Sprint Data Rest extend PagingAndSortingRepository with custom method - spring-boot

Question

My objective is to add a custom convenience method to a Spring Data REST API without creating my own controller.
According to the documentation here I have extended PagingAndSortingRepository in the following manner:
Repository:
#RepositoryRestResource
public interface PartyRestRepository extends PagingAndSortingRepository<Party, String>, CustomPartyRestRepository {
}
Interface with my method:
public interface CustomPartyRestRepository {
void dynamicPartyCreation(final String name);
}
Implementation:
public class CustomPartyRestRepositoryImpl implements CustomPartyRestRepository {
#Autowired
private PartyService partyService;
#Autowired
private PartyRepository partyRepository;
#Autowired
private HeroService heroService;
#Override
public void dynamicPartyCreation(final String name) {
final Party party = this.partyService.createParty(name);
final List<Hero> heroes = IntStream.range(0, 3)
.mapToObj(i -> this.heroService.createHero(String.format("Hero %d for %s", i, name)))
.collect(Collectors.toList());
party.setMembers(heroes);
this.partyRepository.save(party);
}
}
When I do GET localhost:8080/profile/parties/, I see that Spring has picked up my method and is exposing it:
<...cut...>
{
"name": "dynamicPartyCreation",
"type": "SAFE"
}
<..cut..>
But I can't seem to use it. GET localhost:8080/parties/dynamicPartyCreation/ results in 404, as does POST, with body or without, with query param or not. A PUT simply creates a party and ignores the /parties/dynamicPartyCreation/ part of the url (meaning, my method isn't called). I have tried a million combinations but I can't use it.
What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Well, interesting, I never thought it could work this way...
try
return this.partyRepository.save(party);
Although I don't understand how can it work at all, when you basically #autowired PartyRepositoryCustom into itself...
So maybe it should be something like this:
public class CustomPartyRestRepositoryImpl implements CustomPartyRestRepository {
#Autowired
private PartyService partyService;
#Autowired
private ListableBeanFactory beanFactory;
#Autowired
private HeroService heroService;
#Override
public Party dynamicPartyCreation(final String name) {
final Party party = this.partyService.createParty(name);
final List<Hero> heroes = IntStream.range(0, 3)
.mapToObj(i -> this.heroService.createHero(String.format("Hero %d for %s", i, name)))
.collect(Collectors.toList());
party.setMembers(heroes);
return beanFactory.getBean(PartyRepository.class).save(party);
}
}
If the server doesn't start, try accessing/initialising the PartyService and HeroService via beanFactory too.
Although it should work (I successfully tested a similar method in my current project), I still don't think it's a good idea to implement it this way.
It's not a search (even if it returns a new object)
It changes the DB, so this endpoint should be accessed via PUT method.
So I suggest creating a custom controller method instead, and moving the logic into the PartyService class.
Oh, btw. The URL you were looking for is
GET /parties/search/dynamicPartyCreation/