Implement converters for entities with Java Generics
Easiest would be to let all your JPA entities extend from a base entity like this:
public abstract class BaseEntity<T extends Number> implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
public abstract T getId();
public abstract void setId(T id);
@Override
public int hashCode() {
return (getId() != null)
? (getClass().getSimpleName().hashCode() + getId().hashCode())
: super.hashCode();
}
@Override
public boolean equals(Object other) {
return (other != null && getId() != null
&& other.getClass().isAssignableFrom(getClass())
&& getClass().isAssignableFrom(other.getClass()))
? getId().equals(((BaseEntity<?>) other).getId())
: (other == this);
}
@Override
public String toString() {
return String.format("%s[id=%d]", getClass().getSimpleName(), getId());
}
}
Note that it's important to have a proper equals()
(and hashCode()
), otherwise you will face Validation Error: Value is not valid. The Class#isAssignableFrom()
tests are to avoid failing tests on e.g. Hibernate based proxies without the need to fall back to Hibernate-specific Hibernate#getClass(Object)
helper method.
And have a base service like this (yes, I'm ignoring the fact that you're using Spring; it's just to give the base idea):
@Stateless
public class BaseService {
@PersistenceContext
private EntityManager em;
public BaseEntity<? extends Number> find(Class<BaseEntity<? extends Number>> type, Number id) {
return em.find(type, id);
}
}
And implement the converter as follows:
@ManagedBean
@ApplicationScoped
@SuppressWarnings({ "rawtypes", "unchecked" }) // We don't care about BaseEntity's actual type here.
public class BaseEntityConverter implements Converter {
@EJB
private BaseService baseService;
@Override
public String getAsString(FacesContext context, UIComponent component, Object value) {
if (value == null) {
return "";
}
if (modelValue instanceof BaseEntity) {
Number id = ((BaseEntity) modelValue).getId();
return (id != null) ? id.toString() : null;
} else {
throw new ConverterException(new FacesMessage(String.format("%s is not a valid User", modelValue)), e);
}
}
@Override
public Object getAsObject(FacesContext context, UIComponent component, String value) {
if (value == null || value.isEmpty()) {
return null;
}
try {
Class<?> type = component.getValueExpression("value").getType(context.getELContext());
return baseService.find((Class<BaseEntity<? extends Number>>) type, Long.valueOf(submittedValue));
} catch (NumberFormatException e) {
throw new ConverterException(new FacesMessage(String.format("%s is not a valid ID of BaseEntity", submittedValue)), e);
}
}
}
Note that it's registered as a @ManagedBean
instead of a @FacesConverter
. This trick allows you to inject a service in the converter via e.g. @EJB
. See also How to inject @EJB, @PersistenceContext, @Inject, @Autowired, etc in @FacesConverter? So you need to reference it as converter="#{baseEntityConverter}"
instead of converter="baseEntityConverter"
.
If you happen to use such a converter more than often for UISelectOne
/UISelectMany
components (<h:selectOneMenu>
and friends), you may find OmniFaces SelectItemsConverter
much more useful. It converts based on the values available in <f:selectItems>
instead of making (potentially expensive) DB calls everytime.