Grails findById( null ) returning "random" result - grails

I found a very strange behavior in our grails application today that i want to share with you.
We are using grails 2.3.11 on mysql 5.1.48.
We had a DomainObject.findById( id ) in one of your Controller actions.
We failed to check the id for a null value so DomainObject.findById( null )
would be called when no id is passed as an argument.
Normally DomainObject.findById( null )
will return null but there is a special condition that will yield other results!
If the controller action called before that inserted a new record in the database (lets call it Object B), regardless of the domain object stored, the DomainObject.findById( null ) will find the DomainObject with the same Id the Object B got on insert.
So when the controller action called before saved anything the findById(null) will return a row. And that row will have the same id the last inserted element got.
I am totally aware that using findById(null) is not the desired way to do it but I was quite shocked about the results it yielded. But returning any seemingly "random" result seems very strange to me.
I also want to note that DomainObject.get(null) will not suffer from this problem.
Anybody else witnessed this?
There is an active Jira pointing in this direction: https://jira.grails.org/browse/GRAILS-9628 but its not really describing this issue.

We don't really support passing null as an argument to a dynamic finder like that. Dynamic finders have explicit support for querying by null. Instead of DomainClass.findByName(null) you would call DomainClass.findByNameIsNull(). If you have a reference that may or may not be null, instead of passing that as an argument to a dynamic finder, the code can almost always be made cleaner by writing a criteria query or a "where" query that has a conditional in it.
I hope that helps.

Thx for your information scot.
I have further details. This behaviour is also altered by the underlying database.
While mysql suffers from this, maria-db (a mysql clone) does not!
So what happens is bound to the underlying database system.
That should not happen to an abstraction layer ....

Related

Exclude null values from GraphQL query

Disclaimer, I am still a noob in GraphQL.
Apologies for the long post, but I need to give as much information as possible to explain my issue.
I am currently trying to query my Neo4j using GraphQL and then tabulate the data using ReTool.
I managed to do most of the work but when I query the database, I also get the null values.
You can access the sandbox below to test yourself a probable solution.
https://codesandbox.io/s/great-marco-coy3k
The query I am using is the following:
query {
people{
child{
firstname{
name
}
middlename{
name
}
lastname{
name
}
phone{
name
}
email{
name
}
dob{
name
}
eid{
name
}
}
}
}
As you can see, I get back a mixture of null and none-null values.
What I would like to get back is the children that has data in them and ignore the null ones. The reason for that is when I try to populate my table, the null values appear there too.
I need to stress on the fact that I'd still need to retrieve "child" even if one or more of the objects are null as depicted in the image below:
While doing some research, I noticed that other people have the same problem I am facing (example), but most replies said there is no direct solution to this problem, many talked about adjusting the resolver which I am not sure how to do. The resolver file was already set by Neo4j Sandbox automatically and I don't know how to adjust it.
To provide more information regarding the root cause of the problem, you can check the Neo4j schema below:
As you can see, the two-person nodes that have the relationship MASTER_OF and CHILD_OF are similar.
When I query people{child{firstname name}...}
I get the value of the node that has a IN CHILD_OF relationship and null for the node that has IN MASTER_OF relationship.
As far as I understand, you are not sure what each value will return null : it may or it may not be null. In this case it is impossible to adjust your schema to only contain non-null values. You would have to deal with it in the frontend and completely exclude null values there.

PagedResultList .size() and .getTotalCount() return different values in grails gorm

I have the following code
PagedResultList res = myService.getPage(paginateParams, ...)
println res.size() // returns 2
println res.getTotalCount() // returns 1
getPage looks like:
def criteria = MyDomain.createCriteria()
criteria.list(max: paginateParams.max, offset: paginateParams.offset) { // max is 10, offset is 0, sortBy is updatedAt and sortOrder is desc
eq('org', org)
order(paginateParams.sortBy, paginateParams.sortOrder)
}
why do the two method return different values? The documentation doesn't explain the difference, but does mention that getTotalCount is for number of records
currently on grails 2.4.5
edits:
println on res prints out:
res: [
com.<hidden>.MyDomain: 41679f98-a7c5-4193-bba8-601725007c1a,
com.<hidden>.MyDomain: 41679f98-a7c5-4193-bba8-601725007c1a]
Yes, res has a SINGLE object twice - that's the bug I'm trying to fix. How do I know that? I have an primary key on MyDomain's ID, and when I inspect the database, it's also showing one record for this particular org (see my criteria)
edit 2: I found this comment (http://docs.grails.org/2.4.5/ref/Domain%20Classes/createCriteria.html)
listDistinct If subqueries or associations are used, one may end up
with the same row multiple times in the result set. In Hibernate one
would do a "CriteriaSpecification.DISTINCT_ROOT_ENTITY". In Grails one
can do it by just using this method.
Which, if I understand correctly, is their way of saying "list" method doesn't work in this scenario, use listDistinct instead but then they go on to warn:
The listDistinct() method does not work well with the pagination
options maxResult and firstResult. If you need distinct results with
pagination, we currently recommend that you use HQL. You can find out
more information from this blog post.
However, the blog post is a dead link.
Related: GORM createCriteria and list do not return the same results : what can I do?
Not related to actual problem after question edited but this quote seems useful
Generally PagedResultList .size() perform size() on resultList property (in-memory object represent database record), while .getTotalCount() do count query against database. If this two value didn't match your list may contain duplicate.
After viewing related issues (GORM createCriteria and list do not return the same results : what can I do?) I determined that there were several approaches:
Use grails projection groupBy('id') - doesn't work b/c i need the entire object
USe HSQL - Domain.executeQuery - actually this didn't work for my scenario very well because this returns a list, whereas criteria.list returns a PagedResultList from which I previously got totalCount. This solution had me learning HSQL and also made me break up my existing logic into two components - one that returned PagedResultList and one that didn't
Simply keep a set of IDs as I process my PagedResultList and make sure that I didn't have any duplicates.
I ended up going with option 3 because it was quick, didn't require me to learn a new language (HSQL) and I felt that I could easily write the code to do it and I'm not limited by the CPU to do such a unique ID check.

Hydrating Database

I am new to learning and understanding how Hydration works, just wanted to point that out first. I'm currently able to Hydrate Select and Insert queries without any problems.
I am currently stuck on trying to Hydrate Update queries now. In my entity I have setup the get/set options for each type of column in my database. I've found that the ObjectProperty() Hydrator works best for my situation too.
However whenever I try to update only a set number of columns and extract via the hydrator I am getting errors because all the other options are not set and are returning null values. I do not need to update everything for a particular row, just a few columns.
For example in my DB Table I may have:
name
phone_number
email_address
But I only need to update the phone_number.
$entity_passport = $this->getEntityPassport();
$entity_passport->setPrimaryPhone('5551239876');
$this->getTablePassport()->update($this->getHydrator()->extract($entity_passport), array(
'employeeid' => '1'
));
This returns an error because setName() and setEmailAddress() are not included in this update and the query returns that the values cannot be null. But clearly when you look at the DB Table, there is data already there. The data that is there does not need to be changed either, only in this example does the PrimaryPhone() number.
I've been looking and reading documentation all over the place but I cannot find anything that would explain what I am doing wrong. I should note that I am only using Zend\Db (Not Doctrine).
I'm assuming I've missed something someplace due to my lack of knowledge with this new feature I'm trying to understand.
Perhaps you don't Hydrate Update queries... I'm sort of lost / confused. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
I think you're having a fundamental misconception of hydration. A hydrator simply populates an entity object from data (hydrate) and extracts data from an entity object (extract). So there are no separate hydrators for different types of queries.
In your update example you should first retrieve the complete entity object ($entity_passport) and then pass it to the TableGateway's update method. You would retrieve the entity by employeeid, since that's the condition you're using to update. So something like this:
$entity_passport = $passportMapper->findByEmployeeId(1);
$entity_passport->setPrimaryPhone('5551239876');
$this->getTablePassport()->update($this->getHydrator()->extract($entity_passport), array(
'employeeid' => $entity_passport->getId()
));
This is assuming you have some sort of mapper layer. Otherwise you could use your passport TableGateway (I assume that's what getTablePassport() returns, no?).
Otherwise, if you think retrieving the object is too much overhead and you just want to run the query you could use just a \Zend\Db\Sql\Sql object, ie:
$sql = new \Zend\Db\Sql\Sql($dbAdapter);
$update = $sql->update('passport')
->set(array('primary_phone' => $entity_passport->getPrimaryPhone()))
->where(array('employeeid' => $employeeId));
Edit:
Maybe it was a mistake to bring up the mapper, because it may cause more confusion. You could simply use your TableGateway to retrieve the entity object and then hydrate the returned row:
$rows = $this->getTablePassport()->select(array('employeeid' => 1));
$entity_passport = $this->getHydrator($rows->current());
[...]
Edit 2:
I checked your gist and I noticed a few things, so here we go:
I see that your getTablePassport indeed does return an object which is a subclass of TableGateway. You have already set up this class for it to use a HydratingResultset. This means you don't need to do any manual hydrating when retrieving objects using the gateway.
You also already implemented a Search method in that same class, so why not just use that? However I would change that method, because right now you're using LIKE for every single column. Not only is it very inefficient, but it will also give you wrong results, for example on the id column.
If you were to fix that method then you can simply call it in the Service object:
$this->getTablePassport->Search(array('employeeid' => 1));
Otherwise you could just implement a separate method in that tablegateway class, such as
public function findByEmployeeId($employeeId)
{
return $tableGateway->select(array('employeeid' => $employeeId));
}
This should already return an array of entities (or one in this specific case). P.S. make sure to debug and check what is actually being returned when you retrieve the entity. So print_r the entity you get back from the PassportTable before trying the update. You first have to make sure the retrieval code works well.

Rails difference in object created from a .find(:id) and .where() methods

What is the difference in the objects created with these 2 methods:
tec = Technique.find(6)
tec2 = Technique.where(:korean => 'Jok Sul')
The data returned for each is exactly the same, yet the first object will respond perfectly to an inherited method like update_attributes while the second object will give an error of method not found.
When I do tec.class and tec2.class one is an ActiveRecord::Relation and the other doesn't give me a class at all, it just prints out the content of the object.
Maybe when you use the .where method you get an array, even if there is only one match and therefore you always have to issue the .each method to get at the contents? But that makes it hard to deal with when you want to update records, etc.
Can someone clarify this for me? Specifically, how to deal with matches found through the .where method.
Thanks.
Try:
tec2 = Technique.where(:korean => 'Jok Sul').first
Good question.
tec_scope = Technique.where(:korean => 'Jok Sul') # create an internal query
Remember, here only the query is created, it is not executed. You can programmatically build on top of this query if you so wished. The scope (or query if you so wish) will be executed in 2 ways. "Implicit" or "Explicit". Implicit way of running the query happens for example in the console, which invokes a method on the scope which automatically runs the query for you. This wont happen in your controllers unless you run it explicitly for .e.g
tec_scope.all # returns array
tec_scope.first # retuns one element
Scopes are just adding where clauses/predicates to your query. It's query building and delaying the execution till it is needed.
However,
tec_objects = Technique.find(6) # explicitly runs a query and returns one object (in this case)
This will explicitly run the query there and then. It is a question of the timing of execution of the query.
The difference is subtle but very important.
This hasnt got anything to do with whether you get one result or an array.
Technique.find([4,5]) # will return an array
Technique.find(4) # will return one object
Technique.where(:some_key => "some value").all # will return an array
Technique.where(:id => 5).first # will return one object
The difference is in timing of the execution of the query. Don't let the console fool you into believing there is no difference. Console is implicitly firing the query for you :)
The find(6) returns a single object, because you're specifying the object ID in the database, which is guaranteed to be unique by convention.
The where call returns a collection, which may be only 1 item long, but it still returns a collection, not a single object.
You can reveal this difference. Using your example code, if you call tec.class vs. tec2.class I think you'll find that they aren't the same class of object, as you expect.
That is, the methods available to a collection of objects is different than the methods available on an instance of that object.

Using OGNL to return data from a Map<String,Object>

Using Struts 2.1.6, xwork 2.1.2 and ognl 2.6.11
In my struts action I have a Map that I am fetching elements from using OGNL. If the key I am using to fetch with does not exist in the map then OGNL returns an empty object array, that OGNL converts to a string and I get the object reference java.lang.Object#6.... This occurs in several places and seems to be the the map having the value generic specified as an Object. This is not something I can change.
I have traced the problem for a while, but when I ended up deep into the guts of the OGNL code and I did not see a light at the end of the tunnel. Currently I am going to go with an ugly hack of checking the string return to see if it starts with "java.lang.Object#" and if so return an empty string. I don't like the solution but thats what time permits.
Has anyone encountered a similar problem?
Also, where did OpenSymphony go? updates to their webiste appear to have dried up, the user forums say they are being converted to Google Groups no later than Nov-12-09
This is a problem with null values: if value is null, default behavior is to create a value using default constructor. Since the value type of your map is Object, new Objects are created where null is.
In order to stop this behavior:
use #CreateIfNull( value = false )
use mapName_CreateIfNull=false in classname-convertion.properties file.

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