Extending domain classes results in strange table layout and non-accessible fields

Question

I have a domain class User defined as

class User extends SecUser{
    String fullName
    String address
    String city
    String country
    String role
    String email
    String schoolName
    String gradeLevel

    static constraints = {
        fullName(nullable:true)
        username(blank:false, unique:true)
        password(size:6..20, blank:false)
        //passwordRepeat(validator:)
        email(email:true, nullable:true, unique:true)
        address(nullable:true)
        city(nullable:true)
        country(nullable:true)
        phone(nullable:true) //10 digit phone number, no spaces
        role(blank:false, inList:['Teacher', 'Donor', 'Both'])
        schoolName(nullable:true)
        gradeLevel(nullable:true, inList:['K', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', '10', '11', '12', 'College'])

    }
}

SecUser is a class implemented by executing the quickstart script of spring security grails plugin. Its defined as

class SecUser {

    transient springSecurityService

    String username
    String password
    boolean enabled
    boolean accountExpired
    boolean accountLocked
    boolean passwordExpired

    static constraints = {
        username blank: false, unique: true
            password blank: false
    }
}

Normally, I thought the resulting database table would be a USER table with the listed fields above as columns, and I can use the UserController methods to implement CRUD. Problem is, the User table is never created, rather a SEC_USER table is instanciated witht he above fields.

My issue has to do with creating a new user and populating the relevant fields. Since the USER table doesn't exist, I can't insert records from the User domain object.

On the other hand, I can insert records in the SEC_USER table, but the fields are limited to those defined in the SecUser domain class. If I do try to insert an item in a particular column in User via a new SecUser instance, I get a property not defined error message.

This is somewhat frustrating, since in order to complete a user registration process, I need to access, insert and update the relevant fields, but how to do that with no access?

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 19 '12 at 13:53

I believe what you are looking for is a table per sub-class mapping instead of the default table per hierarchy.

The default table-per-hierarchy can make things difficult in dealing with the database Other disadvantage is that columns cannot have a "Not Null" constraint applied to them at the db level.

grails has a little bit of a write up on this.... in 5.5.2.3 Inheritance Strategies

if you add the following to your domain class you will get a table per subclass

 static mapping = {
    tablePerHierarchy false
 }

Extending domain classes results in strange table layout and non-accessible fields

1 Answers1