Custom Insert and Update methods defeated by automatic Save - grails

I am porting a Grails application from Oracle to MySQL database. The original Oracle version is a legacy database which uses a few complex Views leveraging Oracle's INSTEAD OF INSERT OR UPDATE feature which MySQL doesn't have. As a workaround I have implement Insert and Update methods on the Domain classes which point to these kinds of Views. For example,
class AdminUser {
//...
def update() {
if(this.validate()) {
Sql sql = Utils.getHibernateSql()
sql.execute(
"update table_x ...",
[...]
)
sql.execute(
"update table_y ...)",
[...]
)
sql.execute(
"update table_z ...",
[...]
)
return true
}
return false
}
//...
}
Here is a description of the problem I am running into at the moment:
Within a service method I load an instance of AdminUser using AdminUser.get
I modify the loaded instance and call update(), all appears well
Once the service method finishes executing an exception is thrown due to something calling save on the instance.
How can I prevent the magical save happening in step (3) (I recently read somewhere that Grails will automatically save a modified Domain class instance which hasn't yet been saved upon exiting a service method, but I can't seem to find the link to that resource right now)?

You're leaving the modified instance in the hibernate session with dirty fields. When the hibernate session gets flushed, it will try to save the object again with the usual save() method.
One solution would be to discard your object from the hibernate session after you've manually saved the changes. For example:
def update() {
if(this.validate()) {
Sql sql = Utils.getHibernateSql()
sql.execute(
"update table_z ...",
[...]
)
...
this.discard() // remove the object from the hibernate session
return true
}
In addition, you can add this to your Config.groovy to require that objects be saved explicitly:
hibernate.flush.mode="manual"

If you use read() instead of get(), then the object will not auto-persist changes. You can still call save() explicitly, but the standard behavior where the OpenSessionInView interceptor flushes all unsaved dirty instances will skip the instances loaded with read().

Related

why does save() not save the data and save(flush: true) is required?

RaceRegistration domain has embedded raceParticipant and raceParticipant has a field bibNumber which is Integer.
I have a method for nulling out all bibNumbers of registrations but without flush:true in save, the nulling out of bibs dont work. The bibs are not set to null.
def nullifyBibNumbers(Long id){
...
def regss = RaceRegistration.createCriteria().list(){
eq('compositeEvent', event)
}
regss.each{ r ->
r.raceParticipant.bibNumber = null
r.save()
}
render "Bibs resetted!"
}
If i add flush:true then the bibs are set to null.
regss.each{ r ->
r.raceParticipant.bibNumber = null
r.save(flush: true)
}
I am wondering why you need flush in order for the value to be set to null? I am guessing the problem is with regard to how i am obtain the registration list using createCriteria(). I appreciate any help in this dilemma i am facing. Thanks!
As you probably figured out, save(flush: true) forces Hibernate to write any pending changes to the database. Without the explicit flush, you're relying on a Hibernate transaction to automatically flush when the transaction commits.
The reason only an explicit flush is working for you is because you're not calling save() within a transaction.
The cleanest fix is to create a Grails service, put nullifyBibNumbers() in it, and make the service transactional. That will cause nullifyBibNumbers() to get wrapped in a transaction so that you can use save() without an explicit flush.
If nullifyBibNumbers() is already in a service, you can add #Transactional to the service class, just keep in mind that it will make all methods (perhaps only the public ones?) transactional. Having said that, you can use #NotTransactional on a method to disable transactions.
The value is null in your domain object. But you are talking about null in the database, I guess?
It shouldn't matter. This is basic ORM. As a developer you don't care about when the flush is done. Typically this would be at the end of a transaction. The ORM will then flush all of the changes for that transaction at once.
It works on what is called the first-level cache during the transaction, and tries to avoid going to the db until it is explicitly requested (flush:true) or required (end of transaction).
Without the using of
save(flush: true)
The object will not be persisted immediately.
You can follow the documentation link and see the following information:
The save method informs the persistence context that an instance
should be saved or updated. The object will not be persisted
immediately unless the flush argument is used.
Related to the null issue you are facing make sure that the following condition are met.
The save method returns null if validation failed and the instance was
not persisted, or the instance itself if successful.
You do not need the flush in order for the value to be set to null.
The flush only care of a quick update of the database.
ok i fixed this problem using HQL instead of domain saves. Still i would appreciate why save() didnt work and save(flush:true) saved the data. Thanks!
RaceRegistration.executeUpdate("update RaceRegistration set raceParticipant.bibNumber = null where compositeEvent.id = :ev", [ev: id])

In GORM, Object is not modified in database when the object property is modified at Controller

In my Grails App, I have bootstrapped an object of a domain class as:
def user1 = new Users(userID: 1, name: "John Doe")
user1.save()
In my dashboard controller i have retrieved the object and modified its property name as:
Users userObj = Users.get((Long) 1)
println(userObj as JSON); // This gives me: {"class":"com.prabin.domains.Users","id":1,"name":"John Doe"}
userObj.name = "anonymous"
Now i create a new Users object to retrieve the changed object with same ID 1 as
Users otherUserObj = Users.get((Long) 1) // **Line 2** Is this retrieving from database or from GORM session?
print(otherUserObj as JSON)// This gives me: {"class":"com.prabin.domains.Users","id":1,"name":"anonymous"}
But the value of object in database is not changed. And even when i retrieve the Users object of same id 1 in another controller it gives me the initial object rather than the modified as:
Users userObjAtDifferentController = Users.get(1);
print(userObjAtDifferentController) //This gives me: {"class":"com.prabin.domains.Users","id":1,"name":"John Doe"}
My question is, if the value is not changed in the database, why it gives me the modified object at Line 2 though i have retrieved the object using GORM query (which i guess should retrieve from the database)?
I have also tried using save() after the modification but the result is same.
userObj.save() //doesn't show the changes in database.
My guess is that the object is not being saved to the database because some constraint(s) are invalid. You can determine whether this is the case by replacing your calls to save() with save(failOnError: true). If my guess is correct, an exception will be thrown if saving to the database fails.
When you call the save() method on a domain object, it may not persist in the database immediately. In order to persist the changed value to the database, you would need to do the following.
userObj.save(flush: true)
By using flush, you are telling GORM to persist immediately in the database.
In some cases when validation fails, the data will still not persist in the database. The save() method will fail silently. To catch validation errors as well as save to the database immediately, you would want to do the following
userObj.save(flush:true, failOnError:true)
If validation errors exist, then the GROM will throw ValidationException (http://docs.grails.org/latest/api/grails/validation/ValidationException.html)
You need to consider two things:
If you do save(), it only retains in hibernate session, until you flush it the changes does not persist in database. So, better do save(flush:true, failOnError: true) and put in try/catch block and print exception.
And another important things is, your method in controller needs to be with #Transactional annotation, without it your changes does not persist in database, you will encounter Connection is read-only. Queries leading to data modification are not allowed. exception.
Hope this helps, let me know if your issue is fixed. Happy coding . :)

When does grails check for Object Staleness?

I'm using Grails 2.5.1, and I have a controller calling a service method which occasionally results in a StaleObjectStateException. The code in the service method has a try catch around the obj.save() call which just ignores the exception. However, whenever one of these conflicts occurs there's still an error printed in the log, and an error is returned to the client.
My GameController code:
def finish(String gameId) {
def model = [:]
Game game = gameService.findById(gameId)
// some other work
// this line is where the exception points to - NOT a line in GameService:
model.game = GameSummaryView.fromGame(gameService.scoreGame(game))
withFormat {
json {
render(model as JSON)
}
}
}
My GameService code:
Game scoreGame(Game game) {
game.rounds.each { Round round ->
// some other work
try {
scoreRound(round)
if (round.save()) {
updated = true
}
} catch (StaleObjectStateException ignore) {
// ignore and retry
}
}
}
The stack-trace says the exception generates from my GameController.finish method, it doesn't point to any code within my GameService.scoreGame method. This implies to me that Grails checks for staleness when a transaction is started, NOT when an object save/update is attempted?
I've come across this exception many times, and generally I fix it by not traversing the Object graph.
For example, in this case, I'd remove the game.rounds reference and replace it with:
def rounds = Round.findAllByGameId(game.id)
rounds.each {
// ....
}
But that would mean that staleness isn't checked when the transaction is created, and it isn't always practical and in my opinion kind of defeats the purpose of Grails lazy collections. If I wanted to manage all the associations myself I would.
I've read the documentation regarding Pessimistic and Optimistic Locking, but my code follows the examples there.
I'd like to understand more about how/when Grails (GORM) checks for staleness and where to handle it?
You don't show or discuss any transaction configuration, but that's probably what's causing the confusion. Based on what you're seeing, I'm guessing that you have #Transactional annotations in your controller. I say that because if that's the case, a transaction starts there, and (assuming your service is transactional) the service method joins the current transaction.
In the service you call save() but you don't flush the session. That's better for performance, especially if there were another part of the workflow where you make other changes - you wouldn't want to push two or more sets of updates to each object when you can push all the changes at once. Since you don't flush, and since the transaction doesn't commit at the end of the method as it would if the controller hadn't started the transaction, the updates are only pushed when the controller method finishes and the transaction commits.
You'd be better off moving all of your transactional (and business) logic to the service and remove every trace of transactions from your controllers. Avoid "fixing" this by eagerly flushing unless you're willing to take the performance hit.
As for the staleness check - it's fairly simple. When Hibernate generates the SQL to make the changes, it's of the form UPDATE tablename SET col1=?, col2=?, ..., colN=? where id=? and version=?. The id will obviously match, but if the version has incremented, then the version part of the where clause won't match and the JDBC update count will be 0, not 1, and this is interpreted to mean that someone else made a change between your reading and updating the data.

Grails: Is it possible to prevent a domain class instance from being persisted?

I want to create an (one) instance of a Domain class (which, as expected, has a GORM interface to my database) and only use it as a container to pass data around, like a Map object. I want to make absolutely sure that my instance is never going to get persisted in the database. I'm afraid that GORM, with all its cleverness, will somehow manage to save it in the database behind the scene even without an explicit call to save(). Is there a way to specify a "do not persist this" clause when instantiating my object? I know how to prevent persistence on a domain class, what I want is to prevent persistence on a particular instance of the class only.
The solution I have now is to create a class in groovy/src/ that carries the same properties and methods, and use it as my data container, and do type casts as required. It feels wrong, fails DRY, and hacky.
Of course you may also tell me that I should stop being so paranoid and that Grails is never going to persist an domain class instance without an explicit save.
Assume that, you already know how to prevent persistence(table creation) on a domain class. Furthermore, you also know that w/o explicit .save() object won't be persisted.
So, what do you want actually? Is it like.. even if someone accidentally call obj.save(), it will never persist.
Although that doesn't make any sense, but according to your query ,
Is there a way to specify a "do not persist this" clause when
instantiating my object?
Yes, there is a way :
class MyFishyDomain {
String pwd
// properties
// constraints
def beforeInsert() {
if (!this.pwd.equals("drago")) return false
}
def beforeUpdate () {
if (!this.pwd.equals("drago")) return false
}
}
Now..
new MyFishyDomain(pwd:"drago").save() // success
new MyFishyDomain(pwd:"rambo").save() // fail
By the way, if you want to permanently disable Create+Update+Delete But at the same time want to issue query against domain then solution is:
static mapping = {
cache usage: "read-only"
}
def beforeInsert() {
return false
}
Grails will not save an instance of your domain class without an explicit call to save() on the instance. You can create an instance and pass it around, and it will not be persisted.

Grails 2.3.7 Optimistic Locking version is updated every time a Command Object is submitted

I have the following
def save(ACommand command){
...
}
#Validateable
class ACommand implements Serializable
{
ADomainObject bundleDef
}
but every time save is called the version is incremented. So if I open up two browsers and submit a different value in succession, instead of getting an error the second time as I would expect, the value is updated.
I also tried using two different sessions with no difference
Update
If I use breakpoints and submit before the other one is completed it works fine. However, If I let the first complete then submit the second without a refresh the version is updated to the newer one (which I don't want) and the change goes through.
Update 2
When you perform updates Hibernate will automatically check the version property against the version column in the database and if they differ will throw a StaleObjectException. This will roll back the transaction if one is active.
per Grails this should work seems to me.
AFAIK, you need to check the version and handle failures yourself - it doesn't happen automatically. You can do this with code like this:
/**
* Returns a boolean indicating whether the object is stale
*/
protected boolean isStale(persistedObj, versionParam = params.version) {
if (versionParam) {
def version = versionParam.toLong()
if (persistedObj.version > version) {
return true
}
} else {
log.warn "No version param found for ${persistedObj.getClass()}"
}
false
}
you can call isStale from an action like this
def update() {
Competition competition = Competition.get(params.id)
if (isStale(competition)) {
// handle stale object
return
}
// object is not stale, so update it
}
I am not sure what you expect to happen but what you describe sounds correct to me unless you have code in your save() action that is relevant.
You can't expect Hibernate to do anything special here. When your save() action is invoked the instance is retrieved using Hibernate, mutated and then saved. That is all fine as far as Hibernate is concerned.
One way to deal with this is when the form for editing the entity is rendered, render the version of the entity that is being edited to a hidden form field which will be submitted when the entity is saved. In the save action after retrieving the entity from the database compare its version to the version retrieved from the hidden form field and if they don't match you know that the entity was modified between those 2 steps and you can react however is appropriate for your app. Note that since your example is using a command object, data binding is being imposed on the entity before your code ever executes. If that isn't what you want, don't use a command object.
I hope that helps.

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