Spring REST repository shows wrong URL - spring

Question

I developed sample application with Spring Boot. I've one abstract class (Employee) and two concrete subclasss for example full time and part time employee.
I preferred a joined type of inheritance and 3 table created by JPA provider.
Also I created REST repository for Employee. Looks like below:
package com.caysever.repository;
import com.caysever.model.Employee;
import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.JpaRepository;
import org.springframework.data.rest.core.annotation.RepositoryRestResource;
/**
* Created by alican on 04.05.2017.
*/
#RepositoryRestResource(path = "employee")
public interface EmployeeRepository extends JpaRepository<Employee, Long>{
}
When I invoke the **/employee** URL in browser, I'm getting content as below:
{
"fullTimeEmployees" : [ {
"name" : "Alican",
"surname" : "Akkuş",
"birthDay" : "2017-05-04T12:37:20.189+0000",
"gender" : "MALE",
"totalWorkingHoursOfWeek" : 40,
"_links" : {
"self" : {
"href" : "http://localhost:8080/fullTimeEmployee/1"
},
"fullTimeEmployee" : {
"href" : "http://localhost:8080/fullTimeEmployee/1"
}
}
}
When I invoked this URL for first employee localhost:8080/fullTimeEmployee/1 , I getting the 404 status code, not found. But I will getting the first employee with this URL localhost:8080/employee/1.
You can see all codes at GitHub -> https://github.com/AlicanAkkus/jpa-inheritance-strategy
Why Spring REST generates the fullTimeEmployee URL?

Answer 1

I think that with #RepositoryRestResource you are modifying the export details, such as using /empoyee instead of the default value of /fullTimeEmployee
Try with
#RepositoryRestResource(collectionResourceRel = "fullTimeEmployees", path = "fullTimeEmployees")
Or if you want to use /employee
#RepositoryRestResource(collectionResourceRel = "employee", path = "employee")
The path is sets the segment under which this resource is to be exported and the collectionResourceRel sets the value to use when generating links to the collection resource.
Hope this helps

Answer 2

A workaround for this is to add repository interfaces for the concrete classes, sharing the path of the superclass repository.
#RepositoryRestResource(collectionResourceRel = "employee", path = "employee")
public interface FullTimeEmployeeRepository extends JpaRepository<FullTimeEmployee, Long> {
}
#RepositoryRestResource(collectionResourceRel = "employee", path = "employee")
public interface PartTimeEmployeeRepository extends JpaRepository<PartTimeEmployee, Long> {
}
This will generate the links with the "employee" path regardless of the subclass type.
"_links" : {
"self" : {
"href" : "http://localhost:8080/employee/1"
},
"fullTimeEmployee" : {
"href" : "http://localhost:8080/employee/1"
}
}
I don't know if there is another way to work around the issue.