With Spring Data JPA, under what circumstances should I use EntityManager directly? - spring-boot

Spring Boot Data JPA does an amazing job of generating repositories and abstracting away the managemet of Datasources and EntityManager etc. But sometimes I see code where the EntityManager is included as a field and accessed directly, like in this Dzone example
I don't really understand from that example, when should I include the EntityManager in my class and interact with it directly and when can I just rely on the repository Spring Data JPA autogenerates? Can someone explain?

One good use of EntityManager that I can think of is when you want to get results from a database using complex queries such as join. You can directly query using EntityManager and use ResultTransformer to get into your custom model.

Related

Hibernate session factory and repository confusion

So there are two ways to persist an entity:
Using Hibernate's session factory where we get the current session and call save(), get(), update() methods.
Extending JPA's repository interfaces
I have the following questions:
How are these two methods different in the context of using Hibernate. As far as I understand, Hibernate is an implementation of JPA API. So when I say I want to use Hibernate, does it mean that I can use both of the above methods?
What is the preferred way of the two based on convenience, flexibility and optimisation?
JPA repository behind the scenes uses Hibernate or JPA APIs to implement its functionality and tries to "abstract" it or provide convenience methods on top of it. You don't have to use JPA repositories though, and can always switch to the Hibernate or JPA APIs when needed. Think though, if you really gain any benefit by using the Spring Data JPA repository concept.

Object/Entity lifecycles when using spring-data-jpa with hibernate as jpa provider?

When using spring-data-jpa with hibernate as jpa provider, are the Object/Entity lifecycles same as when using hibernate directly or as defined by hibernate (or might be jpa spec itself).
Hibernate defines these lifecycles to entities - Transient, Persistent, Detached, Removed.
Are these same life cycles applicable when using spring-data-jpa too.
If so how does below the methods provided by Hibernate map with the methods of spring jpa crud repository.
//below methods in hibernate move an entity to persistent state
save(e),
persist(e);
update(e);
saveOrUpdate(e);
lock(e);
merge(e);
and
//below methods in hibernate move an entity to detached state
detach(e);
evict(e);
For the first part of the question:
Spring Data JPA just offers some comfortable mechanics on top of JPA.
The persistence, mapping and life cycle is still managed by JPA or its implementation, i.e. Hibernate in your case.
This means the life cycle is the same.
As for the mapping between Spring Data JPAs methods and Hibernates/JPA methods see the following table.
Spring Data
JPA
CrudRepository.save*
for new entities EntityManager.persist, EntityManager.merge otherwise
CrudRepository.delete*
EntityManager.remove
CrudRepository.findById
EntityManager.find*
JpaRepository.*flush
EntityManager.flush
JpaRepository.getById
EntityManager.getReference
Other query methods predefined in interfaces or otherwise use various types of queries.
Spring Data Jpa is only an abstraction layer and not provide a lifecycle management. Therefore, if you are using hibernate as a jpa implementation your object's lifecycle will regulated according to hibernate's lifecycle management.
Also, you can find some other explanations here and here as well.

Is Repository the only way to save entity data on DB?

I'm studying Spring boot, and i have create several entity, my problem now is to retrieve the data from controller to save it on db.
Surfing on the web I have learned that i have to use JPARepositery or CrudRepositery in this way:
An example with User entity
public interface UserRepository extends CrudRepository<User, Integer> {
}
and to save
User user = new User();
userRepository.save(user);
But if I have many entities, Do I need to create a repository for each entity?
I have read about Session, FactorySession and Transaction they are compatible with Spring boot? How it works? and #Transactional tag how it works?
Thanks in advance
Yes, usually you need to create one Repository per Entity. This is also a good practice because you are placing operations and queries related to the same Entity in the same Repository.
Yes, you can obtain a Session and a FactorySession object (Hibernate), but I would advice you against using Hibernate directy. Instead, it is better to use Spring Data or JPA mechanisms to access your database (just as you do using a Repository). The reason is because Hibernate is an implementation of the JPA standard and today we use JPA to access databases (because it masks the exact implementation of the ORM). This way you can later (potentially) replace Hibernate with another JPA implementation (such as EclipseLink) without the need to change your code (in theory). In most projects you will find Hibernate being used, however.
Yes, Transaction is a Spring annotation and an important database transaction mechanism in Spring Boot, too.

Spring JDBCTemplate and Hibernate

I have a Spring, Spring Data, JPA/Hibernate application.
The legacy part of the application uses JdbcTemplate the new stuff uses spring-data/hibernate and everything is wrapped in a transaction.
Problem is when I modify an entity via hibernate and the legacy part of the system attempts to query something that's been modified I don't get the updated values with out having to explicitly "flush" the entity manager each time.
Is it possible execute the JdbcTemplate queries against hibernate's first-level cache?
What about trying this?
Edit: https://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/javadoc-api/org/springframework/orm/jpa/JpaTransactionManager.html
This transaction manager also supports direct DataSource access within a transaction (i.e. plain JDBC code working with the same DataSource). This allows for mixing services which access JPA and services which use plain JDBC (without being aware of JPA)! Application code needs to stick to the same simple Connection lookup pattern as with DataSourceTransactionManager (i.e. DataSourceUtils.getConnection(javax.sql.DataSource) or going through a TransactionAwareDataSourceProxy). Note that this requires a vendor-specific JpaDialect to be configured.

how to setup spring data jpa with multiple datasources

I am using Spring Data Jpa version 1.0.0.M2 here is the url:
http://static.springsource.org/spring-data/data-jpa/docs/1.0.0.M2/reference/pdf/spring-data-jpa-reference.pdf
All is promised to be very simple and nice, but when it comes to two datasources it breaks down. The question is how to setup with two data sources? The JpaRepository automatically searches for EntityManager, when it finds more than two it throws exceptions.
If you have any idea with EntityManager and how to setup the spring data jpa, please post a reply. Your help is truly appreciated!!!
<jpa:repositories base-package="org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.sample"
entity-manager-factory-ref="secondEntityManagerFactory" />
You can use a dynamic datasource that wrap your two datasources, as explained here:
http://blog.springsource.com/2007/01/23/dynamic-datasource-routing/
Are you looking to use 'EntityManager-A' with Spring Data JPA and 'EntityManager-B' for another data access layer?
Mark

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