Storing session data in controller - spring

I'm new to Spring. I'm working on a MVC application that would works as follows:
1) user fills the form with data necessary to create the connection to some service
2) controller gets the data from input, create new object serviceManager and save this object e.g in some HashMap with serviceId
3) next time user wants to use this service, controller using serviceId reads data from HashMap.
So I simply need to store this HashMap throughout the whole session in my controller for future use. What would be the best way to accomplish that? Maybe creating serviceManager object each time and reading data from database is the proper solution? In my controller I'm already using #Autowired fields which perfectly serve the purpose, but they're defined in spring xml and I have to store the data dynamically.

Seems your requirement is kind of same with mine which I should keep the main data in the session and every time get the detail data from client and combine 2 kind of data to retrieve something from database. I just put the main part data in the session and then in the whole session that I can get it. I also try to use #SessionAttribute, but after tried dozens of time, I gave it up, it has a lots of problems. So if you can, I just recomment you to store the data in session, that's the samplest way.

I'm newish to spring myself, but as far as putting this in the session:
#Controller
#SessionAttributes({"myObject"})
public class MyController() {
...
#RequestMapping(value="/foo")
// Corrected as per Costi below
// public String someMethod(#PathVariable MyObject myObject) {
public String someMethod(#ModelAttribute MyObject myObject) {
...
}
}
#SessionAttributes will put a MyObject named myObject into the session, if it's not already there, and the #PathVariable pulls it down so you can use it in the method.
The curlys in session attributes aren't necessary for just one attribute, however, you can specify more than one, comma separated, when you use the array notation (which is to say: the curlys)

Related

How to dynamically change connection string with each API Call

I'm new to working with APIs, but from what I understand I have created a service folder with 2 classes called DataRepository and IDataRepository. The DataRepository class interacts with the DataContext class. However my Connection string is not in the DataContext class, but in the Startup class. The reason that I'd like to be able to dynamically change the connection string is because, I have many instances of the same database. Each one represent the data of a different. Now the issue is how can I set the connection string dynamically through each webapi call? I plan on getting the connection string parameter with each call.
are you using authorization tokens? if so, you can put your connection string as part of the claims. i suggest to not put the whole connection string in the parameter. if you want an easier approach, you can have a string parameter that can tell if what type of db it should go to,
ex.
public async Task<IHttpActionResult> youApi(string type){
//then you can have a switch statement to know what database it will go to
string connectionString= "";
switch(type)
case "database1":
connectionString = "datasrc=database1";
//and so on
}
im not sure if this is the best approach. i hope this helps.

Access data computed in filter for each request inside Spring Controller/Service Class

In our application, all rest apis are of the form:
http://{context}/{product_id}/{rest_url_path}
I have to verify the {product_id} inside a Spring Security Filter/SpringMVC interceptor, by fetching the ProductDetails from DB for the product_id. The ProductDetails will be used inside Spring Controllers/Service classes.
I don't want to fetch the ProductDetails again inside Controllers/Service. So I want to store the ProductDetails object somewhere for that RequestScope.
I have 3 approaches in mind. But each have their pros and cons. Please let me know which one better out of the 3. Also suggest any alternative approach.
Approach-1:
Save the ProductDetails object inside request attribute.
Inside Controller, i can easily get the HttpRequest. Inside Service, I can get HttpRequest by:
#Autowired
HttpServletRequest request;
or
RequestAttributes attribs = RequestContextHolder.getRequestAttributes();
HttpServletRequest request = null;
if (attribs instanceof ServletRequestAttributes) {
request = ((ServletRequestAttributes) attribs).getRequest();
}
But I don't want to have HTTP request dependency inside Service to make to code more independent from WebLayer logic.
Approach-2:
Use any in memory cache based on product_id to stored ProductDetails
But this I think a over kill only for this use case. Increasing unnecessary dependencies of a cache.
Approach-3:
Store the Object in a ThreadLocal variable to store request scope data.
But not sure if it correct this way.
Let me know an efficient approach to solve this problem
1st and 3rd are suitable for your problem statment but first one is more elegant as data will stored only for current request scope and will get automatically lost when server send response. You can also use threadLocal but you have to be cautious ,if you forget to remove object it will hang around in an environment that uses a thread pool.
The first approach you mentioned is more efficient way to access the same data in both filter and controller even though you have to inject the dependency of HttpservletRequest in SpringController.
If the data is very user specific like other user will not have access to those data in that case you should use ThreadLocal.

#ModelAttribute returns a new instance on form submit

I am working on a Spring MVC based application. The process flow is as follows:
Fetch the data from DB (table mapped to a POJO)
Display a form backed by the POJO (from step 1). Not all the fields are displayed (like Primary Key etc).
User can update some field value in the form and will then submit.
On receving the updated POJO using #ModelAttribute annotation in my Controller, I found that not all the fields are populated in the POJO received via #ModelAttribute. All the fields which were not mapped on the JSP (like primary key) are set to null or their default value in case of primitives. Due to this I am not able to update the same in the DB.
One solution that I found is I can use fields but that does not sound much efficient solution as I have a large number of attributes which are not displayed on the JSP page.
A model attribute is simply a glorified request attribute. Request attributes only live for the duration of one request-response cycle.
HTTP request -> Get POJO from DB -> Add POJO to model attributes -> Render JSP -> HTTP response
After that, the request attributes are eventually GC'ed since they are no longer reachable by the application (the servlet container makes sure of that).
The next request you send will have its set of new request attributes with no relation to the previous requests'.
When you generate a <form> from a model attribute, Spring creates the <input> elements from the fields of the model attribute which you choose. When you eventually submit the form, only those values will be sent as request parameters in the request. Your application will therefore only have access to those to generate the new model attribute.
You seem to need Session attributes or Flash attributes (which are really just short-lived session attributes).
Please if somebody know a better solution please let me know, but on my application we are always sending back all those id´s and others values that we want to persist in the request response with hidden fields, but I think is a little bit risk, for example in case of id´s. which could be used for SQLInjections attacks.
You could use path variable to transport the primary key (kind of rest url ...) and make use of all the magic of Spring :
create a DefaultFormattingConversionService bean (to keep default conversions)
register (in that ConversionService) a Converter converting a String in your POJO (string -> primary key -> object from database)
directly use the path variable in your controller methods
#RequestMapping(value=".../{data}/edit", method=RequestMethod.GET)
public String edit(#ModelAttribute("data") Pojo pojo) {
return "view_with_form";
}
#RequestMapping(value=".../{data}/edit", method=RequestMethod.POST)
public String update(#ModelAttribute("data") Pojo pojo, BindingResult result) {
if (result.hasErrors()) {
return "view_with_form";
}
return "redirect:.../data/edit";
}
When you give a ModelAttribute to a controller method, Spring tries to find it in the session or in a path variable. And even if you didn't asked for it, the error management is not very expensive ...

ArgumentResolvers within single transaction?

I am wondering if there is a way to wrap all argument resolvers like for #PathVariables or #ModelAttributes into one single transaction? We are already using the OEMIV filter but spring/hibernate is spawning too many transactions (one per select if they are not wrapped within a service class which is be the case in pathvariable resolvers for example).
While the system is still pretty fast I think this is not necessary and neither consistent with the rest of the architecture.
Let me explain:
Let's assume that I have a request mapping including two entities and the conversion is based on a StringToEntityConverter
The actual URL would be like this if we support GET: http://localhost/app/link/User_231/Item_324
#RequestMapping("/link/{user}/{item}", method="POST")
public String linkUserAndItem(#PathVariable("user") User user, #PathVariable("item") Item item) {
userService.addItem(user, item);
return "linked";
}
#Converter
// simplified
public Object convert(String classAndId) {
return entityManager.find(getClass(classAndId), getId(classAndId));
}
The UserService.addItem() method is transactional so there is no issue here.
BUT:
The entity converter is resolving the User and the Item against the database before the call to the Controller, thus creating two selects, each running in it's own transaction. Then we have #ModelAttribute methods which might also issue some selects again and each will spawn a transaction.
And this is what I would like to change. I would like to create ONE readonly Transaction
I was not able to find any way to intercept/listen/etc... by the means of Spring.
First I wanted to override the RequestMappingHandlerAdapter but the resolver calls are well "hidden" inside the invokeHandleMethod method...
The ModelFactory is not a spring bean, so i cannot write an interceptor either.
So currently I only see a way by completely replacing the RequestMappingHandlerAdapter, but I would really like to avoid that.
And ideas?
This seems like a design failure to me. OEMIV is usually a sign that you're doing it wrong™.
Instead, do:
#RequestMapping("/link/User_{userId}/Item_{itemId}", method="POST")
public String linkUserAndItem(#PathVariable("userId") Long userId,
#PathVariable("itemId") Long itemId) {
userService.addItem(userId, itemId);
return "linked";
}
Where your service layer takes care of fetching and manipulating the entities. This logic doesn't belong in the controller.

Best practice for using #SessionAttributes

I am trying to share data between two controllers in a Spring mvc application.
In Controller A I have annotated the class with #SessionAttributes({"mymodel1"}) and in the method which receives the first GET request I add it to the ModelMap:
model.addAttribute("mymodel1", MyModel1);
I now want to read myModel1 from Controller B.
In this Controller I have the following method which intercepts the POST requests and already has a different model in its parameters:
public String processSubmit(#ModelAttribute("mymodel2") MyModel2 mymodel2, BindingResult result, SessionStatus status, HttpServletRequest httpRequest)
Up to this point everything works fine and I am able to read mymodel2 from processSubmit however if I now want to add another #ModelAttribute("mymodel1") MyModel1 mymodel1 to this method signature I would have expected to be able to read the value I was setting in Controller A however I'm getting exceptions that the first model is no longer recognised.
So my question is: how can I read mymodel2 from Controller B?
You can't do that with #SessionAttributes :
Session attributes as indicated using this annotation correspond to a specific handlers model attributes, getting transparently stored in a conversational session. Those attributes will be removed once the handler indicates completion of its conversational session. Therefore, use this facility for such conversational attributes which are supposed to be stored in the session temporarily during the course of a specific handlers conversation.
For example I use this annotation when I want to validate elements with Hibernate validation, and after I submit the page and SOME elements are invalid I want the rest to be still on the page, but this is not your case. I think that the only way to do it would be with:
HttpSession.getAttribute()
The javadoc excerpt above is the most typical way #SessionAttributes is used. However, what Joly is describing should also work. Session attributes are stored via DefaultSessionAttributeStore, which by default does not prefix attribute names when it stores them in the session. That means if ControllerA and ControllerB both list an attribute called "mymodel1", they're actually referring to the same session attribute. You'll need to provide a little more information on the error you're getting and the actual controller code.

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