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.

Convert empty string to null using javax.validation annotations

I have the following variable annotated for data validation:
#Size(min=8, max=16, message="the size of the parameter must be between 8 and 16")
private String param;
However, the param can be null. It is required that it be 8-16 chars long only if it is not null. The problem I face is if the client app (JSON API) supplies an empty string, I want to treat it as though it were not supplied at all, i.e. is null. I was wondering if there is an elegant way to do this using the javax.validation annotations, i.e. convert an empty string to null, as opposed to the plain Java way the way I'm doing it right now:
public void setParameter(String _param) {
if(_param != null && !_param.trim().isEmpty()){
this.param = _param;
} else {
this.param = null;
}
}
I would like to have a very simple setter:
public void setParameter(String _param) {
this.param = _param;
}
and have the is-empty-string boilerplate done by an annotation. Is there a way to do it?

You could can implement your own custom constraint validator.
see here. I've used this many times and works like a charm.
https://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/validator/5.0/reference/en-US/html/validator-customconstraints.html
You would just need to set this condition (if null return "" or vice-versa) in the isValid method.

Handling null values in protobuffers

I am working on something which fetches data from database and constructs protobuff message. Given the possibility that null values can be fetched from the database for certain fields , I will get Null-pointer exception while trying to construct the protobuff message. Getting to know that null is not supported in protobuffs from the thread http://code.google.com/p/protobuf/issues/detail?id=57, I am wondering whether the only other way to handle NPE getting thrown is to insert manual checks into the java file corresponding to the proto like below!
message ProtoPerson{
optional string firstName = 1;
optional string lastName = 2;
optional string address1 = 3;
}
ProtoPerson.Builder builder = ProtoPerson.Builder.newBuilder();
if (p.getFirstName() != null) builder.setFirstName(p.getFirstName());
if (p.getLastName() != null) builder.setLastName(p.getLastName());
if (p.getAddress1() != null) builder.setAddress1(p.getAddress1());
...
So can someone please clarify whether there is any other possible efficient way to handle the null values during protobuff construction??

Disclaimer: Answer from a Googler using protobufs on a daily basis. I'm by no means representing Google in any way.
Name your proto Person instead of PersonProto or ProtoPerson. Compiled protobufs are just class definitions specified by the language you are using, with some improvements. Adding "Proto" is extra verbosity.
Use YourMessage.hasYourField() instead of YourMessage.getYourField() != null. Default value for protobuf string is an empty string, which does NOT equal to null. Whereas, no matter whether your field is unset or cleared or empty string, .hasYourField() always returns false. See default values for common protobuf field types.
You've probably known, but I wanna say explicitly: Don't programmatically set a protobuf field to null. Even for outside of protobuf, null causes all sorts of problems. Use .clearYourField() instead.
Person.Builder class does NOT have a .newBuilder() method. Person class does. Understand the Builder Pattern like this: You create a new builder only if you do not have it yet.
A rewrite of your protobuf:
message Person {
optional string first_name = 1;
optional string last_name = 2;
optional string address_1 = 3;
}
A rewrite of your logic:
Person thatPerson = Person.newBuilder()
.setFirstName("Aaa")
.setLastName("Bbb")
.setAddress1("Ccc")
.build();
Person.Builder thisPersonBuilder = Person.newBuilder()
if (thatPerson.hasFirstName()) {
thisPersonBuilder.setFirstName(thatPerson.getFirstName());
}
if (thatPerson.hasLastName()) {
thisPersonBuilder.setLastName(thatPerson.getLastName());
}
if (thatPerson.hasAddress1()) {
thisPersonBuilder.setAddress1(thatPerson.getAddress1());
}
Person thisPerson = thisPersonBuilder.build();
And if thatPerson is a person object that you created that has attribute values that could be an empty string, empty spaces or null, then I'd recommend using Guava's Strings library:
import static com.google.common.base.Strings.nullToEmpty;
Person.Builder thisPersonBuilder = Person.newBuilder()
if (!nullToEmpty(thatPerson.getFirstName()).trim().isEmpty()) {
thisPersonBuilder.setFirstName(thatPerson.getFirstName());
}
if (!nullToEmpty(thatPerson.hasLastName()).trim().isEmpty()) {
thisPersonBuilder.setLastName(thatPerson.getLastName());
}
if (!nullToEmpty(thatPerson.hasAddress1()).trim().isEmpty()) {
thisPersonBuilder.setAddress1(thatPerson.getAddress1());
}
Person thisPerson = thisPersonBuilder.build();

Proto 3
wrappers.proto supports nullable values:
string(StringValue),
int(Int32Value),
bool(BoolValue)
and etc
Example
syntax = "proto3";
import "google/protobuf/wrappers.proto";
message ProtoPerson {
google.protobuf.StringValue firstName = 1;
google.protobuf.StringValue lastName = 2;
google.protobuf.StringValue address1 = 3;
google.protobuf.Int32Value age = 4;
}

There's no easy solution to this. I'd recommend just dealing with the null checks. But if you really want to get rid of them, here are a couple ideas:
You could write a code generator plugin which adds setOrClearFoo() methods to each Java class. The Java code generator provides insertion points for this (see the end of that page).
You could use Java reflection to iterate over the get*() methods of p, call each one, check for null, and then call the set*() method of builder if non-null. This will have the added advantage that you won't have to update your copy code every time you add a new field, but it will be much slower than writing code that copies each field explicitly.

Jackson Json Mapper: no field or empty field?

I use Jackson Json Mapper to parse queries on my server.
For example, I'm waiting for query which fits class My_class:
class My_class {
String a;
String b;
}
I deserialize queries this way:
public <T> T Deserialize(String json, Class<T> type) throws DeserializationException {
if (json == null || type == null) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException();
}
try {
return objectMapper.readValue(json, type);
} catch (JsonParseException e) {
throw new DeserializationException(e);
} catch (org.codehaus.jackson.map.JsonMappingException e) {
throw new DeserializationException(e);
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new DeserializationException(e);
}
}
Here are two example queries:
{"a":"test"}
{"a":"test", "b":null}
The problem is I want to know when a user sent me a query with only the field a and when he sent a query with field b set to null. The mapper marks field b as null in both situations.
What is the better way to do this (and to avoid writing my own deserializer)?

You can use the method isNull() to check if the JsonNode is a null literal.
boolean isNull()
Method that can be used to check if this node was created from JSON literal null value.
There is also isMissingNode(), which seems to have a similar purpose. It should return true if the node isn't actually present in the JSON document. This method is useful e.g. if you want to use default values for properties that aren't set explicitly.
boolean isMissingNode()
Method that returns true for "virtual" nodes which represent missing entries constructed by path accessor methods when there is no actual node matching given criteria.
In my opinion you should avoid building something that depends on the difference between null and missing nodes though. You are essentially adding some kind of additional data type to the deserialized JSON: instead of just null most JSON APIs return in both cases, you now have null literal and missing node which is not a common practice. It is confusing and it may cause issues with your API because the client needs to do extra work to configure its serializer to distinguish those two states too. It's possible that not all JSON libraries support that.

How to check if a JSON key exists?

So, I get some JSON values from the server but I don't know if there will be a particular field or not.
So like:
{ "regatta_name":"ProbaRegatta",
"country":"Congo",
"status":"invited"
}
And sometimes, there will be an extra field like:
{ "regatta_name":"ProbaRegatta",
"country":"Congo",
"status":"invited",
"club":"somevalue"
}
I would like to check if the field named "club" exists so that at parsing I won't get
org.json.JSONException: No value for club

JSONObject class has a method named "has":
http://developer.android.com/reference/org/json/JSONObject.html#has(java.lang.String)
Returns true if this object has a mapping for name. The mapping may be NULL.

You can check this way where 'HAS' - Returns true if this object has a mapping for name. The mapping may be NULL.
if (json.has("status")) {
String status = json.getString("status"));
}
if (json.has("club")) {
String club = json.getString("club"));
}
You can also check using 'isNull' - Returns true if this object has no
mapping for name or if it has a mapping whose value is NULL.
if (!json.isNull("club"))
String club = json.getString("club"));

you could JSONObject#has, providing the key as input and check if the method returns true or false. You could also
use optString instead of getString:
Returns the value mapped by name if it exists, coercing it if
necessary. Returns the empty string if no such mapping exists

just before read key check it like before read
JSONObject json_obj=new JSONObject(yourjsonstr);
if(!json_obj.isNull("club"))
{
//it's contain value to be read operation
}
else
{
//it's not contain key club or isnull so do this operation here
}
isNull function definition
Returns true if this object has no mapping for name or
if it has a mapping whose value is NULL.
official documentation below link for isNull function
http://developer.android.com/reference/org/json/JSONObject.html#isNull(java.lang.String)

You can use has
public boolean has(String key)
Determine if the JSONObject contains a specific key.
Example
JSONObject JsonObj = new JSONObject(Your_API_STRING); //JSONObject is an unordered collection of name/value pairs
if (JsonObj.has("address")) {
//Checking address Key Present or not
String get_address = JsonObj .getString("address"); // Present Key
}
else {
//Do Your Staff
}

A better way, instead of using a conditional like:
if (json.has("club")) {
String club = json.getString("club"));
}
is to simply use the existing method optString(), like this:
String club = json.optString("club);
the optString("key") method will return an empty String if the key does not exist and won't, therefore, throw you an exception.

Try this:
let json=yourJson
if(json.hasOwnProperty(yourKey)){
value=json[yourKey]
}

Json has a method called containsKey().
You can use it to check if a certain key is contained in the Json set.
File jsonInputFile = new File("jsonFile.json");
InputStream is = new FileInputStream(jsonInputFile);
JsonReader reader = Json.createReader(is);
JsonObject frameObj = reader.readObject();
reader.close();
if frameObj.containsKey("person") {
//Do stuff
}

Try this
if(!jsonObj.isNull("club")){
jsonObj.getString("club");
}

I used hasOwnProperty('club')
var myobj = { "regatta_name":"ProbaRegatta",
"country":"Congo",
"status":"invited"
};
if ( myobj.hasOwnProperty("club"))
// do something with club (will be false with above data)
var data = myobj.club;
if ( myobj.hasOwnProperty("status"))
// do something with the status field. (will be true with above ..)
var data = myobj.status;
works in all current browsers.

You can try this to check wether the key exists or not:
JSONObject object = new JSONObject(jsonfile);
if (object.containskey("key")) {
object.get("key");
//etc. etc.
}

I am just adding another thing, In case you just want to check whether anything is created in JSONObject or not you can use length(), because by default when JSONObject is initialized and no key is inserted, it just has empty braces {} and using has(String key) doesn't make any sense.
So you can directly write if (jsonObject.length() > 0) and do your things.
Happy learning!

You can use the JsonNode#hasNonNull(String fieldName), it mix the has method and the verification if it is a null value or not