class)
User toUser(Client client);
}
The problem is that name and surname fields are also mapped using toInternalCode method. Mapstruct sees that I have defined a method, which maps String to String and thinks it should be used in all cases.
Is there a way to tell Mapstruct, that if no qualifiers are specified, direct mapping should be used? Or make my own method which takes string and return it and tell Mapstruct it should use that method by default?

Most likely the toInternalCode is used by all methods because the #CodeMapping annotation is not meta annotated with #Qualifier (from org.mapstruct.Qualifier).
The #CodeMapping should be defined in the following way:
import org.mapstruct.Qualifier;
#Qualifier
#Target(ElementType.TYPE)
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.CLASS)
public #interface CodeMapping {
}

What is the method signature means? String value() default "";

I came across this method signature in Spring Component interface.
#Target({ElementType.TYPE})
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#Documented
#Indexed
public #interface Component
{
String value() default "";
}
What is the method signature String value() default ""; means?
How and When should we define such syntax for our coding purposes?

This is no method signature. it means that you can pass a String as parameter to the Component annotation, like this:
#Component(value = "value")
If you don't specify a value your self, the default value "" will be used.
If it had been like this:
String value(); // without the default
value would have been a mandatory parameter. Trying to use Component like this:
#Component()
would lead to an Exception, since you didn't provide a value.
EDIT: when to use.
If you don't know much about this syntax, or annotations in general, you shouldn't use them. About everything that can be done using annotations, especially custom made ones, can also be done without annotations.
Let's say you want to create an annotation to validate the value of a field.
I'll be using the example of Belgian postal codes. They all are 4 digits, and are between 1000 and 9999.
#Target( {ElementType.FIELD})
#Retention( RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#Constraint( validatedBy = ValidatePostalCodeImpl.class)
public #interface ValidatePostalCode{
String message() default "You have entered an invalid postal code";
Class<?>[] groups() default {}; // needed for the validation
Class<? extends Payload>[] payload() default{}; // needed for the validation
int maxValue() default 9999; // so, by default, this will validate based
int minValue() default 1000; // on these values, but you will be able to
// override these
}
/* Validation implementation */
public class ValidatePostalCodeImpl implements ConstraintValidator<ValidatePostalCode, Integer> {
int upperValue;
int lowerValue;
#Override
public void initialize(ValidatePostalCode validate) {
this.upperValue = validate.maxValue(); // here you call them as if they indeed were regular methods
this.lowerValue = validate.minValue();
}
#Override
public boolean isValid(Integer integer, ConstraintValidatorContext context) {
return integer >= lowerValue && integer <= upperValue;
}
}
/* Usage */
#Entity
#Table(name = "addresses")
public class Addresses {
// home address -> In Belgium, so has to be between the default values:
#ValidatePostalCode
Integer belgianPostalCode;
// vacation home in another country, let's say the PC's there are between
// 12000 and 50000
#ValidatePostalCode(minValue = 12000, maxValue = 50000)
Integer foreignPostalCode;
}
Sure, this is a very limited example, but it should get you an idea.

The #interface keyword is used to define an annotation. This annotation has a property called value, which you could specify explicitly:
#Component(value = "myValue")
Or in the shorthand form:
#Component("myValue")
If you don't specify the value, it will default to "", as defined by the default keyword.

Making a Jersey bean validation annotation generic

I have a Jersey Rest API like this:
#POST
#Path("/doorder")
#Consumes(MediaType.MULTIPART_FORM_DATA)
#Produces("text/plain")
public String doOrder(#BeanParam final #Valid OrderBean order) {
// Some implementation here
}
All my inputs are store in this bean:
#AddressAtLeastOne
public final class OrderBean {
#FormDataParam("address")
private String address;
#FormDataParam("city")
private String city;
#FormDataParam("postcode")
private String postcode;
// Other member variables
// Getters and setters
}
I added an annotation to validate the address (#AddressAtLeastOne). The address is valid if at least one of the 3 fields has a value.
Here's the annotation definition:
#Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.FIELD, ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE, ElementType.CONSTRUCTOR, ElementType.PARAMETER, ElementType.TYPE_USE})
#Retention(RUNTIME)
#Constraint(validatedBy = AddressAtLeastOneValidator.class)
#Documented
public #interface AddressAtLeastOne {
String message() default "Address requires at least one field";
Class<?>[] groups() default {};
Class<? extends Payload>[] payload() default {};
}
And here's the validator:
public class AddressAtLeastOneValidator implements ConstraintValidator<AddressAllOrNone, OrderBean> {
#Override
public boolean isValid(OrderBean demoBean, ConstraintValidatorContext constraintValidatorContext) {
// Check for at least one value
if((demoBean.getAddress() != null && !demoBean.getAddress().equals("") ||
(demoBean.getCity() != null && !demoBean.getCity().equals("")) ||
(demoBean.getPostcode() != null && !demoBean.getPostcode().equals("")))) {
return true;
}
return false;
}
}
Everything is fine! But now I want to rename the annotation #AddressAtLeastOne to #AtLeastOne and make it generic, so that I can apply it to any class. I need a mechanism where I can specify which member variables are part of the group I want to validate with #AtLeastOne. How can I do that?

One approach of doing this is to use Reflection -
Create a custom annotation suppose #GroupNotNullField and apply this annotation to all fields in bean class in which at least one field should have value. By this way, you can skip some fields in which validation is not required.
In the validator class, get all the fields of the bean class using Reflection
Check all the fields which are annotated with #GroupNotNullField annotation
Get the value of all such fields and check that at least one has value.
Return true or false depending on validation check.

Modify parameter value of custom annotation

Is there any way to implement annotation in order to change his parameter value by itself?
For example:
I would like create custom RequestMapping annotation to get rid of some code duplicates.
Current code:
#RequestMapping("/this/is/duplicate/few/times/some")
public class SomeController {
}
And I want to create something like this
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#RequestMapping()
public #interface CustomRequestMapping {
String value() default "";
#AliasFor(annotation = RequestMapping.class, attribute = "value")
String "/this/is/duplicate/few/times"+value();
}
In order to reduce Request Mapping value to this:
#CustomRequestMapping("/some")
public class SomeController {
}
Unfortunately I cant find way to make that compilable.
Or maybe there is a way to use AliasFor annotation to pass parameter into destination array. Something like this:
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#RequestMapping()
public #interface CustomRequestMapping {
#AliasFor(annotation = RequestMapping.class, attribute = "value{1}")
String value() default "";
#AliasFor(annotation = RequestMapping.class, attribute = "value{0}")
String prefixPath() default "/this/is/duplicate/few/times";
}

What it seems is you are trying to make a subtype of an annotation and modify one of its attributes default value
Subtyping of annotation is not possible and here is the JSR stating the reason.
It complicates the annotation type system,and makes it much more difficult
to write “Specific Tools”.
“Specific Tools” — Programs that query known annotation types of arbitrary
external programs. Stub generators, for example, fall into this category.
These programs will read annotated classes without loading them into the
virtual machine, but will load annotation interfaces.

One solution to your duplication problem could be to extract a constant.
#Annotation(MyClass.FOO+"localValue")
public class MyClass
{
public static final String FOO = "foo";
...
}

Java annotation: elements declared as method but value set as attribute

When we create a custom annotation, we declare elements as methods and later set values as if they were attributes.
For example, here we have declared a custom annotation ComponentType with elements name() and description() that look like methods.
public #interface ComponentType {
String name();// declared as method
String description();
}
When the annotation is used, they look like the below:
#ComponentType(name = "userContainer", // value looks like an attribute
description = "a user container")
public class UserEntity { }
My question is: Why doesn't Java allow to declaring elements as attributes, like this?
public #interface ComponentType {
String name; // Compilation Error
String description;
}

If the properties of an annotation weren't defined as abstract methods in an interface, they would have been members. Something like:
public #interface ComponentType {
String name;
String description;
}
However, all the members in an interface are implicitly final (and static) and the above code does not compile, because name and description aren't initialized.
But if they were actually initialized with some values:
public #interface ComponentType {
String name = "name";
String description = "description";
}
then snippets like the following one wouldn't have been possible:
#ComponentType(
name = "userContainer" //cannot assign a value to a final variable
, description = "a user container")

My observation is:
Java consider annotations as special type of interface so:
Like interface we can declare only final attributes in an annotation:
String appName = "test application";//final attribute, never reset value
Annotation may contains only abstract methods(a method that is declared without an implementation).
public #interface ComponentType {
String name();// declared as abstract method
When we annotated elements(e.g. class, method, attribute) by annotation we need to set return value of those abstract methods, which looks like attribute but actually acts as an implementation.
#ComponentType(name = "userContainer"//set return value of method name()
We can use the values we set during annotated elements(e.g. class, method, attribute) by simply calling abstract methods of annotation.
Annotation annotation = annotatedClassObject.getAnnotation(ComponentType.class);
ComponentType componentType = (ComponentType) annotation;
String someName = componentType.name(); //returns value set during annotating
So like as interface,
Annotation never support to declare any non-final attributes.
Annotation may contains some abstract methods and we need to set return value of
abstract method during annotated elements(e.g. class, method,
attribute).
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