How to test Spring JPA audit annotations?

Question

I am having trouble testing the auditing annotations in Spring JPA (2.5.4) using an H2 in-memory database. I have a main class annotated with @EnableJpaAuditing, and a base class for my entities.

@Getter
@Setter
@MappedSuperclass
@EntityListeners(AuditingEntityListener.class)
public class AuditedEntity {
    @CreatedDate
    LocalDateTime createdDate;

    @LastModifiedDate
    LocalDateTime lastModifiedDate;
}

Two entities extend the base class: a parent and a child.

@Data
@Entity
@Table(name = "one2many")
class OneToManyEntity extends AuditedEntity {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = SEQUENCE)
    Integer id;

    @OneToMany(mappedBy = "parent", cascade = ALL, orphanRemoval = true)
    List<ManyToOneEntity> children;
}

@Data
@Entity
@Table(name = "many2one")
class ManyToOneEntity extends AuditedEntity {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = SEQUENCE)
    Integer id;

    @ManyToOne(optional = false, fetch = LAZY)
    OneToManyEntity parent;
}

The repository for the parent entity is a simple interface declaration.

@Repository
interface OneToManyRepository extends CrudRepository<OneToManyEntity, Integer> {
}

And I have a couple of Spock tests for it.

class OneToManyRepoSpec extends Specification {
    @Autowired
    OneToManyRepository repo

    def "test ID is assigned"() {
        given:
            def parent = new OneToManyEntity()
            parent.setChildren([new ManyToOneEntity()])
        expect:
            def persisted = repo.save(parent)
            persisted.getId() > 0
            persisted.getLastModifiedDate() != null
    }

    def "LastModifiedDate value is updated"() {
        given:
            def persisted1 = repo.save(new OneToManyEntity())
            sleep(1000)
            persisted1.setChildren([])
            def persisted2 = repo.save(persisted1)
        expect:
            persisted2.lastModifiedDate.isAfter(persisted1.lastModifiedDate)
    }
}

I can get either of these tests to pass, depending on how I annotate the test class; but I cannot get both tests to pass together.

• If I annotate the test class with @DataJpaTest the first test passes (IDs and audit values are assigned) but the second test fails (audit values are not updated).
• If I annotate the test class with @SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = NONE) the first test fails (ConstraintViolationException: NULL not allowed for column "parent_id"; so IDs are not assigned) but the second test passes (audit values are updated).

Do I have to split these tests into different classes with different annotations, or is there a way to keep them together and both passing? I'd also be interested to understand more about what causes these separate test failures.

Answer 1

Like I said, I am not a Spring user, but I noticed the following things when playing with your MCVE:

• For @DataJpaTest, not only persisted2 == persisted1 is true, but even persisted2 === persisted1. I.e., the object is changed in-place, no new instance is created. Therefore, the check persisted2.lastModifiedDate.isAfter(persisted1.lastModifiedDate) can never work.
• For @DataJpaTest, lastModifiedDate is never updated. Maybe that kind of test is not meant to check timestamps. I.e. that you cannot even use def lastModifiedDate = persisted1.lastModifiedDate before saving the second time and later persisted2.lastModifiedDate.isAfter(lastModifiedDate). It also fails.

So you really should use @SpringBootTest, if you wish to check timestamps like that. Then however, you need to satisfy referential integrity for your parent-child relationships. If there is an option to modify the @DataJpaTest behaviour in order to also update timestamps, I have no idea. But probably that is database functionality which is mocked away in JPA tests. Someone more experienced in Spring can maybe answer this question.

---

Update: Something like this should work for you:

package spring.jpa

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest
import spock.lang.Specification

@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = SpringBootTest.WebEnvironment.NONE)
class AuditingSpec extends Specification {
  @Autowired
  OneToManyRepository repo

  def "New parent and child are both assigned IDs and dates"() {
    given:
    def parent = new OneToManyEntity()
    parent.setChildren([createChild(parent)])
    when:
    def persisted = repo.save(parent)
    then:
    def persistedChild = persisted.children.first()
    persisted.createdDate
    persisted.createdDate == persisted.lastModifiedDate
    persistedChild.createdDate
    persistedChild.createdDate == persistedChild.lastModifiedDate
  }

  def "Appended child is assigned IDs and dates"() {
    given:
    def parent = new OneToManyEntity()
    parent.setChildren([createChild(parent)])
    def persisted = repo.save(parent)
    persisted.children.add(createChild(parent))
    when:
    def persisted2 = repo.save(persisted)
    then:
    persisted2.children.size() == 2
    def firstChild = persisted2.children.first()
    def secondChild = persisted2.children.last()
    secondChild.id > firstChild.id
    secondChild.createdDate
    secondChild.createdDate == secondChild.lastModifiedDate
  }

  def "LastModifiedDate value is updated"() {
    given:
    def persisted1 = repo.save(new OneToManyEntity())
    //sleep(1000)
    persisted1.setChildren([])
    def persisted2 = repo.save(persisted1)
    expect:
    persisted2.lastModifiedDate.isAfter(persisted1.lastModifiedDate)
  }

  static ManyToOneEntity createChild(OneToManyEntity parent) {
    def child = new ManyToOneEntity()
    child.setParent(parent)
    child
  }
}

Answer 2

Thanks to the tips in the comments, I've realized the two tests fail in opposite scenarios because the first test must run in a transaction, while the second test must not run in a transaction. The test failures manifested with different class-level annotations because @DataJpaTest is transactional while @SpringBootTest is not. So the solution is to use @SpringBootTest and annotate only the first test as @Transactional. I have updated the GitHub project accordingly.

Answer 3

for anybody who has a problem with the scenario f.e. @CreatedDate is not generated after storing in DB in junit test. Just use @DataJpaTest together with @EnableJpaAuditing and your @CreatedDate and other generated fields will start to work also in junit tests. What was missing in my case was @EnableJpaAuditing annotation. @DataJpaTest has be default not enabled jpa auditing so with annotation @EnableJpaAuditing you will enable it. Good luck :)