Hibernate #OneToMany relation cascade option not working - spring-boot

Question

I design simple 1:N schema , Account(1):AccountProfileImage(N).
Below codes are entity codes.
// Account.java
#Entity
#Table(name = "account")
#Getter
#NoArgsConstructor(access = AccessLevel.PROTECTED)
#EntityListeners(AuditingEntityListener.class)
public class Account {
#GeneratedValue
#Id
#Column(name = "id")
private Long id;
#Column(name = "email", nullable = false)
private String email;
#Column(name = "password", nullable = false)
private String password;
#Column(name = "first_name", nullable = false)
private String firstName;
#Column(name = "last_name", nullable = false)
private String lastName;
#CreatedDate
#Column(name = "created_at")
private LocalDateTime createdAt;
#OneToMany(mappedBy ="account",cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
private final List<AccountProfileImage> profileImages= new ArrayList<>();
#Builder
public Account(String email,String firstName,String lastName,String password){
this.email=email;
this.firstName=firstName;
this.lastName=lastName;
this.password=password;
}
}
// AccountProfileImage.java
#Entity
#Table(name = "account_profile_image")
#NoArgsConstructor(access = AccessLevel.PROTECTED)
#Getter
#EntityListeners(AuditingEntityListener.class)
public class AccountProfileImage {
#Id
#GeneratedValue
private Long id;
#ManyToOne(fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
#JoinColumn(name = "account_id")
private Account account;
#Column(name = "image_url")
private String imageURL;
#CreatedDate
#Column(name = "created_at")
private LocalDateTime createdAt;
#Builder
public AccountProfileImage (Account account,String imageURL){
this.account=account;
// this.account.addProfileImage(this);
this.imageURL=imageURL;
}
}
and this is test code for AccountProfileRepository code.
#Test
#Rollback(value = false)
public void saveAccountProfileImageTest() throws Exception {
// given
Account account = Account.builder()
.email("user#email.com")
.firstName("user")
.lastName("user")
.password("1234")
.build();
AccountProfileImage profileImage = AccountProfileImage.builder()
.account(account)
.imageURL("pathToURI")
.build();
AccountProfileImage profileImage2 = AccountProfileImage.builder()
.account(account)
.imageURL("pathToURI2")
.build();
accountRepository.save(account);
// when
List<AccountProfileImage> images = profileImageRepository.findAllByAccount_IdOrderByCreatedAtDesc(1L);
// then
// this assertion fail
assertThat(images.size()).isEqualTo(2);
}
What i want to expect find by List of images whose size is 2 because I add CscadeType.ALL in Account entity class and when creating AccountProfileImage object, I set account member variable in AccountProfileImage object.
this.account=account;
Did I something wrong?
I add below method in Account entity and 2 lines at test code, then it works fine. Do i have to do this everytime? Is there exist another better approach or best practice?
// Account Entity
public void addProfileImages(AccountProfileImage image){
this.profileImages.add(image);
}
// test code
account.addProfileImages(profileImage);
account.addProfileImages(profileImage2);
accountRepository.save(account);
// when
List<AccountProfileImage> images = profileImageRepository.findAllByAccount_IdOrderByCreatedAtDesc(1L);
// then
// this assertion pass
assertThat(images.size()).isEqualTo(2);

Answer 1

In Bi-directional relationships, you have to define the association on both ends of the relationship. To avoid any issues, you can update the helper addProfileImage(..) method to add the AccountProfileImage to the list and set account property of the image to the current account. This is the best practice as this way, the helper method will set up the association across both ends of the bi-directional relationship.
E.g.
public void addProfileImages(AccountProfileImage image){
this.profileImages.add(image); // Add image to profileImages
image.setAccount(this); // Set account property to the current account
}
Test:
#Test
#Rollback(value = false)
public void saveAccountProfileImageTest() throws Exception {
// given
Account account = Account.builder()
.email("user#email.com")
.firstName("user")
.lastName("user")
.password("1234")
.build();
AccountProfileImage profileImage = AccountProfileImage.builder()
.imageURL("pathToURI")
.build();
AccountProfileImage profileImage2 = AccountProfileImage.builder()
.imageURL("pathToURI2")
.build();
// Setup association
account.addProfileImage(profileImage);
account.addProfileImage(profileImage2);
accountRepository.save(account);
// when
List<AccountProfileImage> images = profileImageRepository.findAllByAccount_IdOrderByCreatedAtDesc(1L);
// then
// this assertion fail
assertThat(images.size()).isEqualTo(2);
}