Post nested objects with Spring Data REST

Question

I'm trying using Spring Data Rest in a Spring Boot backend. I have an entity named Request with some fields and another entity named RequestData. Now, RequestData's mapped table has the foreign key referencing request_id (and nullable=false)

Then, I need to insert a request along with request data.

The problem here is when I try to create a new request along with its data: I can't set the request inside request data because I still have no request Id, but the request_id is not nullable so i need to insert it.

a body like this:

{
   type: "localhost:8080/..../1",
   state: "localhost:8080/.../1",
   ...
   data: [
      {
         field: "foo",
         value: "bar",
      }
   ]
}

throws an exception because it needs the request inside the data record.

This is the Request Entity

@Entity
@Table(name="requests")
public class Request {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    @Column(name="id")
    private long id;
    @ManyToOne(cascade = {CascadeType.DETACH, CascadeType.MERGE, CascadeType.PERSIST, CascadeType.REFRESH})
    @JoinColumn(name="request_type_id")
    private RequestType type;
    @ManyToOne(cascade = {CascadeType.DETACH, CascadeType.MERGE, CascadeType.PERSIST, CascadeType.REFRESH})
    @JoinColumn(name="request_state_id")
    private RequestState state;
    @ManyToOne(cascade = {CascadeType.DETACH, CascadeType.MERGE, CascadeType.PERSIST, CascadeType.REFRESH})
    @JoinColumn(name="citizen_id")
    private User citizen;
    @ManyToOne(cascade = {CascadeType.DETACH, CascadeType.MERGE, CascadeType.PERSIST, CascadeType.REFRESH})
    @JoinColumn(name="request_by")
    private User requestedBy;
    @ManyToOne(cascade = {CascadeType.DETACH, CascadeType.MERGE, CascadeType.PERSIST, CascadeType.REFRESH})
    @JoinColumn(name="operator_id")
    private User operator;
    @Column(name="creation_date")
    private Instant creationDate;
    @Column(name="last_change_date")
    private Instant lastChangeDate;
    @Column(name="closing_date")
    private Instant closingDate;

    @OneToMany(cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
    @JoinColumn(name="request_id")
    private List<RequestData> data;
    @OneToMany(cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
    @JoinColumn(name="request_id")
    private List<RequestPost> posts;
    @OneToMany(cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
    @JoinColumn(name="request_id")
    private List<RequestAttachment> attachments;
    // constructors, getters, setters, ...

This is the RequestData Entity

@Entity
@Table(name="request_data",
uniqueConstraints = {@UniqueConstraint(columnNames = {"request_id", "field"})})
public class RequestData {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy= GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    @Column(name="id")
    private long id;
    @Column(name="field", length=25, nullable = false)
    private String field;
    @Column(name="value")
    private String Value;
    @ManyToOne(cascade = {CascadeType.DETACH, CascadeType.MERGE, CascadeType.PERSIST, CascadeType.REFRESH})
    @JoinColumn(name="request_id", nullable = false)
    private Request request;

    // constructors, getters and setters...

I created a RequestRepository extending JPARepository but not a RequestDataRepository because request data should always go along with the request.

Removing the not nullable constraint on request_data.request_id would let me to do the post call without problems and checking the request data record over the table I find the request_id correctly set. But I don't want to remove that constraint. Is there any method to specify that request Id will be automatically populated with the new request's id?

Thanks in advance

Post nested objects with Spring Data REST

0 Answers0