How should I define non-entity repositories with Spring Data MongoDB? - spring

On my domain I have the usual entities (User, Company, etc) and also "entities" that doesn't change, I mean they are fixed values but stored on data base. My backend is Mongo so I make use of MongoRepository. I'm also using Spring Data Rest.
Let's say I have defined Sector as entity, which is nothing more than a String wrapped on a Java object.
So this is how I define the repository.
#RepositoryRestResource
public interface SectorRepo extends MongoRepository<Sector,String>{
}
The thing is that this seems to be inappropriate, as I should not define an object that only wraps an string and treat it as an entity, it isn't. The only purpose for Sector collection is to be loaded on a combo box, nothing more.
The problem gets serious when you have more and more of these non-entities objects.
How I should approach this situation so I can still use MongoRepository + Spring Data Rest?

This is similar to couple of other questions. Please see my answers for both. Hope it helps
Spring Data MongoDB eliminate POJO's
Storing a JSON schema in mongodb with spring

Related

Is it recommended to insert data into a database through a DTO or DTO is supposed to be read data from the Database only?

I am confused as to the actual usage of a DTO, and my confusion arises from the fact that most articles say that DTOs are to be used to read data from database and pass it to external clients and then these external clients will then choose to do what they want with it. So I want to know if it is recommended or not to insert Data into the database through DTOs.
I have created a dto that maps to the entity and also then created repository class that has the methods for saving data into the database through the dto, I then created my dtocontroller where I then implemented the actual saving and I was able to save the data into the database.
So my question is: Is it recommended to insert data into a database through a DTO or DTO is supposed to be read data from the Database only?
DTOs are for passing data around, usually as a REST call payload or response (Controller). Also for passing/returning to Service methods.
Entities are for persisting to the DB within a Repository.
Normally a Service calls the DTO/Entity mapping around calls a Repository, which only deals in Entities.
This answer probably explains better.

Spring Boot Rest API + JPA

I have a CRUD based application, which uses Spring Boot REST Services and JPA. For JPA we have POJO objects mapped to RBMS - PostgreSQL.
Some of my pages require data to be fetched using joins of multiple POJO objects. I just wanted to know what is a good architectural practice to do the same. Following are some of the options i have been informed of, but not sure what are the pros and cons of each especially for a large data volume application.
Use Transient Variables in POJOs and use JPA joins
Use additional Spring View Objects to combine POJOs
Write native/HQL to join tables/POJOs
Any insight would be helpful. If any more details required from me, would be glad to provide.
I think it's better to go with Entity Mappings.
This will enable you to easily fetch the parent and its nested entities using either JPA methods or using hibernate.
You can also specify the fetch type to actually control the behaviour of this fetch.
In case, you are looking for any complex joins or fetch patterns, Entity Graphs and HQL will be very useful.

Generic Entity in Spring Data for Couchbase Documents

One advantage of Document DBs like Couchbase is schemaless entities. It gives me freedom to add new attributes within the document without any schema change.
Using Couchbase JsonObject and JsonDocument my code remains generic to perform CRUD operations without any need to modify it whenever new attribute is added to the document. Refer this example where no Entities are created.
However if I follow the usual Spring Data approach of creating Entity classes, I do not take full advantage of this flexibility. I will end up in code change whenever I add new attribute into my document.
Is there a approach to have generic entity using Spring Data? Or Spring Data is not really suitable for schemaless DBs? Or is my understanding is incorrect?
I would argue the opposite is true.
One way or another if you introduce a new field you have to handle the existing data that doesn't have that field.
Either you update all your documents to include that field. That is what schema based stores basically force you to do.
Or you leave your store as it is and let your application handle that issue. With Spring Data you have some nice and obvious ways to handle that in a consistent fashion, e.g. by having a default value in the entity or handling that in a listener.

Spring Data : relationships between 2 different data sources

In a Spring Boot Application project, I have 2 data sources:
a MySQL database (aka "db1")
a MongoDB database (aka "db2")
I'm using Spring Data JPA and Spring Data MongoDB, and it's working great... one at a time.
Saying db1 handles "Players", and db2 handles "Teams" (with a list of players' ID). Is it possible to make the relationship between those 2 heterogeneous entities working? (i.e. #ManyToOne, #Transactional, Lazy/Eager, etc.)
For example, I want to be able to write:
List<Player> fooPlayers = teamDao.findOneById(foo).getPlayers();
EDIT: If possible, I'd like to find a solution working with any spring data project
Unfortunately your conundrum has no solution in spring data.
what may be a possibility is that you create an interface (DAO) class of your own. That DAO class would have implementations to to query both of your DBs. A very crude and short example would be
your DAO
{
yourFind (id)
{
this would find in db2 and return a relevant list of objects
findOneByID(id)
get the player from the above retrieved list and query db1
getPlayer(player)
}
}
i hope this points you in the right direction

Remove nested _embedded fields while using projections

I have a working DAL based on JPA repositories. Now we decided to expose them as Data Rest service with Spring Data Rest. The migration was fine but I noticed that it produced a lot of additional queries to DB in order to retrieve some related objects.. I used projections to override such behavior but still have the issues.
The main question is why related objects are still being generated inside _embedded field in additional to fields which are described inside projections?? Such behavior adds unnecessary objects to JSON as well as additional queries to DB..

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