How can you use different operators with QueryDSL Web? - spring

Question

I am using QueryDSL in my Spring Boot project and planning to use Spring's web support for it (current query dsl web docs). The problem is, I can't find anything about using different operators. How can I define a not equals or matches regex operation? At first glance, all it does is translating your ?fieldname=value format GET request to a predefined operation you set in your repository. Can I extend it in a way to allow multiple operations for the same field?
Example.:
Currently I can get a QueryDsl Predicate by passing URL paramters, like ?user.company.id=1:
#Controller
class UserController {
#Autowired UserRepository repository;
#RequestMapping(value = "/", method = RequestMethod.GET)
Page<User> getUsers(#QuerydslPredicate(root = User.class) Predicate predicate,
Pageable pageable) {
return repository.findAll(predicate, pageable);
}
}
But as the documentation I linked states, I can only define a single operation for a certain field. What If I want the Users, where the user.lastName starts with something and still keep the possibility to query for exact match? (?lastName=Xyz,contains and ?lastName=Xyz,equals maybe)
The QuerydslBinderCustomizer defines operations per field basis, but you can only define how to handle that particular field, there is no possibility to add multiple operations.
Maybe I cannot do this with QueryDSL, but then generally in Spring boot how do you apply filters to a search query?

Answer 1

I'm doing something like that. Although I'm facing some limitations when I try to do more complicated actions. What I've done in some steps:
Create a new interface MyBinderCustomizer<T extends EntityPath<?>> that extends QuerydslBinderCustomizer<QUser> (note the Q of User, you want QueryDSL autogenerated class instead of your entity).
Implement customize method. For example:
#Override
public default void customize(QuerydslBindings bindings, T root) {
bindings.bind(String.class).all(MyBinderCustomizer::applyStringComparison);
}
static BooleanExpression applyStringComparison(Path<String> path, Collection<? extends String> strings) {
BooleanExpression result = null;
for (String s : strings) {
try {
final String[] parts = s.split(",");
final String operator = parts[0];
final String value = parts.length > 1 ? parts[1] : null;
final Method method = Arrays.stream(path.getClass().getMethods())
.filter(m -> operator.equals(m.getName()))
.filter(m -> BooleanExpression.class.equals(m.getReturnType()))
.filter(m -> m.getParameterTypes().length == (value == null ? 0 : 1))
.filter(m -> value == null || m.getParameterTypes()[0].equals(String.class) || m.getParameterTypes()[0].equals(Object.class))
.findFirst().get();
final BooleanExpression be;
if (value == null) {
be = (BooleanExpression) method.invoke(path);
} else {
be = (BooleanExpression) method.invoke(path, value);
}
result = result == null ? be : result.and(be);
} catch (Throwable t) {
throw new RuntimeException(t);
}
}
return result;
}
Note you should change value/operator order, so you can call no-value operators like isNull.
Your repository must extend MyBinderCustomizer<QUser> (note Q again).
This will let you use these operations:
public BooleanExpression StringExpression.like(java.lang.String)
public BooleanExpression StringExpression.notLike(java.lang.String)
public BooleanExpression StringExpression.notEqualsIgnoreCase(java.lang.String)
public BooleanExpression StringExpression.containsIgnoreCase(java.lang.String)
public BooleanExpression StringExpression.likeIgnoreCase(java.lang.String)
public BooleanExpression StringExpression.startsWithIgnoreCase(java.lang.String)
public BooleanExpression StringExpression.endsWithIgnoreCase(java.lang.String)
public BooleanExpression StringExpression.equalsIgnoreCase(java.lang.String)
public BooleanExpression StringExpression.startsWith(java.lang.String)
public BooleanExpression StringExpression.endsWith(java.lang.String)
public BooleanExpression StringExpression.matches(java.lang.String)
public BooleanExpression StringExpression.contains(java.lang.String)
public BooleanExpression StringExpression.isEmpty()
public BooleanExpression StringExpression.isNotEmpty()
public BooleanExpression SimpleExpression.isNull()
public BooleanExpression SimpleExpression.isNotNull()
public BooleanExpression SimpleExpression.ne(java.lang.Object)
public BooleanExpression SimpleExpression.eq(java.lang.Object)

Answer 2

The Spring Data QueryDSL Value Operators library extends Spring Data QueryDSL web support with operators for not only String fields, but also Number and Enum fields. It requires some special configuration to make it work for the non-String fields, as explained here:
Value operators work seemlessly on String based properties/fields. However these operators do not work well with non-string values like Number or Enum since by default QuerydslPredicateArgumentResolver that resolves annotation QuerydslPredicate, which is used to annotate search handling method on RESTful method (aka RestController methods), performs strong-typing as per the guiding design principle of Querydsl, i.e. it attempts to convert the value(s) received from HTTP request to exact type defined in corresponding Q-Classes. This works well without value operators and is inline with Querydsl promise of allowing type-safe queries however hinders the path for value-operators to do their trick.
The library provides two methods to make operators work for non-String fields:
a Filter that extracts operators from query parameters, so the query parameters can still be converted to their corresponding type (using strong-typing)
replacing the ConversionService in the QuerydslPredicateArgumentResolver so all query parameters are treated as String (loosing the strong-typing)
Both approaches are well documented, along with their use case and disadvantages.
I am currently evaluating approach 1, as this fits our use case, but I need to extend it to accommodate DateTime fields and some custom operators as well.

Answer 3

https://bitbucket.org/gt_tech/spring-data-querydsl-value-operators/src/master/
Documentation here says:
QuerydslPredicateArgumentResolver uses ConversionService for type-conversion. Since conversion of String to Enum or String to Integer is core to Spring's dependency injection, it isn't advisable to change those default built-in converters (never do it). The library provides an experimental combination of a BeanPostProcessor and a ServletFilter that can be explicitly configured in target application's context to disable the strong type-conversion attempted by QuerydslPredicateArgumentResolver.
So to achieve this you need to add this to the application context:
/**
* Note the use of delegate ConversionService which comes handy for types like
* java.util.Date for handling powerful searches natively with Spring data.
* #param factory QuerydslBindingsFactory instance
* #param conversionServiceDelegate delegate ConversionService
* #return
*/
#Bean
public QuerydslPredicateArgumentResolverBeanPostProcessor querydslPredicateArgumentResolverBeanPostProcessor(
QuerydslBindingsFactory factory, DefaultFormattingConversionService conversionServiceDelegate) {
return new QuerydslPredicateArgumentResolverBeanPostProcessor(factory, conversionServiceDelegate);
}
Let me know if someone has success implementing this experimental functionality.

Answer 4

You can try using an additional lightweight library that helps to query fields using different operators LIKE, IN, EQ, NE etc. All you have to do is to add the dependency:
<dependency>
<groupId>io.github.apulbere</groupId>
<artifactId>rsql-querydsl</artifactId>
<version>1.0</version>
</dependency>
Define a model that will represent your search criteria:
#Setter
#Getter
public class UserCriteria {
StringCriteria lastName = StringCriteria.empty();
}
Use it as query parameter in your controller and build a dynamic predicate based on it:
#GetMapping("/users")
List<User> search(UserCriteria criteria, Pageable page) {
var predicate = criteria.lastName.match(QUser.user.lastName);
return userRepository.findAll(predicate, page);
}
Finally, make requests:
LIKE example: /users?lastName.like=Xyz
Equals examples: /users?lastName=Xyz or /users?lastName.eq=Xyz
There are other operators too.